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DRAFT REPORT (2023/2115(INI))

On gender aspects of the rising cost of living and the impact of the energy crisis

FEMM-PR-752947

Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality · Rapporteur: Alice Kuhnke

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A draft report by Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality on the gender aspects of the rising cost of living and the energy crisis. It finds that women are disproportionately hit by the crisis, face more energy poverty, and that EU and national measures lack a gender perspective. It calls on the Commission and member states to guarantee affordable utilities and food, ban energy disconnections, recognise a right to energy, and collect gender-disaggregated data. It asks for a gender action plan in energy policy, gender impact assessments, gender budgeting across the EU budget, and more women in climate and energy decision-making. It also calls for an EU gender and climate coordinator and for closing the gender gap in the energy sector.

Committee position. The rapporteur proposes that Parliament call for a gender-transformative strategy against energy poverty, a right to energy, a ban on disconnections, gender-disaggregated data, gender impact assessments, gender budgeting and an EU gender and climate coordinator.

Key points

  1. Calls on the Commission to deliver on its commitment to promote gender equality in all policymaking and to develop a gender-transformative intersectional strategy to address energy poverty.
  2. Calls on member states and the EU to guarantee affordable utilities and food for low-income households and to ban energy disconnections.
  3. Calls on member states to invest in policies countering the crisis's effects on women and to guarantee access to care, education, health, including sexual and reproductive health and rights, and housing, and to protect victims of gender-based violence.
  4. Calls on the Commission to assess and propose new legislation to counter the financialisation of housing markets and stop speculators making housing unaffordable.
  5. Calls for the EU and member states to recognise the right to energy.
  6. Calls on the Commission's Directorate-General for Energy to develop a gender action plan integrating the gender dimension into all EU energy legislation and targeted funds against the feminisation of energy poverty.
  7. Calls on the Commission and member states to include gender and intersectional dimensions in all energy efficiency and renewable electricity schemes.
  8. Calls for gender-disaggregated data on energy poverty from Eurostat and for the EU Energy Poverty Observatory to develop gender-specific indicators.
  9. Calls on the Commission to require member states to conduct gender impact assessments in national energy and climate plans, including on energy poverty reporting.
  10. Calls on the Commission to appoint an EU gender and climate coordinator with staff and funding and to introduce gender impact assessments in all EU policies, particularly Green Deal initiatives.
  11. Calls for equal and diverse representation of women in climate and environment decision-making and for reducing the gender gap in the energy sector, including access to training and jobs.
  12. Calls on the Commission and Council to commit to gender budgeting across the entire EU budget and to implement the European Court of Auditors' recommendations, including in the multiannual financial framework review and the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

Who is affected

  • Women in the EU, especially single parents and those facing intersecting discrimination, who are more exposed to energy poverty and the cost of living crisis.
  • Member states, which are asked to invest in public services, ban disconnections and conduct gender impact assessments.
  • The Commission, which is asked to propose legislation, appoint a coordinator and require gender budgeting and data.
  • The energy sector, which is asked to reduce its gender gap and give women equal access to training and jobs.
  • Low-income households, who should be guaranteed affordable utilities and food.

Figures and deadlines

  • Between 50 and 125 million people in the EU cannot afford proper indoor thermal comfort.
  • About two thirds of member states' measures to mitigate rising inflation are not targeted at particular groups in vulnerable situations.

Legal basis: Articles 2, 3(1) and 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union and Articles 8, 9, 10, 119, 122, 127, 151, 153(2), 156, 157, 191 and 194 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.