In a new study quantifying how gender shapes people’s experiences of climate change, scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) found that, by 2050, higher temperatures and changing rainfall patterns could mean women globally spend up to 30% more time collecting water.

PIK guest researcher Robert Carr, the study’s lead author, explained how this results in more physical strain, psychological distress and lost time that could otherwise be spent on education, leisure or employment.

“Even when people talk about gendered climate impacts, there is very little attention on time poverty and how that affects someone’s ability to improve their life,” Carr told Climate Home.

In addition, the cost of lost working time for women affects economies, and is projected to reach tens to hundreds of millions of US dollars per country annually by 2050, the study said.

Is water provision in drought-hit Zambia climate ‘loss and damage’ or adaptation?

Carr noted that the data underpinning PIK’s study only recently became available and is a valuable tool for connecting women’s welfare issues to climate impacts, with more such analysis expected as new datasets emerge.

“But more still needs to be done to act on, and implement, research findings like ours at the local and national levels,” he added.

For that to happen, research like PIK’s has to resonate in government offices and negotiating rooms at UN climate talks, where gender activists see 2024 as a milestone year. Countries are expected to renew key global initiatives for advancing gender-responsive climate action and improving gender balance in official delegations at UN negotiations.

Gendered impacts of climate change

So far progress has been slow. After more than a decade of working towards those aims within the UN climate process, wilder weather and rising seas are still disproportionately affecting women and gender-diverse people, as global warming continues apace.

For example, female-headed rural households experience higher income losses due to extreme weather events like floods and droughts, through impacts on farming and other activities.

Rates of child marriage and violence against women and girls have been shown to increase during and after climate disasters. And studies have identified a positive correlation between drought-induced displacement and hysterectomies among female farm labourers in India.

At the same time, barriers like caring responsibilities, lack of funding, difficulties in obtaining visas and even sexual harassment in UN spaces persist, standing in the way of women’s equal participation in the climate negotiating rooms.

Yet, despite the mounting urgency, governments made little progress in talks on gender issues at the mid-year UN conference in Bonn this month.

Delegates arrive for a workshop on implementing the UNFCCC gender action plan and on future work to be undertaken on gender and climate change, at the Bonn Climate Conference on June 3, 2024. (Photo: IISD/ENB – Kiara Worth)

Advocates had hoped to leave the German city with a new, stronger version of the UN’s flagship gender initiative, known as the Lima Work Programme on Gender (LWP). Instead, discussions were tense and slow, leaving the LWP – which is supposed to be renewed by 2025 – to be finalised in November at the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan.

No rise in women negotiators

Claudia Rubio, gender working group lead for the Women and Gender Constituency at the UN, said the LWP has enabled a better understanding of “what is prohibiting women and other genders from being in [UN negotiating] spaces”.

But Mwanahamisi Singano, senior global policy lead at the Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO), reminded delegates at a workshop in Bonn that “time has not been the magic ingredient in bridging disparities between women and men in participation”, which has “stagnated or even declined when it comes to COPs”.

According to data from WEDO, women made up only 34% of COP28 government delegations overall, the same percentage as 10 years ago. Azerbaijan’s initial men-only COP29 organising committee – to which women were hastily added after an international outcry – and its line-up of negotiators at Bonn were a case in point.

The UN’s own analysis of men and women’s relative speaking times at the negotiations shows that women often – though not always – speak less, and that themes such as technology and finance see consistently lower numbers for women’s participation.

Progress has been gradual even with programmes like WEDO’s Women Delegates Fund, which has financed hundreds of women – primarily from least developed countries and small island developing states – to attend UN climate talks. Since 2012, WEDO has also run ‘Night Schools’, training women in technical language and negotiation skills.

Gender in the NDCs

Increasing the gender diversity of decision-makers in UN negotiations is important in its own right, but it does not necessarily translate into more gender-responsive climate policy, experts said. Not all women negotiators are knowledgeable about the gender-climate nexus, they noted.

