Empowering Women in China’s Energy and Climate Sector

On July 7^th, under framework of the Sino-German Energy Partnership, GIZ and China’s Hydrogen Energy Industry Committee (HEIC) jointly organized a professional networking event for women in the areas of energy transition and climate action. The event is part of the Women in Green Energy Initiative launched by the Sino-German Energy Partnership. As it took place three days prior to the start of China’s 33rd Energy Conservation Week (July 10^th -16^th), the event highlighted the growing female influence in the energy efficiency sector.  

Connecting women in energy transition to share and exchange

The event created the space to share the challenges and opportunities of women in the industry, discuss potential measures, solutions for women's empowerment, and foster women’s potential to improve and accelerate the green energy transition. Networking helps to build supportive personal and professional connections, opens opportunities for new employment, and creates a platform to share challenges, ideas, advice, and information. Promoting face-to-face networking among women in sustainable energy and support organisations that facilitate such networking is one of the key recommendations to support women engaged in sustainable energy, according to the report Strategies to Foster Women’s Talent for Transformational Change by Global Women's Network for the Energy Transition (GWNET) in 2020. Thus, with support of other organizations in green development, GIZ and HEIC gathered ca. 25 representatives from, among which, Beijing Jipeng (State-owned consultancy company under NDRC focusing on climate change), SinoCarbon Innovation & Investment, Women in Renewable Energy Alliance, Institute for Global Decarbonization Progress (iGDP) and the Energy Research Institute of State Grid and Energy Service Companies (ESCOs).

In addition, the selected mentees from China of the ‘Energising Women to Advance the Energy Transition Mentoring Programme’ joined the event and brought their take-aways, for instance the new mindset, the innovative tools & approaches for personal growth and leadership competence. The mentoring program in its second phase (2023-2024, first phase was 2021-2022) continues advancing women’s role as agents of change. GIZ and GWNET co-launched the program on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) in select countries as part of Germany’s Energy partnerships and energy dialogues.

Women in Green Energy Initiative welcomes new partner

One of the highlights of the event was that the Women in Green Energy Initiative widened its influence by welcoming a new partner - China’s Hydrogen Energy Industry Committee (HEIC). The Sino-German Energy Partnership therefore honored new as well as existing initiative partners in an awarding ceremony during the networking event. To support the gender equality and the empowerment of women in the energy transition, the Sino-German Energy Partnership had launched the “Women in Green Energy” initiative back in December 2020 together with iGDP, WiRA, GWNET and Women in Green Hydrogen. With this initiative, the energy partnership will work together with interested stakeholders from governments, research institutes, think tanks and private sectors to

• Raise awareness on gender equality in the energy sector,
• Enhance exchange and knowledge sharing among women in the energy sector,
• Promote equality by creating a diverse, inclusive and equal environment to increase women's participation in the energy transition,
• Empower women in green energy through capacity building and leadership development and
• Foster women’s potential to improve and accelerate the green energy transition.

Become a partner and collaborate with Women in Green Energy Initiative:

Women in Green Energy Initiative is an open, inclusive platform to connect and create synergies to foster knowledge exchange and strengthen women’s role in the energy transition. If you are an organization in the energy and climate sector sharing the same goal and look forward to developing strong collaborative partnerships to expand the impact, we sincerely invite you to become a partner of the initiative!

Contact:

Fangping Weng (fangping.weng(at)giz.de), Communication Specialist, Sino German Energy Partnership, GIZ