Changes from plenary report to adopted text

40. Deplores the fact that women are significantly under-represented in key policymaking positions on climate change, the energy transition and the environment, and calls for the EU and the Member States for positive action measures such as temporary quotas to ensure equal and diverse representation in decision-making positions across the EU institutions, government bodies and public authorities at all governance levels and associated public bodies; calls on the Member States to promote the meaningful participation of women in gender-responsive planning, policies and programmes, including its fiscal planning and to ensure that such policies take into account the differential impacts of climate change and energy crises on women and men;

41. Notes that in order to ensure that the EU’s workforce is fully prepared to actively work towards the achievement of its climate objectives, Member States should aim to reduce the gender disparity in the construction and building sector, including through their national energy and climate plans;

42. Welcomes the fact that, as the leading environmental and gender equality agencies in the United Nations system, UNEP and UN Women have joined forces to develop a Global Programme to promote Women’s Entrepreneurship for sustainable energy; calls on the Commission and relevant EU agencies to take note of this programme and promote similar sustainable entrepreneurial energy objectives within the EU;

43. Underlines that digital technology and platforms are becoming key in the overall process of providing education and training for women and girls as well as in many work selection processes; regrets the negative impacts of unequal access to technology, which may hinder the development of women’s and girls’ digital literacy and calls on the Commission to ensure that women and girls in all their diversity, including single women and elderly women and those women living in rural areas, inland areas and areas at high risk of depopulation are not disproportionately affected by energy poverty;

44. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to reduce the gender gap in the energy sector by tackling the under-representation of women in STEAM careers and to ensure that women have equal access to vocational training courses and awareness-raising courses in STEAM subjects including those on energy efficiency and sufficiency and to create a positive link between acquiring knowledge and developing skills essential for emerging job opportunities in the digital and green transition;

45. Recognises that the ultimate objectives of inclusion, equality and achieving gender balance in the energy sector remain unmet; calls on the respective education authorities within Member States to particularly encourage girls to take an interest in the energy sector by fighting gender stereotypes in educational choices and to foster their confidence about possessing the needed skills to become employees, innovators and pioneers in the energy sector;

46. Stresses that the energy sector is one of the most gender imbalanced industries in the EU, with women accounting only for 24 % labour force, as well as regarding its occupational and hierarchical gender segregation; calls on private and public energy companies to eradicate any form of discrimination on a gender basis or any other grounds as set out in Article 21 CFREU; stresses the need to fight against the persistence of structural gender inequalities that perpetuates the obstacles to entry and retention of workforce in the energy sector, including respecting and promoting the use of maternity and paternity rights; underlines that energy companies which promote equality represent more appealing working environments for all their employees and potential employees;

47. Welcomes the initiatives promoting women to become solar, wind power, geothermal and hydroelectric energy entrepreneurs, as this benefits the women involved as well as the wider community, and calls on the Member States to identify any barriers that prevent women working in these sectors; calls on private companies within the energy sector to ensure that solar, wind power, geothermal and hydroelectric energy technology, and its female innovators, are empowered to support the energy transition;

48. Notes the Commission’s key objectives within its EU solar energy strategy, which seeks to make EU solar energy systems more competitive and resilient; recognises how solar, wind power, geothermal and hydroelectric energy is giving more women access to energy, particularly in rural areas; highlights the need to integrate women’s safety concerns in relation to the use of lighting when designing and planning urban and mobility policies in view of promoting public spaces that are safe and free of harassment;

49. Calls on the Commission and the Council to commit to gender budgeting and to ensure that it is applied to the entire EU budget, and that the European Court of Auditor’s recommendations are fully implemented, including in the mid-term review of the current multiannual financial framework and the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility;

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50. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.