Gender and Climate Justice by COPGendered

Energy justice has emerged as a response to the need to address social justice issues in energy access, use and policy making. It advocates for a global energy system that fairly disseminates both the benefits and costs of energy services and that has representative and impartial energy decision-making. A feminist approach to energy justice seeks to offer alternative perspectives to neoliberal views on energy solutions, which are still dominant in European policymaking. It advocates for an intersectional and decolonial framework to dismantle multidimensional power structures and address the resulting inequalities, all while transitioning away from fossil fuel consumption. A feminist, just transition seeks to challenge gendered perceptions of energy, recognising that fossil fuel extraction and consumption often serve as a demonstration of masculinity while also benefiting fossil capitalism. “Petro-masculinity” refers to how masculine values such as toughness, strength, and self-sufficiency can discourage the transition to clean energy because it might be seen as “weak” and “feminine”. As the energy industry is directly related to toxic masculinity, women and non-binary people are marginalised further within it. 

Policymaking remains a key avenue for challenging the current system, yet far from adopting a feminist lens, gender-mainstreaming approaches remain limited. The European Green Deal issued in 2020 by the European Commission aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 in the EU. This is despite the fact that one of its core objectives, reducing carbon emissions, largely overlooks gender and other intersectional considerations. Moreover, feminists have called for a shift from gender-blind to gender-transformative policies within the context of transforming the EU’s economic system. This requires the reimagining of the European Green Deal as more than a growth strategy focused on increasing gross domestic productivity and instead, prioritising the care of both people and the planet.