Advocating for a just energy transition: Interview with Florent Marcellesi (EP)
In this Lights on Women interview, Florent Marcellesi discusses the importance of including a gender perspective in energy and climate policies to achieve a sustainable and just energy transformation.
Florent Marcellesi is a Spanish MEP for Equo Party, part of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. He was elected to the European Parliament in October 2016. Currently, he leads the energy positions of the European Greens in the European Parliament and he is the vice-president of EUFORES, the European parliamentary network for the promotion of renewable energies. Besides his diploma of civil engineer and urban planner, he is also a specialist in international cooperation. Florent Marcellesi is a member of the think Tank EcoPolítica and author among other titles of “Which Europe do we want?” (Icaria, 2014) and “Goodbye to growth. Living well in a world of solidarity and sustainability” (El Viejo Topo, 2013).
Florent, you have strongly advocated for a more gender-inclusive energy and climate policies during your career. Can you tell us more about this journey and what sparked your commitment?
I see climate and gender activism as different faces of the same coin. As climate justice is needed to ensure social justice, gender equality can be a driver for a more sustainable, fairer relation with our environment and among us.
Climate change reinforces existing vulnerabilities, the more vulnerable people are to social, economic or any other kind of exclusion, the greater the impact of climate change on their lives will be. Feminism and ecology have in common their demand for a change in the whole system, not just in small parts that can be useful for a while but won’t last in the long run.
Just as we, greens, advocate for all policies to take into account the climate and environmental impacts, we also advocate for gender mainstreaming, meaning that policymakers need to assess the impact their policies have on women’s lives and gender equality.
And the Energy policy is not different in that respect. All the more if we take into account that women are the ones contributing less to climate change, but still we see them out of the negotiation tables.
What are, in your opinion, the main benefits of having a more balanced representation (and participation) of women in the energy sector?
Representation matters. We have seen it in economics: women make decisions taking into account the impact of their behaviour on the entire household, while men’s decision-making pattern is traditionally more impulsive. But this also reflects on the way energy is used, women’s patterns are more sustainable and influenced by their traditional role in society as carers. It is easy to understand that women’s usage of energy can be mostly linked to tasks related to the sustaining of life, while men’s adopt more polluting behaviours. If we add to the equation the fact that women are the most exposed to energy poverty, the need to hear their voices becomes unavoidable.
Decisions on energy policies should be based on the fact that energy is needed to sustain life and not just another commodity in our economic relations. That’s why I signed the manifesto Energy? Not without Women, pledging that I won’t participate in any conference, panel or any other event on energy where there is not at least one woman who speaks as an expert in the field. There are several women out there who are experts in energy, not only in the energy sector as such, but also in civil society, lawyers, professors, or journalists, among others. Why should we exclude them?
Among the many initiatives you took on as MEP of the European Greens to raise awareness, you organised several debates investigating climate migration with a gender lens and produced a ‘Communications toolkit on Gender and Climate Change’. What are the main takeaways and lessons learned from these experiences? What role does gender play in the ongoing low carbon transition and foster development?
Women constitute the majority of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty worldwide who also often live in marginal areas vulnerable to floods, rising sea levels, droughts and storms. Women are also more vulnerable once displaced to violence, exploitation and human trafficking. Around 26 million people are displaced due to climate related disasters and 80% are women!
Our conference on climate displacement with a gender lens in the European Parliament was very useful to introduce this topic on the agenda. It was also very helpful to identify the measures the EU must put in place to recognise and tackle the fact that climate change increases existing inequalities and makes women more vulnerable.
As you say, we also produced and presented a communications toolkit on gender and climate change in the last UN Climate Conference in Katowice to ask for feminist climate action and it was very well received. Women in Europe suffer from low incomes and are the most affected group by energy poverty and climate impacts (flooding, heat waves, etc.). We believe the fight against climate change and the decarbonisation transition is an opportunity to carry out deep social changes that also lead to a more equal and fair society. However, the relations between climate change and gender are complex and we wanted to facilitate their understanding by the civil society, institutions and media.
You also had important responsibilities during the negotiations of the Clean Energy Package (CEP), where you proposed several amendments to include a gender perspective. Can you share some insights about your work with the CEP? How were these amendments received?
