Generating Equity, Nurturing Diversity, Energising Resilience 4 Power Against Energy Poverty

ongoing

The GENDER4POwer project aims to enhance living conditions and energy efficiency in buildings (and households) affected by energy poverty. It emphasizes a holistic gender-responsive, multi-stakeholder, and people-centred approach to renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions, aligning with EU strategies such as the Gender Equality Strategy and the Energy Efficiency Directive. GENDER4POwer aspires to demonstrate the potential of gender-responsive projects in meeting EU strategies. By incorporating gender mainstreaming and intersectionality and by involving citizens, the project aims to enhance public acceptance and community trust, bridge social networks, and ensure active participation of marginalized groups in decision-making processes. GENDER4POwer will achieve its objectives through a set of 7 Work Packages, structured around 6 demonstration sites that aim to reduce energy vulnerability through renovation, specific energy efficiency measures and/or renewable energy production. The project emphasises capacity building and skills enhancement programs to ensure active participation and multi-stakeholder collaboration. It will also provide policy insights and recommendations for both national and European contexts, aiming to scale up and accelerate tested and established schemes. The project brings together 9 partners from six countries across Europe (Slovenia, Lithuania, Austria, Greece, Spain and Germany) with expertise in social sciences, citizen engagement, energy communities, gender equality, renewable energy use, renovation, and policy advocacy. This multidisciplinary expertise helps to implement a comprehensive, cross-cutting gender approach to selected energy poverty solutions, grounded in the needs and experiences of local citizens. The project will develop comprehensive and intersectional approaches to promote social and gender justice in addressing energy poverty by creating tailored methodologies for the local, national and EU contexts. In addition, it will enhance shared understanding and awareness of energy poverty, energy efficiency, gender and social justice considerations to foster a sense of self-reliance and engagement in sustainable solutions. The project will carry out replicable, citizen-driven initiatives for renewable energy and renovation solutions that uplift the living standards of energy-poor households while simultaneously empowering communities. The consortium will collaboratively develop and widely disseminate a comprehensive set of practical gender-responsive recommendations derived from project insights and input from all stakeholders, with particular emphasis on the perspectives of those directly affected by energy poverty. Finally, we will develop inclusive and gender-responsive outreach plans that comprehensively support the dissemination, exploitation and long-term sustainability of the project outcomes, thereby generating solid interest and promoting the scalability of the project to address energy poverty in the six demonstrators and beyond.