Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E)
Activities
South Africa
South Africa's Energy Department launched a "South Africa Chapter" of the Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E) women's initiative in August 2011, under the leadership of Deputy Minister Barbara Thompson. Business, academia, government, and nongovernmental organizations committed to shadowing, mentoring, and job placements for girls and young women. This effort will also include a Learners Focus Week Career Guidance programme targeting young girls to take up science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) studies. Targeted scholarships and financial support for girls in STEM and clean energy sponsored by local industries and government will be another dimension.
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
A number of events have taken place in the UAE this year to raise the profile of the C3E initiative both domestically and internationally.
A panel discussion was organized at the World Future Energy Summit by the UAE Directorate of Energy and Climate Change, with Women Enriching Business and with Young Future Energy Leaders. The panel topic was "Women Leading the Way in Clean Energy and Climate Change." Four Emirati women speakers shared their personal experiences with students and conference attendees on the work being done by women on future energy, clean energy, and climate change issues in the UAE. A dialogue was established between women working in these fields and students on how they can lead the way on these important issues.
At the biennial "Women as Global Leaders Conference" hosted at Zayed University this year, Masdar Institute hosted a panel on the C3E initiative. For more information, view "Masdar Institute conference to drive discussion on GenNext women leaders" (The Gulf Today, 12 March 2012).
On International Women's Day, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs Directorate of Energy and Climate Change participated in an event co-hosted by Women Enriching Business on women in clean energy in the UAE.
United States
The U.S. Department of Energy, as part of its commitment to C3E, convened a workshop of 20 distinguished women working in clean energy in December 2011, to identify barriers to women's advancement and generate ideas for how best to overcome them. Of the many findings of the workshop, two specific barriers identified pointed to two specific solutions as part of a path forward. One finding was that women are doing good work, but their work is often done below the radar (which is a barrier to promotion); greater recognition of their contributions and accomplishments would raise their visibility and open doors for them to greater opportunity, while also providing inspiration to future generations. A second finding was that a broad, multidisciplinary network of professional relationships is a long-term career asset, and the absence of such a network is a barrier to retention.
The workshop produced a strategic plan for a U.S. C3E program to effectively advance professional women's leadership in clean energy, and those outcomes will be announced at the third Clean Energy Ministerial in London. For more information, please contact C3E@hq.doe.gov.