EmPOWERing All:
Just and Inclusive Energy Transitions
Synopsis
The EmPOWERing All Task will gather researchers from the fields of intersectionality and energy in a global network to analyse energy policy and technologies from intersectional perspectives and provide recommendations for policy design and implementation.
Overview
Task Duration:
Phase 1: January 2021 to December 2024
Participating Countries:
United States of America, Ireland, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Australia
Phase 2: March 2025 to 31 December 2027
Participating Countries:
Austria, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden
Contact:
For more information on the Task, please contact Camilla Andersson
camillaa@kth.se
Latest from EmPowering All
EmPOWERing All Task Newsletter #6
The latest newsletter from the new phase of the EmPOWERing All: Just and Inclusive Energy Transition Task is now available.
New Policy Report: Battling Exclusion in Energy Transitions
In a new report from the EmPOWERing All Task, researchers show how current energy systems exclude users and explore the role of gender and social perspectives for equitable, effective energy transitions. The report includes new research from Task members, good practice examples, and the aggregated knowledge of current state of the art research within the energy field.
Gender & Energy Task Newsletter #5
The final Newsletter from Phase 1 of the Empowering All Task (Gender & Energy) is now available with highlights, new publications and announcement of Phase 2.
EmPowering All Publications
Mapping understandings of corporate social and sustainability responsibility in an era of green transition in Swedish Sápmi: recommendations for extractive industry improvements
In northern Sweden, extractive industry activity, such as wind power and mining, has intensified due to the so-called green transition. Hence, friction between the Indigenous Sámi people and extractive companies has increased. The objective of this study is to explore the experiences of and recommendations for corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in extractive industries among the Sámi people in Sweden.
Battling Exclusion in Energy Transitions
Energy transitions are leading to a decentralization of energy system resources. However, power structures remain highly centralized and supply-side focused, often leading to local resistance to change and the exclusion of end user groups. This policy report summarizes key findings, recommendations and examples based on work in the Empowering All Task phase 1, including new research, good practice examples, and the aggregated knowledge of current state of the art research within the energy field.
Making an inclusive and gender aware energy policy
This paper presents a synthesis of three case studies carried out within the sub-task 2 of the Gender and Energy Research Programme with some supporting evidence from other sources. The sub-task set out to gain an understanding of the systematic inertias in the sociotechnical energy system hindering the formation of gender aware policies and interventions and then to identify ways of countering the inertias.
Subtasks & Deliverables
Introduction
From phase 1 of the emPOWERing all Task, three main insights have emerged; There is an exclusion of certain users in policy, governance and implementation
design. Based on intersectional discrimination there is an exclusion of users from knowledge around energy transitions and a wide range of users are not perceived as ‘knowers’ of their own experiences of energy use. Consequently, stereotypical norms of users are reproduced through new technologies envisioned to drive the energy transitions, which in turn might have caused the unexpectedly slow uptake of new technology.
As a response to these challenges phase 2 will develop new methods for user surveys in order to get more diversified data. Researchers will widen the scope of research to an intersectional understanding of users in a socio-technical and relational context of everyday energy practices. What stands out in the emPOWERing all is the norm-creative design focus which will incorporate the research at the forefront of gender, intersectionality, masulinities-nexus with energy transitions, into prototypes of new low-carbon technologies.
This cross-disciplinary knowledge hub will actively promote collaborations with other TCPs.
For policy makers and regulators
The research insights and practice-based results from this task will be formulated into policy briefs, as well as developed into method guidelines that can be used to facilitate immersive workshops and dialogues that can unlock new transformative policy and planning strategies, anchored and co-created with a broader base of citizen groups and perspectives.
For businesses
The Task will provide opportunities for learning and improving leadership for transition as well as concrete fine-tuned education material to be used in workshops etc. By exploring new actor constellations, roles and business opportunities, the practice-based insights will be of direct relevance to both incumbent and new niche actors in the energy sector.
For researchers
For academia, the task will further consolidate an emerging transdisciplinary field engaging social sciences, humanities and design in energy-related topics. Anchoring the work in the participating academic institutions will have a potential to also influence education of the next generation of professionals to work for an energy transition with a broader repertoire of perspectives and tools to usher a just societal transformation.
Main task: Formulating country-specific briefs for clean, effective and inclusive energy policy, implementation and technological interventions.
Aim: The overarching aim of the Task is to provide impartial, reliable and authoritative research, guidelines and recommended practices to policy/decision makers and implementers based on international comparative evidence which contributes to gender-sensitive energy transitions which also considers intersectional aspects of exclusion.
