2.3. ENERGY


Box 2.3.6: Testimony of a Native American woman on the impacts of uranium mining The world’s largest open-pit uranium mine once operated next to the village where Carletta Garcia grew


up. “We were sitting at lunch and sometimes the wind was just coming right from the uranium mine and the dust would settle on our dinner and we would eat that along with our food. The ladies at that time would dry food and deer meat outside and all of that would be contaminated and we ate that. They brought home their laundry and it was being washed with the family’s wash. What people didn’t realize is, if their parents worked in the mines, they were bringing the contamination into their homes. Now we are still fighting the effects of what the mine has left for us. There are a lot of people who are sick, a lot of people dying. I myself have thyroid disease. My mother discovered two lumps under her arm; she died from cancer. My husband died four years ago from pancreatic cancer.”


Source: WECF (2011)


The health effects of radiation exposure include thyroid cancer, lung cancer, bone cancer, impaired kidney function due to exposure to radionuclides in drinking water, reduced immunity, fertility disorders and birth defects (Olson 2011; National Research Council 2006).


Gender, energy transitions, and renewable energy


The global energy sector appears to be at a tipping point of rapid transition from fossil fuels. At the current high levels of investment, and following more than a decade of dramatic market growth, proliferation of support policies and cost reductions, renewable energy is projected to grow significantly in the near future. Moderate-growth scenarios project a renewable energy share of 30-45% by 2050 (REN21 2013); the International Energy Agency (IEA) has projected a share of up to 50-95% in the near future (REN21 2013). While national renewable energy markets are projected to grow strongly in the coming decade and beyond, new visions of a future of renewables proliferating at the local level have the potential to shift the gender dynamics of energy provision.


Renewable energy is not inherently socially and environmentally benign. Large-scale renewable energy projects (including for hydropower and other types of renewable energy) not uncommonly result in displacement of local communities (Davis and Fisk 2014). Biofuel production can diminish food security through land use change or rising food prices. Gender gaps and inequalities in the renewable energy sector, in terms of employment and education, are in many instances comparable to those in the fossil fuel-based energy industry. Nevertheless, positive examples point towards the possibilities of a gender-balanced and


gender-responsive renewable energy sector (Boxes 2.3.7 and 2.3.8). Active evaluation and monitoring for gender, social and environmental impacts are just as important for sustainable and gender-just renewable energy as in the fossil fuel-based energy industry.


Programmes aimed at achieving transitions to sustainable energy need to take account of gender and geographical inequalities and focus on the most urgent priorities first – chiefly providing secure access to safe and reliable energy to those who are currently without it. Many years of experience in promoting clean cooking fuels and technologies demonstrates that even if technological solutions are available, traditional energy use patterns are slow to change (including with respect to gender roles such as who decides on purchases of fuels and technologies). To enable a shift towards safer and more sustainable energy, attitudes to traditional gender roles may also need to shift.


Renewables and energy poverty


The use of the various forms of renewable energy and greater energy efficiency can be game changers for energy poverty. More renewable energy and greater energy efficiency are critical not only in order to address climate change, but also to create new economic opportunities and provide energy access to the billions of people who still do not have modern energy services (REN21 2015). Conventional energy systems are currently unavailable to millions of poor people, especially those who live in remote areas or urban slums; even if it were accessible, it would often too expensive for the poorest to afford (Flavin and Aeck 2013).


The rapid recent growth in solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass energy, coupled with ongoing technology improvements and costs reductions,


is increasing 93


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