Hancock's blog

We’re talking to Anna Berka, a Massey University lecturer with an interest in community energy.

She was responsible for the incredible New Zealand Aotearoa Community Energy Dataset, a register of all NZ local or community owned renewable energy initiatives.

My second sceptical challenge to Anna was the effectiveness of community energy subsidies.  They aren’t always effective but they can be – and that’s important.

My guest Anna Berka has been studying and supporting the development of NZ community energy for many years.

She was responsible for the incredible New Zealand Aotearoa Community Energy Dataset - a register of all NZ local or community owned renewable energy initiatives – covering everything from consumer trust-owned networks to community- and Iwi-owned renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.

We're talking to Julie MacArthur who's just returned to Canada as the Chair in Reimagining Capitalism at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia about her new research study: Transition Inequity: Trends and Impacts of Gendered Employment in New Zealand's Energy Industries.

Last week, Julie talked about the trends that she's identified in her research into gender balance in the New Zealand energy sector. This week she talks about the future and how she expects to see the workforce change and why that matters … in case anyone was still wondering.

We're talking to Julie MacArthur who's just returned to Canada as the Chair in Reimagining Capitalism at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia about her new research study: Transition Inequity: Trends and Impacts of Gendered Employment in New Zealand's Energy Industries.

Last week, Julie talked about the results of her research into gender balance in the New Zealand energy sector. This week she talks about the trends that she's identified. Not all bad, but not brilliant either.

We're talking to Julie MacArthur who's just returned to Canada as the Chair in Reimagining Capitalism at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia about her new research study: Transition Inequity: Trends and Impacts of Gendered Employment in New Zealand's Energy Industries.

Last week, Julie talked about systemic bias in New Zealand legislation. This week she shares the results of her research into gender balance in the New Zealand energy sector. It's not all bad news (but a lot of it is).

We're talking to Julie MacArthur who's just returned to Canada as the Chair in Reimagining Capitalism at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia about her new research study: Transition Inequity: Trends and Impacts of Gendered Employment in New Zealand's Energy Industries.

Last week, Julie explained what the global picture for gender balance in the sector looks like. This week, she talks about her New Zealand research and what she expected to see. It turns out we're not as progressive as she'd expected – systemic bias is everywhere it seems – even in the legislation for a Just Transition?

We're talking to Julie MacArthur who's just returned to Canada as the Chair in Reimagining Capitalism at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia about her new research study on gendered employment in New Zealand's energy industries.

We looked at some pretty reactionary comments from Energy News readers on the lack of diversity holding back the sector.

This week, Julie sets out her research project and what the picture for gender balance in the sector is like globally. Not very balanced at all, it seems.

We're talking to Julie MacArthur who's just returned to Canada as the Chair in Reimagining Capitalism at Royal Roads University in Victoria, Canada about her new research study: Transition Inequity: Trends and Impacts of Gendered Employment in New Zealand's Energy Industries.

We start with some Energy News history – the March 2019 article about Alison Andrew's speech at Downstream on lack of diversity in the sector.

The article had 23 pages of comments and was eventually closed to all commenters and the comment stream taken down. It doesn't show the readership in a very good light. Before we look at her recent research, Julie takes a moment to explain what was going on.

A while ago a couple of my listeners pointed out that nearly everyone I've interviewed on the podcast is a white middle-aged man. It was a fair criticism and a bit of a reflection of the world I come from. Turns out that we do have a bit of a problem with employment inequity in the sector though.

My podcast guest for the next series is Julie MacArthur who's just returned to Canada from MZ as the Chair in Reimagining Capitalism at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia. While at the University of Auckland, Julie published Mind the Gender Gap: Energy Employment Trends in Aotearoa New Zealand with Catherine Dyer. They've just completed a major study: Transition Inequity: Trends and Impacts of Gendered Employment in New Zealand's Energy Industries – and Julie agreed to come onto the podcast to preview their results.

We start off with discussing where the research project started.

I'm talking to Tim Tutton who was in the mainstream of UK electricity and gas market reform from the late 1980s, including eight years as Director of Regulation at National Grid.

Tim wrote a stimulating paper Does Ofgem have a future? for the economic consultancy Oxera in May this year. It's a provocative challenge and I thought it would be fun to invite him onto the podcast to explore the themes in it – both his specific observations about the UK and the general issues they raise about governments and their agencies in our industry.

Last week, Tim explained how the energy policy regime in the UK sees the regulated system operator taking an increasingly key role in setting policy – more focused on enabling competition for long-term contracts than instantaneous competition for dispatch. In this, the final episode of this series, he offers some thoughts on how regulated companies can conduct regulatory reviews without the process degenerating into hostility.