But having an international framework to boost gender-sensitive climate action has also “catalysed political will” at the country level, according to Rebecca Heuvelmans, advocacy and campaigning officer at Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF).

Delegates listen to discussions on the UNFCCC Gender Action Plan at the Bonn Climate Conference on June 4, 2024. (Photo: IISD/ENB – Kiara Worth)

This is evidenced by an increase in the number of official National Gender and Climate Change Focal Points – up from 38 in 2017 when UN climate talks first adopted a Gender Action Plan, to 140 across 110 countries today. While the precise role of these focal points depends on country needs, advocates say they have been pivotal in spurring action on national gender priorities.

So far, at least 23 countries have national gender and climate change action plans, and references to gender in national climate plans submitted to the UN, known as NDCs, have increased since the earliest commitments in 2016. Around four-fifths now include gender-related information, according to a UN review of the plans.

In practice, this ranges from including gender-diverse people in the development of national climate plans to legislation that specifically addresses the intersection of climate change and gender.

For example, nine countries – including Sierra Leone and Jordan – have committed to addressing rising gender-based violence in the context of climate change. South Sudan acknowledged that heat exposure and malnutrition can increase infant and maternal mortality, while Côte d’Ivoire recognised that climate change hikes risks to pregnant women and those going through menopause.

Nonetheless, only a third of countries include access to sexual, maternal and newborn health services in their climate commitments, according to a 2023 report by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Queen Mary University of London, showing how much work is yet to be done.

Next year, countries are due to submit updated NDCs, which campaigners see as a crucial opportunity to embed gender equality more deeply, including by involving women and girls in their planning and implementation, and collecting data disaggregated by sex and gender that can help shape policy.

Cross-cutting issue

Ahead of COP29, gender advocates are pushing for a stronger work programme with new language around intersectionality – the recognition that gender interacts with other parts of identity like race, class and Indigeneity to create overlapping systems of discrimination.

Angela Baschieri, technical lead on climate action at UNFPA, said gender commitments in the UN climate process must be more ambitious and include actionable targets for countries to address gender inequality.

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Beyond the gender negotiations themselves, the Women and Gender Constituency wants to boost the integration of gender with other streams of work.

“Whether you’re talking about green hydrogen, climate finance or low-carbon transport, there is always a gender dimension,” said Sascha Gabizon, executive director of WECF International, a network of feminist groups campaigning on environmental issues.

“We have so much evidence now that climate policies just aren’t as efficient if they are not gender-transformative,” she added.

(Reporting by Daisy Clague; editing by Megan Rowling)

The post UN action on gender and climate faces uphill climb as warming hurts women appeared first on Climate Home News.

The recent appointment of an all-men committee, with members linked to the country’s oil and gas industry, to organize this year’s Cop29 climate summit in Azerbaijan is a major step backward for climate action.

We see this selection as yet another example of a gender gap in climate leadership with alarming implications for climate justice, effective climate action, and the Cop29 proceedings.

Gender justice is not just a progressive add-on we can include for tackling climate change.

The causes, consequences and solutions of climate change are highly gendered. Research also demonstrates that decisions designed and implemented to address existing inequities – including gender, ethnicity, disability, age, location and income – are not only ethically desirable but result in more effective and sustainable climate change actions.

Who decides at Cop?

Gender diversity in climate leadership is paramount for delivering climate action while leaving no one behind.

But gender imbalances at Cop not only persist but have worsened since the pandemic. Specifically, women constituted 35% of national Party delegates at Cop27, a slight decrease from Cop24 (38%) four years earlier.

A Cop29 committee with only male representation means that only men’s perspectives will inform the committee’s decision-making, missing out on a multifaceted understanding of the gender dynamics both in the consequences of climate change and their proposed solutions.

A complex crisis such as climate change requires diversity, and representation is important at all levels of implementation and can have rippling effects throughout societies.

For example, increased participation of women in government and business leadership has been a lever for addressing gender gaps at the household level.

