Energy Compact on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

In September this year, the UN Secretary-General is convening a High-Level Dialogue on Energy, the first called for by the UN General Assembly in 40 years since the 1981 oil crisis. The goal of the Dialogue will be to raise ambition and accelerate concrete actions towards achieving SDG7 – which calls for universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030 – and the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Countries, companies, cities and other entities are being called on to support global progress by making bold commitments captured in the form of Energy Compacts.

Achieving SDG7 is essential for achieving other SDGs, including those related to gender equality, poverty reduction, health, jobs, climate and environment. Vice-versa, gender equality and women’s empowerment as well as youth empowerment are fundamental to achieving sustainable energy for all.

South Asia Women in Energy (SAWIE) is partnering with ENERGIA, GWNET, UNIDO UN Women; the Governments of Ecuador (tbc), Iceland, Kenya and Nepal, and other, to form a coalition to catalyze action towards gender equality and women’s empowerment to accelerate a just, inclusive and sustainable energy transition.

The Gender Energy Compact and its guiding principles are being developed through a collaborative process. Stakeholders are invited to sign up to the coalition, which will be officially launched during the UN High-level Dialogue in September 2021. All signatories to the Gender Energy Compact will be invited to submit their own individual Energy Compacts to capture their organization’s specific commitments between now and 2030 to move towards gender equality and women’s empowerment, as well as support the achievement of SDG7 and SDG5.

Gender equality is a human right. It is also smart economics and the right thing to do. As noted by the High-level Dialogue Ministerial Thematic Forum Theme Report on “Energy Access” and “Enabling SDGs through Inclusive, Just Energy Transitions,’ accelerating the integration of gender-transformative approaches into all energy access and transition pathways is required to close gender gaps and women’s empowerment.

For more information, click here: https://www.un.org/en/energycompacts