A Just Energy Transition: Localisation, Decent Work, SMMEs and Sustainable Livelihoods
This project takes a ‘clean energy supply’ approach to contribute new knowledge on how public policy can foster decent work and sustainable livelihoods for workers, particularly women and youth engaged in micro, small and medium enterprises, clean energy generation and associated value chains.
It intersects strongly with issues of access to clean energy to foster its use among micro, small and medium enterprises, with the aim of advancing concrete policy change.
The project will analyse clean energy value chains and their relationships with the rest of the economy. It will trace consumption and production to the practices, history and relations that are reproduced within the clean energy value chains by analysing them at different levels, including agents and agencies, structures, processes, relations, and the cultural and contextual factors.
Using the evidence generated, the project is expected to inform public policy debates and outcomes on clean energy transition, thereby giving greater clarity as to what is needed to ensure a just transition pathway. It will empower stakeholders and build advocacy support by localising clean energy value chains.
project
Location
Ghana, Kenya, South Africa,
Credit: Formation, Recherche, et Environnement dans la Tshopo (FORETS), Democratic Republic of Congo by Axel Fassio/CIFOR via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/M4bV7G

T20 Side Event: Powering change: Women, youth, and the clean energy revolution
Thursday 12 June 2025
Watch again In this virtual panel event, we will bring together experts from various regions to address a critical challenge of our time: ensuring that women and youth are not left behind in the global transition to clean energy. Gender equity needs to be at the centre of clean energy policies or women will become […]
Woman carrying a solar pannel near Yangambi, DRC. Axel Fassio/CIFOR via Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/286BAUy

Powering Change: The Critical Role of Women and Youth in Sustainable Energy Transformation
9 April 2025
How do we build economic systems that recognise and work within the biophysical limits of our finite planet while simultaneously reducing poverty and inequality? This has become a defining question of our time, and the global transition to clean energy is increasingly considered an important vehicle via which we might address this ‘trilemma.’ Concerns about […]
Guinea - Rural Women's Cooperative Generates Income and Improves Community Life by UN Women via Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/Pqdj5s

Experts call on G20 leaders not to leave women and children behind in the clean energy transition
17 June 2025
As global challenges in clean energy adoption intensify, a compelling conversation unfolded during a virtual panel event, “Powering Change: Women, Youth, and the Clean Energy Revolution,” bringing to the forefront the urgent need to prioritise gender and youth inclusion in the clean energy transition. This event was hosted as an official side event for the […]