In the private sector, companies with boards with 30% or more women members have better climate governance, resulting in better general environmental disclosure and fostering more innovation than those with less gender diversity.

Inexcusable decision

Inclusion of people from a range of points on the gender spectrum may be a pipe dream in many parts of the world. But a complete lack of women sitting on the committee is inexcusable and reveals the continuing gender gap in climate leadership.

A seat around the table is a bare minimum request. There is a difference between representation and participation and a gender quota is not a long-term solution to underlying inequities.

Even when women or gender minorities reach positions of power such as membership of the Cop29 committee, presence does not necessarily translate into a balanced representation of interests.

Azerbaijan appoints state oil company veteran as Cop29 president

Each choice made for Cop29 will have major future implications for women, young people and minorities, and yet they are left out of the decision-making from the outset with these appointments. It is disappointing to still need to point out the need for those affected by decisions to be part of the process.

Gender parity may be an overall difficulty for Azerbaijan. The country has one of the worst gender gaps in the region. But the Cop29 committee should be used as an opportunity to demonstrate the country’s understanding of the climate challenge and its willingness to make decisions based on the available evidence.

For the sake of not only the UN climate process but future generations, we expect to see a change in this direction.

Nella Canales, Laura Del Duca and Isabelle Mallon are researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)’s Gender Equality, Social Equity and Poverty Program. Trevor Grizzell is an editor with a PhD in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. 

The post The all-male Cop29 committee is a big step backwards for climate appeared first on Climate Home News.

Men outnumber women by two to one on panels at this month’s UN climate talks, according to Climate Home News analysis.

Of the 39 side events with announced speakers at talks in Bonn, which started on Monday, just one third have an equal gender balance or majority of women on their panel. 65% of all listed speakers are male.*

A spokesperson for Climate Focus, who helped organise an all-male panel on Tuesday, recognised the need to be more thoughtful about representation in the future.

“Gender balance obviously wasn’t considered when putting together the panel but was noticed by ourselves during the event and also brought up during the event by the panellists,” he said.

“The issue was raised between the co-organisers after the meeting and there had been a clear position from everyone that this has to change in future events,” said Climate Focus’ spokesperson. “In the future it will be higher on our radar not to happen again.”

Kentaro Takahashi from the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) said that they “very much regret that all speakers and panelists were male”.

“In the preparation stage, we have considered the regional balance, gender balance as well as availability of speakers, so that we can ensure a discussion with different views from different regions. But we now recognize our thought on gender balance was not enough,” Takahashi said.

Sexual harassment at UN talks weakens the fight against climate change

The IGES stated that they would commit to securing the gender balance when they organise a side event in the future.

At a side event organised by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on monitoring greenhouse gases on Wednesday evening, there were five male speakers and one woman. Session moderator Florin Vadu, a manager at the UN climate change secretariat (UNFCCC), told Climate Home News his department was 80% women. “All are women working under me, but they [the organisers] wanted the boss and the boss happened to be a man.”

Neither he nor fellow panellist Han Dolman, a researcher from the Free University of Amsterdam, considered the gender balance when deciding whether to join the event.

“You see it depends on my agenda,” said Dolman, cautiously “but it is something when you organise a panel meeting you can take into account”. The WMO was not immediately available for comment.

Finnish official Paula Perälä was fairly relaxed about her status as the only woman on the panel, coming from a delegation where the balance skews the other way. “They are experts in their field,” she said.

Her colleague Outi Honkatukia agreed, noting the subject of the panel was interpreting data rather than representing competing interests. “I struggle to see the gender dimension when we are talking about systematic observations,” she said. “I see the importance of that when you are talking about policy.”

The UNFCCC responded by saying “the secretariat is committed to gender equality. When considering applications to hold side events, we give preference to events that have had gender balanced panels in the past. At past [conferences], when staffing has permitted, we have undertaken surveys of side events. For events that the secretariat organises or is involved in, we make every effort to improve gender balance consistent with our executive secretary’s commitment under the International Gender Champions initiative”.

