D1.2 Report on Gendered assessment of the energy systems knowledge community and EU policies for sustainable energy systems
Creators: name: De Nicola, Antonio
name: Patriarca, Tatiana
name: Fresilli, Benedetto
name: Opromolla, Antonio
name: Guariglia Migliore, Maria
name: Leonardi Nunzia
name: D'Agostino, Gregorio
name: CELLINI, MARCO
name: Mirenda, Cloe
name: Tagliacozzo, Serena
name: PISACANE, LUCIO
name: VASSILLO, CHIARA
Publisher: name: gEneSys Project
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Gender equality
subject: gender-energy nexus
subject: energy systems
subject: ontology of energy systems

description: The deliverable “Report on Gendered assessment of the energy systems knowledge community and EU policies for sustainable energy systems” is the outcome of the tasks T1.3 and T1.4 of the workpackage 1 of the gEneSys project. It includes two parts. The former provides the first-ever comprehensive assessment of gender divide within the energy transition (ET) knowledge community. Employing advanced methods from complexity science and semantic analysis, the study analyses also five ET subcommunities addressing, respectively, the environment, strategy, policy, behaviour, and operation subsystems. The latter aims at presenting a comparative analysis of National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) across EU member states, examining their incorporation of 'green deal' provisions, gender equality, and energy transition goals. Special emphasis is placed on assessing how effectively gender equality, diversity, and inclusion are addressed, highlighting areas for targeted gender mainstreaming. As mentioned this represents the first gender-based policy analysis of NRRPs, examining how effectively EU countries uphold equality principles established in national, European, and international gender equality strategies. Both the studies follow rigorous scientific approaches derived from others existing in the literature and leverage the results previously achieved in the gEneSys project. Indetails, the report on the gendered assessment of the energy systems knowledge community follows an approach derived from the methodological framework presented in (De Nicola & D'Agostino, 2021) and leverages the Energy System Ontology (gEneSys, 2023), while the comparative analysis of the NRRPs, respectively, a framework derived from the one proposed by (Feenstra & Özerol, 2021) and the systematic literature review of the gender-energy nexus (gEneSys, 2023). To determine whether there is gender divide in the ET community and its subcommunities, we addressed eight research questions, such as: as a group, are women and men equally successful or, as a group, do women and men study different topics? Our findings indicate a pronounced gender divide within the energy transition sector, with males dominating most subcommunities. The environment subsystem exhibits greater female contribution, while the operation and strategy subsystems show the largest male dominance.

The analysis on EU policies is guided by the hypothesis that the energy transition alone wouldn't automatically address gender inequalities and might even worsen them. It emphasizes the need for gender-sensitive policies to ensure women are included and benefit equally from the transition. One of the key points of our analysis is that the energy transition may not be gender-neutral, potentially reinforcing existing inequalities or even enhancing them. Furthermore, many National Recovery and Resilience Plans lack a gender perspective, neglecting women's needs and roles. Even plans with a gender perspective often do so partially, with some aspects receiving more attention than others. The deliverable proposes research questions for analysing NRRPs' impact and suggests policies for a ‘’just energy transition’’, including funding research on disaggregated gender data; closing the gender gap in STEM fields; and addressing energy poverty and health issues.