Young Female Citizens of Serbia Believe That Future Lies in RES, But Don’t See Women as Leaders of Energy Transition

Only one fifth of female citizens of Serbia believe that women have a business future in the RES industry and that women will be the leaders of the transition – as shown by the research “Attitudes of female citizens on green energy in the Republic of Serbia”.

The research, which was supported by the Embassy of Canada in Serbia, was carried out by the Center for Creation of Policies and Strategies for the purposes of the RES Serbia association and the project “Path to greater participation of women in the RES Sector”.

That there is doubt in Serbia’s ability to achieve the proclaimed goal of 40% of energy from renewable sources until 2030 is shown by the research result which says that, collectively, 93.5% of respondents fully or mostly support the transition to greater energy production from renewable sources, while almost 40% of them believe that Serbia will not reach the goal of 40% of energy from renewable sources by 2040. A third of the respondents are optimistic – 36.2% believe that Serbia will achieve and even exceed that goal.

Air pollution with 38.1% is the most serious environmental problem in Serbia for the respondents. Nearly a half (47.1%) rate the energy system as mostly or completely unstable. More than 4/5 respondents believe that the energy system of Serbia is dependent on energy from coal, that is, that it does not focus on RES. Also, over 90% of respondents believe that thermal power plants have a negative impact on the environment.

Renewable energy sources, solar panels, wind farms, sun and wind are the first most common associations when the term “green transition” is mentioned. Nearly two third of the respondents (65.9%) of female citizens pointed out that they sometimes get information about green energy in Serbia, while almost a half of them (47.5%) believe that there should be more information on this topic.

Most respondents believe that the further development of green energy in Serbia would have a very or mostly positive impact on the socio-economic situation and the creation of jobs. However, only 19.5% believe that women will lead the energy transition. A majority of the respondents (35.5%) believe that men and women have equal opportunities in the RES industry in Serbia, but 34.9% believe that men will get the best jobs.

The manager of RES Serbia, Danijela Isailovic, points out that we have to work a lot more on educating young girls and women about the importance of green energy, but also on education and business opportunities that the RES sector provides.

– The research is part of the project “Path to greater participation of women in the RES Sector”, which we are implementing with the support of the Embassy of Canada in Serbia. The results of the survey are not as encouraging as we wanted them to be and show that we must work much more on educating young girls and women about the importance of green energy, but also on education and business opportunities that the RES sector provides. We believe that the promotional campaign during which we publish motivational stories of successful women in the RES sector can produce results. We have already seen progress by the intense reactions on social networks and the invitations to organize workshops and lectures. We are preparing a film about women in the RES sector, as well as a closing conference where successful women should discuss the results of this survey and give advice and guidelines for how to prove that the energy sector and energy are both of female gender and that ladies certainly have their place and importance in this business – says the manager of the RES Serbia association, Danijela Isailovic.

The research, which was carried out between July 15 and September 8 through an online (CAWI) survey, included 507 female citizens from Serbia aged 18 to 30. The average age of the respondents is 24.3. The research included an even number of respondents in terms of age structure, geographical affiliation and level of education.

Ambasada Kanade

Obnovljivi izvori energije Srbije

Center for Creation of Policies and Strategies

Danijela Isailović

Path to greater participation of women in the RES Sector

renewable energy sources

RES industry

green transition

survey of female citizens

energy system of Serbia

green energy