Susy Wandera of Sustainable Environmental Development Watch (SusWatch), who helped organise a panel on poverty reduction where two of the 11 speakers were women, suggested that it was up to partner organisers to make the decisions “bearing in mind national circumstances and sensitivities” on whether to include female speakers.

“Kenya’s UNFCCC focal point who spoke is male, his boss male, and the cabinet secretary, also male,” said Wandera. “That is not in our control.” She said none of SusWatch’s female representatives were able to travel to Bonn to speak on the panel.

“Parity of gender in the climate arena is still going to be a challenge”, said Wandera.

Despite their relative underrepresentation at UN talks on climate change, women are disproportionately affected by its effect. That was the topic of discussions during a Wednesday afternoon workshop on gender. But here too balance was an issue. But this time it was a noticeable lack of men in attendance, with just eight men in an audience of roughly 100, according to youth activist Alex Lutz.

“Would be great to have more of them joining the conversation,” she tweeted.

Cant help to notice that there are only 8 men out of 100 participants taking parts in the #Gender Workshop at #SBI. Would be great to have more of them joining the conversation #SB48Bonn #WhereAreMen @CliMates_intl pic.twitter.com/FNvEoeA0fM

— Alexandra Lutz (@lexandra_lutz) May 2, 2018

* These figures do not distinguish between people who may not identify as male or female, or either.

The article was amended, the spokesperson for Climate Focus was originally attributed to the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI), another of the co-organisers.

Republish this article

The post ‘Manels’: Male speakers outnumber women two to one at UN climate talks appeared first on Climate Home News.

Gender often remains the untold story behind climate change. After the television snapshots of devastation wrought by climate-induced disasters, our thoughts often remain with the local people forced to deal with the wreckage.

The destructive forces of nature, warped by rising global temperatures, manifest in cyclones, floods and other extreme weather conditions, can act as negative force multipliers in societies already riven by inequality. The onset of droughts, accompanied by heightened food and water insecurity, also have a disproportionate effect on those least able to deal with the resulting increased social strains.

While climate change is a global phenomenon, its impact is not spread across a level playing field. Its effects are felt locally, and poor people suffer the most. Among the world’s 1.3 billion poor people, the majority are women.

Climate Weekly: Sign up for your essential climate news update

During the past few decades, considerable achievements have been made in narrowing the gender gap in many countries. Nevertheless, across the global spectrum, women tend to be marginalized from economic and political power, and have limited access to financial and material resources. This increases their vulnerability to climate change and limits their potential to adapt.

Studies show that after climate disasters, it is generally harder for poor women to recover their economic positions than poor men. Women’s mortality from climate-related disasters is also higher than that of men.

Women are also often less represented in the corridors of power; have fewer legal rights, including access to land; and occupy fewer leadership roles in the workplace. This means while they are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, they also have fewer opportunities to make decisions on how to deal with it. We must change this. Women have the right to – and need to – be at the forefront of efforts to deal with climate change.

Report: The making of Sweden’s climate law – and that (↓) photo

Just signed referral of Swedish #climate law, binding all future governments to net zero emissions by 2045. For a safer and better future. pic.twitter.com/OqOO2y8BU6

— Isabella Lövin (@IsabellaLovin) February 3, 2017

The shift to low-carbon development and climate change adaptation is a major transformative endeavour requiring the participation of all countries, communities and genders. While gender equality is often solely associated with female empowerment, it is also important to note that transformative change requires the participation of all members of society. Women, girls, men and boys all need to be part of the solution.

In a more positive sense, the climate agenda can also help advance gender equality. There are numerous examples where renewable energy investments also contribute to increased employment opportunities for women that foster female entrepreneurship.

An innovative climate action project supported by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in east Africa provides a good example of how women can be at the forefront of moves to leapfrog fossil fuels to use solar energy. The $110 million KawiSafi project has dedicated funds to train women to become solar technicians, while also supporting women-led micro-finance groups to generate demand for solar energy in Rwanda and Kenya. From its inception, gender equity has been central to this project, implemented by US-based Acumen Fund Inc.

