Diversity & inclusion for a successful energy transition
Charlotte McNamee, Marketing Analyst, ChampionX
TE100 Renewables
As a mother of two, I want the world to be a safe place where my children can develop and flourish, but I often worry about what the future holds for them. Will they have access to all the success, happiness, and opportunities that I, or those before me, had? I want them to experience the beauty and wonder of the world as I have. Even before I became a mother, I felt strongly about making a difference in the world and improving lives.
When it comes to climate change, as a gender, women have more at stake. According to the UN, women suffer the most from climate change and energy poverty:
● 80% of people displaced by climate change are women and girls [i]
● Women are responsible for collecting water in approximately 75% of households without drinkable
water [ii]
● Women make up 50% of the global population, but nearly 75% of those in energy poverty [iii]
Working in the energy industry has shown me first-hand that we have the capability to bring together multifunctional teams to solve some of the most technologically challenging problems in the world. The solutions we produce as an industry often have challenging economic and time constraints, yet we still manage to deliver safely and efficiently.
Both men and women in the energy industry can play a major role in the energy transition. We are a workforce with translatable skills and experiences, which have been developed and delivered with a highly innovative mindset. But it will require global integration of multiple disciplines and increasing diversity and inclusion in the workforce to maximize success.
The energy transition could improve both gender equality in the workplace and the climate change crisis by embracing increased diversification. Valentina Kretschmar highlighted some of the benefits of gender diversification in her 2019 article, “Can women speed up the energy transition?” [iv] “Some of the most outspoken advocates for change that I’ve encountered are women. And the more diverse firms are often the most progressive and innovative. A boardroom that embraces different points of view will have a better chance of arriving at innovative solutions to the large, complex problem of sustainability.”
The energy transition will require a change in mindset for companies to solve a very complex problem. While we may already have many of the tools available to solve the climate crisis, we need to take more action and collectively utilize equitable resources and people to meet the challenge. Tapping into the benefits of diversification will be critical to driving positive change for the future, the world and the women disproportionally impacted by climate change.
[i] (2016). Gender and Climate Change: Overview of linkages between gender and climate change, United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Global Gender and Climate Alliance (GGCA), p.5.
[ii] Elwell, N., Williams, Y. (2016, March 7). If you care about the environment, you should care about
gender. World Resources Institute.
[iii] Clemente, J. (2015, January 22). End energy poverty and empower women. Forbes.
[iv] Kretschmar, V. (2019, October 10). Can women speed up the energy transition?. Wood Mackenzie.
