26 Feb 2022 | Story | S+50

How solar energy is helping tackle inequality amidst COVID-19

As the world prepares to mark five decades of the environmental movement at Stockholm +50 this June, we're looking back at projects and initiatives that have positively impacted the environment and people’s lives - and how we can accelerate action on sustainability.

Reti Khatun lives in the village of Kulpala in Bangladesh with her husband and their son. Since her husband cannot work due to a disability, Khatun is the family’s sole earner. She used to clean houses for a living, but things changed with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Because of COVID, no one calls me, and I have run into a financial crisis,” said Khatun. But she has found a new opportunity thanks to solar energy. Through EmPower, a project implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and UN Women, she has joined other local women in running a goat farm powered by the sun.

Solar panels replaced a noisy, polluting and expensive diesel generator that powered the farm’s water pump, allowing Khatun and the other women to maximize their profits. “Now, because there is a solar pump, it’s much cleaner,” she said. “We also use solar energy to operate the lights and fans in the goat farm.”

The main objective of EmPower, which is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, is to put gender equality at the heart of climate action. It’s also designed to help communities harness the power of renewable energy in making a green recovery possible post COVID-19.

The project comes with the climate crisis taking an increasingly heavy toll on the planet. A landmark 2021 report found that almost every corner of the Earth has been touched by climate change and many shifts are unprecedented in thousands of years.

As temperatures jump, rainfall patterns vary, and sea levels rise, there is a pressing need to help communities adapt, found UNEP’s Adaptation Gap Report 2021. Estimated adaptation costs in developing countries are five to 10 times greater than current public financing, and that gap is widening, the report warns.

EmPower’s architects recognize that increasing women’s access to renewable energy technology should go hand in hand with more accessible financing. In Cambodia, for example, the programme established a credit line through the Agriculture and Rural Development Bank that provides more affordable financing to women setting up renewable energy-based microenterprises.

For Mang Oun who provides for her family of five by growing and selling vegetables, having access to loans allowed her to set up a solar pump for irrigation. “Climate change affects the ponds and they often run dry,” she says, but with the newly installed solar-powered water pump, her vegetables can continue to grow and be harvested despite periods of drought.

Ultimately, using a solar power system has not only made her source of livelihood more climate-resilient, but also ensured that it would be more sustainable, efficient, and profitable in the long run.

Meanwhile, in Viet Nam, EmPower has trained over a hundred women entrepreneurs, including those from ethnic minorities, on the use of solar energy for drying produce. One of them is Luon Thi Giang who uses solar drying on the mushrooms grown by her cooperative. “Due to climate change, floods and storms have increased. This makes the process of drying mushrooms very difficult,” she said.

Through the EmPower programme, she was able to set up a complete solar drying system that has ensured a more stable production. “Mushroom production has increased incomes for everyone in the cooperative. Now we have the solar drying house; we can reduce our costs and dry in our own way.” While Giang is among those reaping the benefits of integrating renewable energy into her enterprise, there are many others who lack the necessary skills and resources to do the same.

While EmPower has opened doors by working with governments to promote renewable energy as a tool for women’s entrepreneurship, there is a lot more work to be done to unlock the potential of renewable energy as a viable solution against climate change and gender inequality.

 

How to join Stockholm+50

On 2-3 June, the global environmental community will gather in Stockholm, Sweden for the Stockholm+50 conference. The summit takes place five decades after the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and will provide leaders with an opportunity to draw on 50 years of multilateral environmental action to achieve the bold action needed to secure a better future on a healthy planet.

Here’s how you can participate