On 28 August, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was invited by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) to facilitate a conversation with partner organisations working on the transition to renewable energy in Colombia. The objective of the session was to share the outcomes of recent research on the interlinkages between just energy transition processes, human rights, and gender. It provided a space for mutual learning, sharing and strategising to better understand the structural issues underpinning current energy paradigms.

The closed session with about 20 representatives of Colombian civil society organizations is part of an overall effort undertaken by GI-ESCR to provide spaces and share experiences with partner organisations on how could a just energy transition would look like form a feminist perspective. During the session, GI-ESCR highlighted the evidence behind structural environmental, social, and economic problems that the current fossil-fuel based energy paradigm is reproducing. We provided the framing to detonate the conversation amongst participants to identify how are women in all their diversity specially and disproportionately impacted by processes of transition to green energy, as well as the opportunities that these processes open to advance gender equality objectives.

This event provided the opportunity for organizations working at the local, national and international level in Colombia and the Latin American region to ask questions and collectively build capacities to address the phase out of fossil fuels and the equitable transition to renewables with a gender and human rights approach. It furthermore allowed GI-ESCR to connect with key partners and continue building momentum to bridge the gaps in knowledge and create advocacy opportunities to advance a fair, gender just, and sustainable future. This is especially relevant in a country that is drawing new plans to move forward with the decarbonisation of its economy and reduce its dependency on extractive industries.