by Ayuska Motha (AIWC Cologne)
Did you know that having female decision-makers can positively influence climate change policy outcomes?
The more that women are involved in decision-making, the more environmental protection measures are supported and/or initiated. Since the majority of our society’s decision-making has historically been male-dominated, it is exciting to consider what types of decisions might be made in the future when decision-making bodies become more gender-balanced. From a more proactive viewpoint, one of the ways to actually fight climate change is to increase women’s participation in environmental decision-making.
FAWCO, along with approximately 28 other women’s environmental organizations, are part of the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC) of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). The WGC is made up of observer organizations to the UNFCCC process. That means that each observer organization is generally permitted to send two representatives to the UNFCCC meetings that take place at least twice a year. The WGC’s goal is to work with the “women’s and gender civil society organizations present and regularly active in the UNFCCC processes to develop, streamline and advocate common positions.” They work to ensure that “human rights and gender equality are firmly anchored in all climate actions under the UNFCCC.” To this end, the WGC works to promote policies to increase women’s meaningful participation in the UNFCCC process. 
For the past three years, Stacey Kimmig and I (Ayuska Motha) have been representing FAWCO within the WGC and at the UNFCCC meetings at least twice a year. We are both on FAWCO’s UN Representatives Team, following the work of the UNFCCC in Bonn, Germany. (For more information, see here; our blogs from the meetings can be found here.)
The most recent UN Climate negotiations took place in Madrid last December (COP25). FAWCO was represented during the first week by Joan Evers and me and during the second week by Stacey Kimmig and me. One of the main focus areas for the WGC during COP25 was advocating for the adoption of a five-year Gender Action Plan (GAP). After surprisingly long and tough negotiations, we were very relieved to finally have the five-year GAP adopted. Not only women worldwide, but environmentalists worldwide can celebrate this victory!
What does the GAP include?
The GAP recognizes that climate change impacts on men and women differ “owing to historical and current gender inequalities.” It also recognizes the full, meaningful and equal participation and the leadership of women in all aspects of the UNFCCC process and in national and local-level climate policy. This meaningful and equal participation is vital for achieving long-term climate goals. The GAP is meant to work together with other UN processes such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The GAP includes the following five priority areas:
- Capacity building, knowledge management and communication – This focuses on outreach, knowledge-sharing, training and workshops.
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Gender balance, participation and women’s leadership – Webinars and training of women delegates in leadership, negotiation and facilitation of negotiation are undertaken with the goal of enhancing women’s participation. To further this goal, travel funds are provided to bring grassroots, local and indigenous communities from developing countries and small island developing states to the conferences to represent their communities and to share their concerns and solutions.
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Coherence – This priority area focuses on integrating gender issues into all UN work, not just the UNFCCC.
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Gender-responsive implementation and means of implementation – This area focuses on a) raising awareness about the financial and technical support that is already available, b) promoting the use of gender-responsive technological solutions, c) consolidating information and expertise on gender and climate change, d) engaging women’s groups and institutions in developing and implementing climate policies, plans and strategies and actions, and e) providing information on lessons learned by countries that have integrated gender into national climate policies.
- Monitoring and reporting – The focus here is on strengthening, monitoring and reporting on women in leadership positions within the UNFCCC process, and implementation of gender-responsive climate policies.
In general, implementation of this GAP over the next five years should lead to more gender-balanced delegations, with women delegates being trained to more effectively participate in the negotiations and within their national and local governments. By ensuring that women’s experiences and perspectives are included in decision-making processes, more environmentally sustainable decisions can be made, with potentially better outcomes for the health of our planet.
This is another, lesser-known tactic to fighting climate change, and FAWCO has been supporting the work of the WGC for the past three years. During that time period, we have seen the number of members of the WGC grow considerably, giving us hope that more and more of those impacted by climate change are banding together to have their concerns and contributions included in the UN climate negotiations and decisions.
Due to the urgency of climate change, drastic and long-reaching changes need to be made immediately. The changes we are planning – based on decades of scientific research – are insufficient to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees C. By ensuring that we have more women involved in climate change decision-making, we could end up committing to more ambitious environmental action leading to a positive impact for future generations to come.
Links on gender and climate change decision making:
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0176268017304500
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0438-4
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2019.1609156