Report: ‘Bad-ass business women’ bring solar empowerment to Nepal

The majority of these countries’ populations, 70% in Rwanda and 80% in Kenya, are not connected to main power grids. Subsequently, many use oil or kerosene for domestic power generation. These fossil fuels are often expensive as they are imported, while noxious fumes pose a serious health risk – especially to women and girls, who generally spend more time performing household work. The move to solar can then reduce emissions and domestic budgets, while also improving women’s and girls’ health. This is a clear gender co-benefit of climate action.

In another GCF-funded project in Mongolia, over half of the loans provided in this $60m private sector initiative, implemented by Mongolia’s XacBank, are going to women-led enterprises starting up renewable energy and energy efficiency businesses.

Gender equality is a core principle of all GCF operations, and is mainstreamed in all decision-making and projects supported by the Fund. To aid this process, GCF is releasing a manual, “Mainstreaming Gender in Green Climate Fund Projects”.

Devising ways to consider gender in climate action will not always be easy or obvious. Societies are made up of complex relationships, sometimes based on differing structures of kin, power and financial resources. But continuing efforts to place gender consideration at the center of climate finance are necessary.

Climate change is a challenge that affects us all. So all members of society must rally together to deal with it effectively and inclusively.

Isabella Lövin is Sweden’s deputy prime minister and also its minister for international development cooperation and climate. Howard Bamsey is executive director of the Green Climate Fund. They launched the GCF’s new gender toolkit at the World Water Week in Stockholm on Tuesday.

The post Gender remains one of climate change’s great inequalities appeared first on Climate Home News.

The embankment wall that kept the ocean at bay from their homes and fields in Cox’s Bazaar district in Bangladesh had breached again and seawater was flooding in. Crops could no longer be grown and homes and belongings had all been claimed by the marauding tides, as the sea kept rising due to climate change.

Hafiza’s husband, a manager in a betel leaf farm, was out of a job. After days of struggle when they had to sell most of their cattle to survive, her husband decided to leave for Malaysia for work with 20 other men from nearby villages who were to be smuggled by boat via Myanmar.

Left with three young children, Hafeza worked as a domestic servant in the one of the richer homes in the morning, and as a labourer in a betel leaf farm in the afternoon. While the older boy helped her, the younger two stayed in the house, unable to attend school.

There was never enough food for the four of them. Illness set in, sometimes mild sometimes serious enough to keep Hafiza from work and the daily income they so desperately needed.

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A report released last month warns of the devastating and increasing impact of climate change on migration in South Asia. Climate Change Knows no Borders, prepared by ActionAid, Climate Action Network South Asia and Bread for the World (Brot Fuer Die Welt) calls on national policymakers to especially monitor impacts of climate-induced migration on women and urgently address the policy gap.

“The rights of migrants and their families are being threatened by unsafe migration, which is often driven by desperation and a lack of options caused by climate disasters.

The impacts of migration on women, both those migrating and those left behind, is also not yet adequately understood or addressed by national or international policies,” Harjeet Singh, ActionAid’s Global Lead on Climate Change, told indiaclimatedialogue.net.

“Environmental migration is a gendered process, but discussions within public, policy, and academia regarding environmental migration are often gender-neutral, few studies making the link between migration, environment and gender,” said the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in 2014, flagging the gap when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its Fifth Assessment Report said, “Climate change is projected to increase the displacement of people throughout this century.”

Into the abyss: oil states face turmoil as climate policies bite https://t.co/VSv49rPNbV pic.twitter.com/WQ5wrx0efg

— Climate Home News (@ClimateHome) January 5, 2017

According to IOM, vulnerabilities, experiences, needs and priorities of environmental migrants vary according to women’s and men’s different roles, as do responsibilities, access to information, resources, education, physical security and employment opportunities.