Phase 2 will be divided into three subtasks correlating to the challenges identified in phase 1 plus the development of a knowledge hub helpdesk as a fourth subtask. It will gather, synthesize and distribute knowledge created in three subtasks outlined below. These subtasks are intended to be mutually reinforcing and contribute to the main task.
Deliverables:
Policy briefs
- How to support just and inclusive energy transitions
- Provide examples of best practices from research on how to formulate policy to
enable change.
Dissemination
- Popular Dissemination
- Opinion pieces
- Newsletter reporting on the Task research
- Webinars
- TCP Academy webinars
- Infographics and 2-pagers
Subtask 1: Re-framing just energy transitions
Motivation:
Today the energy sector is male dominated and struggles with technocentric norms and stereotypical and static notions of the users of the new technologies that are envisioned to support energy transitions. However, the uptake of these technologies have been slower than anticipated. In response to this, subtask 1 aims to re-frame the notion of the user into a more diversified, just and inclusive one. In the Task, energy use is understood as a socio-technical phenomena that needs nuanced understandings of users in their social and relational context.
Aim:
- Methodological development of data collection and interpretation.
- Produce intersectionally diversified framing of users based in various social contexts and everyday activities.
- To formulate policy recommendations that support nuanced and inclusive
understandings of users.
Methods:
- Comparative studies between regions and countries
- Develop survey methods sensitised to gender and intersectionality.
- Historical studies of policy work relating to welfare and energy.
- Desktop studies of polarisation relating to energy transitions.
Proposed deliverables:
- Academic case studies of in/justice in the energy transition in the Global South/North
- Policy recommendations with focus on justice and inclusion.
- Good practices of justice and inclusion aspects on energy transitions in Global
South/North - Peer-reviewed articles
- Innovative governance approaches advancing gender and energy transitions –
particularly at the local level in the Global South/North.
Subtask 2: Scaling just energy transitions: Closing the gap between users and
policy
Motivation:
In order to achieve robust energy transitions, a reliable framework to support actors and users must be developed. This framework should cover all levels of the energy system and be aware of gender, intersectional dimensions and justice.
Aim:
The aim of this subtask is to explore user needs at all levels of the energy system in order to support policy makers in building a framework that sustains just and inclusive energy transitions.
This framework works two ways:
- Institutional support for energy transitions and solutions which are inclusive, just and sustainable.
- Institutional support that empowers users to navigate different energy transitions.
Method:
- Case studies of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises)
- Case studies of Energy Communities
- Case studies on women/men in the fossil extraction sector and their transition to green technologies.
- Collection of good practices of how just transitions are happening on the ground in local settings for example in the Maldives, Bangladesh, Sweden and India
- Methodological development of how local experiences and knowledge can be transferred to other places and contexts.
Proposed deliverables:
- Game (like the executive board game developed in phase 1)
- Synergy workshop at the conferences held 2 times/year by 75inQ
- Conference presentations/papers
- Peer-reviewed articles
- Briefing paper for policy makers.
- Continued participation in the IEEE GESI group, developing new standards for
Gender, Equality and Social Inclusion in new digital energy services.
Subtask 3: Reimagining just energy transitions: Prototyping inclusive interventions
and technologies.
Subtask 3A – Beyond ‘smart grids’ – towards new understandings of smartness in
relation to energy citizenship
Subtask 3B – Prototyping Low-carbon sufficiency lifestyles in the built environment
Subtask 3C – Prototyping gender sensitive energy engagement tools.
Motivation:
There is a need to turn empirical research into more concrete images of what transitions to just and inclusive low-carbon energy futures could look like. The current technocentric focus on ‘smart grids’ and ‘smart’ solutions seems to have difficulties with public acceptance and might have to be reconsidered to cater for users’ diverse and changing needs.
Norm-creative and speculative design is well suited to reimagining energy futures, building on gender and intersectional perspectives of justice. It produces scientific knowledge alongside concrete prototypes. These prototypes identify current challenges, visualise them, and finally produce illustrations and prototypes of more just and inclusive ways of organising energy production and use.
Aim:
- To reimagine the smart grid beyond its current gendered focus.
- To produce and test prototypes for energy planning in the household which challenges current gendered roles.
- To produce prototypes for low-carbon energy communities built bottom-up.
- Suggest policy recommendations based on the prototypes and their production and implementation.
Method:
- Norm-critical and speculative research through design processes.
- Interventions with prototypes.
- Collaboration and workshops with stakeholders
Proposed deliverables:
- Prototype(s) of the Energy Planner
- Prototypes of low-carbon technologies supporting vital resource flows
- Reimaginations of smart-grid approaches.
- Policy recommendations based on the prototypes
- Peer-reviewed papers
- Conference presentations
- Educational materials and guidelines
Subtask 4 – Pilot for a Knowledge Hub Helpdesk
Subtask 4A – Building an infrastructure for match-making between TCPs
Subtask 4B – Providing collaborations in various forms.
