Balancing unjust power relations through energy communities

More and more people build relationships with each other, as a community, to drive energy projects. For this episode we wanted to know what it needs to spark such initiatives, how we can bring more women into it and what all this has to do with taking risks.

That is why we invited Katharina Habersbrunner who is Head of sustainable energy and climate solutions at the non-profit network WECF, Women Engage for a Common Future. Katharina has an impressive record of community energy experience, and she has many very personal stories to tell about how diverse energy democracy is, both in Europe and in Africa.

In our conversation Katharina talks about different tools that can help create and monitor gender justice:

• gender analysis for your energy community
• gender targets in your organisation’s statutes
• family-friendly logistics and organisation of meetings
• gender trainings (not only for women!)
• women’s empowerment: networking, mentoring, explicit trainings for women
• gender just communication

Katharina works for Women Engage for A Common Future, a nonprofit network dedicated to a gender just and healthy planet for all. This international network consists of over 150 women’s and civil society organisations implementing projects in 50 countries. 

This episode was produced with support from SCCALE 20-30-50. SCCALE is an EU project (Horizon 2020 programme) which makes collaboration happen to get many more energy communities up and running. The people behind SCCALE203050 work on a methodology and toolkit for citizens, cities and policy makers. If you, too, want to see more local energy communities across Europe, check out the toolkit and explore all of the project’s resources at the website sccale203050.eu.