The ActionAid report putting the issue in the current South Asian perspective says, “Young females from neighbouring Nepal and Bangladesh who migrate to India as well as internal migrants from rural areas moving to cities are increasingly vulnerable to abuse and trafficking. As they often use so-called ‘agents’ to help them find work, these can turn out to be traffickers, who once they arrive in the city, force them to work in brothels,” it cautions.

The 2016 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons by UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released in December says women and girls make up 71% of human trafficking victims. Including for the first time a thematic chapter on connections between trafficking, migration and conflict, it underscores that trafficking in persons and migration flows resemble each other, increasing vulnerability of forced migration victims.

After repeated extreme or slow onset weather events have reduced a rural family to extreme poverty, the migration of younger women, usually daughters (even minors) increasingly appear as the best option for the entire family, finds an IOM study.

Pull factor

This is because the demand for labour in highly gendered but low-skilled niche jobs, such as domestic work, child and elderly care, is rising, as more and more educated women in South Asian cities are taking up careers outside home. Bangladeshi migrant women are seen increasingly in such jobs in Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai. Together with garment and entertainment industries in India, this demand is acting as a powerful pull factor.

Even so, available figures show male migration is more common in the region. Millions of women like Hafiza Khatun, left behind at home, are facing an overwhelming burden.

Increasingly, research is documenting that the workload on women left behind is multiplied many- fold because the nature of migrant work being uncertain, remittance from migrant males is often sporadic. Agriculture remains critical for the family remaining at home to survive, finds an International Water Management Institute (IWMI) study.

Not only must the women do household work and child and elderly care, but also generate income usually by taking on their husbands’ role in agriculture. This too without access to capital or credit, while negotiating existing agricultural services dominated by men, where the women have to overcome several cultural barriers.

Women are thus reporting exhaustion, poverty and illness, and fields are being left uncultivated as they struggle to cope alone. In many areas these single women called drought widows or flood widows by their communities, report increased incidences of assault and violence. When disasters happen, such as the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, the lack of men in the village can put communities in further danger, the ActionAid report says.

India needs a plan to cope with climate-linked migration, warns @ActionAidIndia: https://t.co/TvEaTZejTB pic.twitter.com/urDgi84Fq9

— Climate Home News (@ClimateHome) December 22, 2016

The struggles of women environmental migrants have been documented but there is no statistical data to formulate effective policies. The crux of the problem is that while disaster-driven forced migration is likely to increase further, there is no systematic data and statistical record of internal and cross-border migration on which governments can base their policies.

A 2016 IWMI infograph says as many as 3.23 million migrants from Bangladesh are in India. India’s Minister for State for Home informed Parliament in November that 20 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, equivalent to Australia’s population, were in India. This is a volatile political issue; in 2004, Parliament was told the 2001 figure was 12 million.

A recent report from The Economist quotes a former head of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) saying 15 million Bangladeshis are living in India. A 2016 IOM study, titled Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A global review of the emerging evidence base, says 25,000 Bangladeshis are thought to enter India each year.

While there is no available age or sex-disaggregated data of irregular migrants to India from neighbouring countries, particularly Bangladesh and Nepal, estimates can be surmised from a UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 2015 study, which found that irregular migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal into Middle Eastern countries, such as Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Libya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are predominantly women. They work as housemaids.

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UNODC South Asia Office said in 2012 that no systematic data on irregular migration is maintained in India either at the state or national level. But globally, there is better clarity on the gender dimension of migration. UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) in 2015 estimated there were almost 244 million migrants in the world, approximately half of whom were women and girls. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimated in 2013 that out of 150 million international labour migrants 44% were women.

IOM’s 2016 Atlas of Environmental Migration, the latest and most exhaustive study on the subject, claims that in 2015, 19 million people were newly displaced due to climate disasters globally. This figure does not even include displacement from drought and slow onset environmental degradation. Overall, one billion out of the planet’s 7 billion people are presently on the move, either within countries or beyond borders.