Yes, I fought to pass amendments to promote the participation of women in the energy transition in particular and in the energy sector in general. Likewise, I proposed amendments to include the gender perspective in the energy policies, considering the impacts of any transformation of the sector can have in gender equality and women’s rights.
I have to say with regret that all these amendments were rejected. ¿The reasons? On the one hand, there were cultural reasons. Other MEPs, which were mostly men, did not understand the relationship between gender and energy policies. On the other, there were political reasons. Most of the policymakers were directly against including any reference to gender perspective or to the participation of women. According to them, one thing has nothing to do with the other and there is no reason to “mix” the debates.
We couldn’t make progress this time, but we see that things are progressing anyway. Whether they wanted or not, we are making them progressing. We could see that in the last UN Climate Change conference, that had one full thematic day dedicated to gender and also in the fact that the State Parties of the Paris Climate Agreement approved a gender action plan. There has always been resistance, but things are changing and I’m sure the EU energy and climate policies will too.
In today’s rapidly changing energy scenario, referring to a ‘just’ energy transition can be seen as another buzzword. What does a ‘just’ energy transition mean to you and why does a gender perspective in energy issues matter?
A green and just transition must address all inequalities within society, including gender inequality. There is no sustainable and just energy transformation without gender equality. Climate change solutions will not be effective unless we ensure the participation of women and other gender groups, and take their realities, needs and preferences into account.
Women suffer from low incomes as well as energy inefficient homes. In Bulgaria, 80% of female single households cannot afford the energy they would need to adequately heat their homes (compared with 65% of male single households) and in Germany, female-headed households are affected almost twice as much by energy poverty as male-headed households.
Policies that lead to an increase in energy prices must consider this. A just transition where no one — no minorities, no women, no one! — is left behind is crucial to ensure that all citizens can enjoy the benefits of a green society. All voices must be heard, and all people need to be represented. This is really a key element to achieve a fairer society.
What can everyone — men and women alike — do to create a more inclusive energy sector? How can politics support this?
It’s essential that men and women involved in the energy sector understand that their decisions and work are not isolated from society, but they have impacts over people’s lives, over the economy, over climate, over social justice and, of course, over gender equality. This means they should incorporate the gender perspective in the work and decision-making processes of companies, think tanks, institutions, organisations, political parties, etc. of the energy sector.
As citizens, but also as politicians and members of political parties, we have a role to play in the support of women politicians, to ensure they are elected to every level of political representation.
And as policymakers, our main role should be to create a framework that supports women’s education in fields related to energy, to avoid gendered patterns to prevail. But we can also ask our governments to appoint more women in international negotiation bodies.
What advice would you give other men interested in advocating for gender balance in the energy sector?
Men can do a lot. Since the energy sector is very masculinised, I would say it’s mostly our responsibility. As men, we need to remember that gender equality is not a women’s issue. It is an interpellation to all of us. If we don’t want to be part of the problem, we need to be active agents in the transformative process, question our behaviour and change it, and of course, be active in the fight against oppression.
One easy step is the one I mentioned earlier: refusing to participate in “manels” (men-only panels), and pledge the manifesto “Energy? Not without women”.
Secondly, we need to understand there are gender roles behind women exclusion from energy debates and spaces. And those gender roles falsely tell us men’s mindset makes them more capable for this sector and knowledge area. That’s why it’s also important that we advocate for non-sexist education and also for re-educating ourselves. For politicians, I would give the example of the European Parliament, which organised a training I joined for female and male MEPs on sexual harassment at workplace. This is just an example not directly related with energy, but more training like this could be carried out in the institutions to make sure we question the gender roles we have been taught and that tend to end up with different forms of discrimination against women.
Thirdly, men involved in the energy sector also need to understand the gender implications of their decisions and include a gender perspective in their daily work and decision-making processes.
More by Florent Marcellesi & his team work:
Communication Toolkit on Gender and Climate, drafted by Gotelind Alber, The Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament.
Gender Perspective on Access to Energy in the EU, Study for the FEMM Commitee (European Parliament, 2017).
Climate Displacement in a gender perspective, Event Highlights and Recording.
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