Secretariat’s encouragement of gender equality - Director Kopač became International Gender Champion

  • Climate
  • Electricity
  • Customer
8 March 2021

To mark this year’s international women’s day on 8th of March, the Energy Community Secretariat affirms its commitment to gender equality. The Director of the Energy Community Secretariat, Mr Janez Kopač, joined “International Gender Champions”, a leadership network that brings together decision-makers determined to break down gender barriers and make gender equality a working reality in their spheres of influence. He underscored his commitment to advance gender equality:

“Women engaged in the energy sector were long underrepresented and this situation is only slowly improving. It is of utmost importance to fully involve them in the critical transition to a future low-carbon energy society. Decarbonisation will not be possible unless every single individual is engaged. We should be promoting women’s entrepreneurship in clean energy technologies but also recognizing that women are disproportionally impacted by issues like energy poverty and climate change and working to address these challenges. Women and men should be equally represented at the leadership table. This is why I am committed to empowering women at the Energy Community Secretariat, where women already manage the majority of units, as well as applying a gender perspective to the development of energy legislation, policies and programs I oversee in our member countries,” said Director Kopač.

 The Secretariat's priorities in terms of gender equality consist of the following three areas:

  • Raising awareness on mainstreaming gender in all aspects of energy policies and interventions when providing support and assistance to the institutions of the Energy Community and the Contracting Parties.
  • Endorsing gender-responsive procurement, intended as the inclusion of the impact on gender equality and women’s empowerment in its procedures for the procurement of services and works.
  • Aiming for equal representation of women and men in all events, in-person or online, and that no gender is restricted to the moderator or facilitator role.

The Secretariat is encouraging gender equality as an integral part of its efforts to support a just energy transition in the Energy Community Contracting Parties. The first webinar “Energy Transition through the lens of gender equality” will take place on 27 April.