The increasing participation of women of various skill levels in regional migration, whether forced or voluntary, driven in large part by socioeconomic factors underpins the greater gender sensitivity and attention that needs to go into laws, policies, programmes and even climate migration studies.

Slow response

Aside from lack of concrete data and figure what is also obstructing South Asian governments from according the urgency that climate migration requires is that economic migration, also known as South-South migration, has been happening since long.

For a poor Bangladeshi who wants to better his income or escape poverty, irregular migration to India costs only USD 40 to USD 60 including the payment for the migrant smuggler, finds the IOM’s Migrant Smuggling Data and Research study.

“Migration has always taken place in South Asia, for long before climate change became an issue. Push factors include conflict, poverty, land access and ethnicity; while there are also many pull factors such as development, livelihoods, seasonal labour, kinship and access to health or services,” ActionAid’s Singh said. “Therefore, South Asian countries are slow to recognise the role of climate change as an additional push factor, and the extent to which it is driving migration. Climate change is thus still largely invisible in the migration discourse in South Asia.”

When forced migration triggered by extreme climate adds to the economic migration, clashes over resources and jobs, political seclusion and xenophobia would not be far off, as is seen in the on-going European crises. “There is need for clear definitions of climate migration and displacement which national governments should use, to gather and analyse data on the role of climate change in migration, and develop appropriate policies accordingly,” Singh said.

In South Asia as also in most countries now, disaster risk reduction and building resilience to climate-induced hazards is a key policy component to reduce distress migration. With high levels of poverty, low development indicators and large-scale dependence on agriculture in South Asia, building resilience within a timeframe will remain a major challenge. A challenge, which Hafiza Khatun will brave for many more years, for the sake of her three children.

As the boat reaches the jetty near Hariakhali village, Hafeza stands jostling with several other hopeful women, scouring the faces of the worn out, weather-beaten men who had been rescued from a Myanmar jail, caught while trying to land on its shores on a fishing boat without legal papers One by one, the men are reunited with wives and joyous children, excited to have their fathers back. After everyone had left, for Hafeza there was just the sound of the waves breaking on the shore.

Manipadma Jena is a journalist based in Bhubaneswar. She is on Twitter as @ManipadmaJena. This article was originally published on TheThirdPole

The post South Asia’s women suffer as climate migration rises appeared first on Climate Home News.

It seems a curious question given most analysis on global warming focuses on renewable energy, finance or infrastructure to protect against rising tides.

But substance abuse and domestic violence are inextricably linked to low levels of resilience to extreme weather among some communities, a study has found.

Compiled by Practical Action, the Overseas Development Institute and Climate Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), it raises questions over how to help people to adapt to climate impacts.

“Alcoholism adds to the workload of men, and can lead to them not being able to feed their family,” said Reetu Sogani, an Indian development specialist and one of the report’s authors.

“Climate change aggravates these impacts, so we cannot really divide alcoholism and climate change… they are all connected.”

Analysis: Is development the best kind of climate adaptation?

Alcoholism is a rising concern in developed and developing countries and a causal factor in over 200 diseases and chronic conditions.

An estimated 3.3 million die in its grip every year, says the World Health Organisation in a 2014 report, with men twice as likely to succumb.

According to the study, cheap alcohol is widely available in the Indian city of Gorakhpur, located in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh near the border with Nepal.

This makes it – like many other areas where addiction rates are high – uniquely vulnerable to extreme events which can rip apart already weak social units.

“In India, men’s income-generating possibilities are affected by weather events, which causes tension and anxiety,” says the study.

“When waterlogged roads prevent men from getting to work, many stay at home, help with rearing animals, go out to search for work or turn to drinking.”

Report: Climate adaptation brings men back to women-only village

In India alcoholics are less likely to have loans approved, meaning they and their families are more likely to suffer from extreme events that mean they cannot work or have damaged homes.

The findings call for a drive to ensure climate policies offer broad support to communities, alcoholics and the large numbers of women who often suffer violence linked to these addictions.

“You can’t look at climate change in a silo – we need to integrate it into social cohesion,” said Sam Bickersteth, head of CDKN.

