Europe's energy transition: Women's power in solving the labour bottleneck

Employment opportunities and requirements for low-carbon job markets

EU climate targets will not be reached without an accelerated roll-out of renewables and clean-tech. Already today labour and skill shortages are worrisome in the (clean) energy sectors. They will grow further without adequate policy tools and hamper a speedy decarbonisation. An often overlooked fact is the energy sector workforce presenting a gender gap greater than in most other sectors.

Our new publication assesses the scale of skills needed in the energy sector in the years to come and analyses obstacles to female employment in this sector. It gives best practice examples and elaborates recommendations for attracting and keeping female workers in the energy labour markets. Decent and flexible working conditions for both women and men are part of the solution. They increase also quality of the output. Europe’s energy and clean-tech sectors urgently need the women’s power to face skill and labour market gaps and speed up the transition.

The study is authored by Irene Giner-Reichel and Maria van Veldhuizen from GWNET, Global Women's Network for the Energy Transition.