A transition away from fossil-fuel towards renewable energy sources is essential and underway, but what are the implications for women’s rights? The energy transition presents an opportunity to address the gender deficits of the current energy model and to embed principles of gender equality and justice in the design of new energy systems.

GI-ESCR has launched the Briefing Paper on Renewable Energy and Gender Justice translated into Spanish. It provides an overview of the nexus between renewable energy and gender justice, drawing out several of the most significant opportunities and risks that the clean energy transition presents for women’s rights. It includes two case studies: from South Africa, on access to energy in urban communities, and from Mexico, on the impact of large-scale energy projects on human rights and how women human rights defenders are standing up for their communities’ rights.

The briefing also contains the foreword of Leticia Bonifaz, expert member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Committee), and an introductory text jointly written by our Executive Director, Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, and the Executive Director of Oxfam Mexico, Alexandra Haas to contextualize the content of the briefing to the Latin American region.

This publication is released as part of a Panel Discussion on Renewable Energy and Gender Justice in Latin America organised by GI-ESCR and Oxfam Mexico with the collaboration of ProDESC, AIDA, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung on 12 November 2021, which will bring together women’s rights activists and experts from Latin America.

The panel discussion, together with this Briefing Paper, contribute to advancing the collective understanding of gender equality and women’s rights in the context of a gender-just transition to renewable energy in the Latina American region.