The Importance of Women Participation in Ensuring Justice in Energy Transition in ASEAN and G7

Abstract

Many countries have increased their climate ambitions, including net-zero by 2060. Gender equality is essential for just energy transition (JET). United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 5 and 7 promote gender equality and access to sustainable energy for all. Women's participation in JET is crucial, yet they are underrepresented in the energy industry. This study promotes women's participation in the JET and strives to reconcile justice and inclusivity in the energy transition from upstream and downstream ASEAN beneficiaries with G7 precedents. This paper aims to analyse the aspect of justice in the energy transition from women's perspectives in ASEAN and G7 countries. Most of the literature on women's issues in the energy sector is related to energy poverty and energy access. Hence, this paper will contribute to the literature on women's perspectives in the energy transition both in the workforce and in society as consumers. This paper analyses to answer a question on "how far women in ASEAN have participated in the energy transition (leadership roles to end-users) compared to women in G7 economies?". We use case studies with cross-analysis of ASEAN and G7 countries throughout this paper to demonstrate the contrast and similarity of gender equality in energy sector by exploring women's experience as workers in the energy sector and as energy consumers (dirty to clean cooking - clean electricity). We applied strategy basic research by conducting content analysis with intensive literature reviews, and additional aspects of women's perspectives on this area, those who work and live in these regions to develop regional context. We also adopted the three tenets of justice by Jenkins et al (2016) and analysed the data collected using this framework. This paper finds that ASEAN and G7 regions are almost at the same level in terms of women participation in ensuring a just energy transition. Despite having more women in the leadership roles in renewable energy sector, G7 is almost at the same level as ASEAN in their effort of improving women's participation to accelerate and ensure a just transition in the regions.