The European Green Deal through an Equalities lens: A Lost Opportunity?

The European Green Deal was announced in the same breath as the new Gender Equality Strategy. The appointment of the first-ever Commissioner for Equalities, Helena Dalli, gave hope that the two priorities of climate action and equality would be integrated. The European Green Deal is framed as a growth policy that (re)distributes resources, in terms of jobs, technologies and subsidies. According to Von der Leyen, gender equality is a critical component of economic growth and the Gender Equality Strategy promises to systematically address the way climate policy and laws impact equality. Indeed, far too little consideration has been paid to such effects in past climate policies. The paper investigates how energy and transport sector initiatives defined the relevance of gender, equality, equity and related concepts. Our findings illustrate that the two priorities of climate action and gender equality have remained separate from one another. As it stands, the European Green Deal is fundamentally incompatible with an equalities agenda. This is a lost opportunity with important implications for gender equality. Employing a feminist institutionalist perspective, this paper analyses how this came about and how it can be redressed.