Motivation:
During the first phase of the Task, the Users TCP Gender and Energy Task has built a global hub for knowledge and expertise on the intersection of gender and energy technologies. Our Task brings together leading academics and consultancies working in this field. We have the potential and the willingness to collaborate with other TCPs on the gender issues relating to new technologies.
Aim:
The aim is to contribute to more just and inclusive technology development that faciltitates the uptake of new technologies.
Method:
- Norm-creative and speculative design processes
- Industrial design processes
Proposed deliverables:
- An infrastructure for collaborations
- Prototypes of just and inclusive technologies (depending on funding available and the type of collaborations).
Conference papers
2025
- December 2025: Abstract, in collaboration with the Hard-to-Reach Task, presented at the Behave conference: “Elevating Indigenous Voices in the Just Energy Transition“. Kira Ashby, Sea Rotmann, Ann-Sofie Kall, Camilla Andersson, Laney Sullivan, and Athalia Esty.
- December 2025: Abstract at the Behave onference: “Enabling socially just energy communities”. Joy Clancy, Marielle Feenstra, Nthabi Mohlakoana, and Aretina Stefani.
Deliverables and Publications
2026
- January 2026: Research article: “Mapping understandings of corporate social and sustainability responsibility in an era of green transition in Swedish Sápmi: recommendations for extractive industry improvements”. Kristina Sehlin MacNeil
2025
- Open Access Book: Energy Citizenship: Envisioning Citizens’ Participation in the Energy System. Niall P. Dunphy , Breffní Lennon , Alexandra Revez , and Bin Bin J. Pearce
- November 2025: Research article: Participation in Energy Communities: the COM-B Model as a framework for exploring human motivations through living labs. Breffní Lennon et al
- October 2025: Doctoral thesis by Angelica Wågström , supervised by Martin Hultman, “Careful Energy Transitions: An Ethnography of Degrowth Everyday Utopias“
- September 2025: Policy Report: “Battling Exclusion in Energy Transitions”. Anna Åberg, Helene Ahlborg, Julia Norman, and Kavya Michael
- July 2025: Research article: Economic impacts of repowering wind turbines: a comparative analysis of advanced wind turbine technologies. Dorcas Mikindani, Peter Deeney & Niall P. Dunphy
- June 2025: Research article: All together now: building resilient citizen energy communities through collaborative learning. Paul Tobin and Breffní Lennon
2024
- December 2024: Open Access Book: Energy Citizenship: Envisioning Citizens’ Participation in the Energy System. Niall P. Dunphy, Breffní Lennon, Alexandra Revez, Bin Bin J. Pearce
Newsletters
2025
- October 2025: Martin Hultman prepared and gave Keynote Lecture: “Survival. Ecological Masculinities, Rights of Nature & Degrowth as Prefigurative Politics for a Livable Planet at “Feminist Coalitions for Livable Worlds: How, Where and for Whom?” at Mid Sweden University in Staare/Östersund.
- October 2025: Joy Clancy deliverd the opening presentation at gEneSys Autumn School: “Gender and Intersectional Inequalities in Energy Transition” in Venice.
September 2025: Joy Clancy and Marielle Feenstra presented Gender, Governance, and Justice in Energy Transitions: Towards Inclusive and Equitable Systems at the ESA RN12 ‘Environment and Society’ mid-term and ‘Energy and Society Network’ 7th joint conference, Kaunas, Lithuania.
- August 2025: Kickoff meeting of the EmPOWERing All Task with the international group of national experts. Workshop on the theme “How do we do research on justice and inclusivity in a changing political landscape?”
- June 2025: Workshop in Kiruna “A green and just transition in Northern Sweden – including diverse voices for energy justice”.
- June 2025: Pernilla Hagbert presented an extended abstract on “Citizens’ assemblies as a tool for transformation?” at the 18th Conference of the International Society for Ecological Economics and 11th International Degrowth Conference in Oslo
- June 2025: Martin Hultman prepared and gave Keynote Lecture II: Climate change and green transitions at “Men and Masculinities in Transition” Stockholm University, Sweden.
- Alexandra Revez participated as invited speaker at ‘Climate & Energy Research Seminar’ in Dublin giving a talk on ‘Community Benefit Funding – How should we spend the €800 million?‘
- Anna Åberg, Camilla Andersson and Sylvia Breukers presented the results of phase 1 and the outline for phase 2 at RVO, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, at a webinar for Dutch policymakers.
2026
2027
All UsersTCP academy webinars are available from the Leonardo ENERGY YouTube channel: User-Centred Energy Systems Academy