New policy paper highlights need for gender-disaggregated data 

Recent studies have shown that ensuring gender equality in the energy sector is key to social, political, environmental and economic development and gender considerations need to be taken into account in order to advance the energy transition.  Yet women's participation in the energy sector remains underutilized and far from balanced.

The policy paper published by the Secretariat today aims to raise awareness of the lack of relevant sex-disaggregated data in the energy sector, which is critical for assessing the actual extent and causes of gender inequalities in the energy labour market. Without adequate statistics, barriers to women's access to energy market jobs and progress towards gender equality cannot be identified or monitored.

The paper identifies data gaps of the Energy Community Contracting Parties in relation to relevant datasets of the European Commission as well as other indicators that are important to reveal gender gaps and barriers to women's entry. As noted in the document, the majority of the Contracting Parties are currently not included in the data collection processes of relevant European Commission databases related to the energy job market.

It is therefore recommended to consider preparing and organizing data aggregation for these databases in all Contracting Parties and follow-up with a more comprehensive study to provide them with legal and technical recommendations.

The Energy Community Secretariat is committed to advancing gender equality and raising awareness of gender related issues in the energy sector, as reflected by its membership of the Gender and Energy Compact of the United Nations and the pledges undertaken by Director Lorkowski as International Gender Champion.