No Tilt to Green Without a Tilt to Equal

By Barbara Rambousek, Director, Gender and Economic Inclusion and Eva Bernard, Principal Advisor, Gender and Green Economy / Climate Action, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)

This article forms part of a series from contributors to GenderSmart’s Gender and Climate Investment Working Group. For many, Gender and Climate Investing is a new field, but there is already a lot of great work and experience to share. By showcasing powerful examples from across the investment ecosystem, Working Group contributors are using their voices to highlight the important role a combined gender and climate lens can play in delivering a just, green economy transition. Through this series, we hope to inspire the adoption of this approach across the financial system.

Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our times. Tackling it effectively will require difficult decisions and changes to how we live and work. Without tackling inequality by extending opportunities related to the green transition to all, however, the willingness to make these tough choices, and the mandate for policy makers to act will be limited and ultimately insufficient.

That is why tackling climate change and inequality are intrinsically linked. A focus on equality and gender has to be an integral part of green investments and policy actions, not an addition or afterthought. Ultimately, there is no trade-off here. We need joined up action to do both.

At the EBRD, we recognise the critical connection between climate and gender action. 

At the end of 2020, the EBRD’s governors agreed on the Bank’s new strategic priorities for 2021 - 2025, driving our investments and policy engagements to become not only more green but also more inclusive, gender equal and digital. The inter-relation between climate change and gender equality is at the heart of this agenda. 

In order to tackle climate change effectively, we need to include women as economic, social, and political actors. Women are often disproportionately affected by climate change, but they also play a central role in shaping the development of climate policies and actions, adopting new technologies and harnessing the opportunities that a new, green economy can bring. 

Over the past year, we have started to integrate gender across a range of EBRD flagship programmes to provide our public and private clients with financing, policy dialogue and technical assistance. We are very proud of the close cooperation with our key partners, including the Green Climate Fund and the Climate Investment Fund, in this context. Four areas stand out:

• We promote women’s access to green skills and jobs across a range of sectors: In Egypt and Kazakhstan, we leverage partnerships with our private sector clients, national ministries and education providers to enable women to gain green skills and promote their progression into careers in the renewable energy sector.

• We support women entrepreneurs to adopt climate technologies and promote access to green finance. In our Green Economy Financing Facilities (GEFFs), we work with local financial institutions to ensure that both men and women have access to green finance, low-carbon technology and entrepreneurship opportunities in sectors from agribusiness to manufacturing and retail. Our programmes in Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia, Egypt and Morocco are progressing well, and are expected to transform the lives of hundreds of women.

• We improve women’s access to green infrastructure and services: Through the EBRD Green Cities programme, we are accelerating the transition to low-carbon urban environments while promoting equal opportunities in the infrastructure sector. We are working with municipalities as part of the development of their Green City Action Plans to understand the gender-specific needs and barriers in terms of access to services and infrastructure in cities. We also promote the development of gender-responsive infrastructure designs and operations. In Tbilisi (Georgia), one of our lead Green Cities, we signed a new metro project in 2020 that will provide commuters with a comfortable and environmentally friendly means of transport, encouraging residents to shift from private to public transport, and thus reducing air pollution. It will also tackle gender-based violence and harassment on public transport and promote safe transport for all users. Finally, it will open up opportunities for women to train as metro drivers.

• We empower women to act as responsible managers of natural resources: In the Saïss Plain region of Morocco, we are helping female farmers adopt enhanced water management technologies in the agribusiness sector in the face of a changing climate.

• We support North Macedonia and Serbia to plan for a just transition away from fossil fuel dependent industries, whilst supporting livelihoods and economic opportunities for the local communities in their main coal regions, all while applying a gender lens in their regional development planning processes.

More exciting work lies ahead. In 2021, we will further scale up our investments and policy engagement to support an inclusive and green recovery across the EBRD region. A new Equal Opportunities and Gender Strategy will set out an expanded vision of how the EBRD can affect positive change at the nexus of climate change and gender equality.  

Several of our programmes give us the opportunity to mainstream gender into climate investments, including as we promote the uptake of low-carbon technologies and introduce innovative financing mechanisms to reduce Co2 emission in energy-intensive manufacturing industries, mining and agribusiness value chains. We will work with corporate clients to introduce long-term behavioural changes to corporate governance and business practices, with an initial focus on investments in Armenia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Serbia, Tunisia and Uzbekistan.

We are also scaling up our policy engagement activities to integrate gender into reform processes. In Morocco, we will support the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure a gender-responsive approach to agriculture. Under the EBRD’s Green Cities programme, we will start helping municipalities to integrate gender into decision-making, inclusive green policies, and public engagement. 

Finally, we are collaborating with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and CDC Group through the 2X Climate and Gender Taskforce, to provide investors with tools and guidance to integrate gender into climate investments.

Partnerships are key to achieving change at scale. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the Gender and Climate Investment Working Group, sharing our experience, and jointly promoting a greener and more gender equal future. Stay tuned!

GenderSmart is committed to highlighting great work to address the climate emergency with a climate and gender lens. If you haven't already, please let us know what you are up to, and we'll be sure to amplify it.