“Clearly good development is gender sensitized, and climate change [policy] has developed without being gender sensitive, particularly mitigation.”

Blog: Why women are key to tackling climate change

Change brings its own troubles.

Including women in planning is often seen as “slowing and complicating” by some communities, said Virginie Le Masson, a geographer with the ODI.

That means rolling out policies that combat these views and address gender imbalances, allowing women to contribute in public discussions and have access to finance.

And, says the report, it means equality between men and women must be a principal target of new climate projects, however hostile communities may be.

The post Alcoholism, domestic abuse weakens climate resilience appeared first on Climate Home News.

As rainfall patterns become more erratic, many women face longer walks to gather water (Pic: Practical Action/Dfid)

By Ed King

Women are frequently portrayed as being vulnerable to climate impacts.

This much is true, especially so in developing countries where they are responsible for running households, collecting water and feeding their families.

But there’s another critical side too. Women are leading actors in enabling change, in educating communities to become more resilient and influencing regional, national and international leaders.

To mark International Women’s Day 2016 we picked out nine views explaining why women are critical to global efforts to address and prepare for a warming world.

Please add your own comments at the bottom or send @ClimateHome a tweet using the hashtag #IWD2016

Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South African foreign minister

“Being gender smart is not about pushing men away, but as African proverbs – which we have many of – say, one hand does not clap, but two do and make a sound. This about time we acknowledge the contribution of women.”

Christiana Figueres, UN climate chief

“Women are disproportionately affected by climate change, the most vulnerable, and women are the strongest key agent of adaptation. On both sides because of the vulnerable and potential to contribute they are one of the most important elements here.”

Natalie Isaacs, One Million Women

“Women have incredible power to transform society. In Australia women make 85% of the consumer decisions that affect the household’s carbon footprint. We’re 51% of the electorate. Everything we do is about empowering women and girls to take practical action. Once you start taking action and you see a result: you can’t stop.”

Farah Kabir, ActionAid Bangladesh

“If we don’t discuss women’s rights then whenever we are discussing or negotiating on climate change we are leaving out half the population. It impacts men and women differently. If a disaster kills one male, four females will die. We need gender sensitive responses to address climate change.”

Mary Robinson, former Ireland president

“This is fundamental to climate justice. Women are agents for change who will bring about change on the ground. They will be the ones having to adapt to the climate shocks so they need to be empowered, valued and included at the table for decision-making.”

Fatou Ndeye Gaye, former environment minister, Gambia

“When we say sustainable development, we start from the homes and houses. When you wake up it’s women and children who do the chores in Gambia. Many of those chores we share in the house but it’s the responsibility of the women. Women can inform the top.  Women’s issues are family issues.”

Mafalda Duarte, Climate Investment Funds

“Every day all across the world, billions of women – farmers, land-managers, commuters, entrepreneurs, consumers, investors – make decisions that affect the future of our children and our planet. We need women to be empowered to make decisions but in order for that to happen they need to be engaged in decision-making processes and provided with leadership opportunities.”

Justine Greening, UK secretary of state for international development

“Quite simply, no country can develop if it leaves half of its population behind. Girls and women everywhere need control over their lives – the power to make their own choices about their health, their marriage, their family, their education and their careers. That is why we will continue to put improving the lives of girls and women at the heart of everything we do.”

Radha Muthiah, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

“If we can deliver cleaner cookstoves women will gain time because they are not spending so much time collecting firewood, more efficient stoves mean they spend less time cooking and it means there’s cleaner air so they are healthier and their children are healthier.”

The post Why women are key to tackling climate change appeared first on Climate Home News.

Pic: Marko Capek

By Sophie Yeo

After spending a night in the freezing mountains of Tajikistan, a cold shower is not just bracing – it is brutal.

But for many Tajik people, hot water is not an option. In winter, outside of the big cities, many rural households can access electricity for just one to three hours a day.

With temperatures dropping below zero, this can make life unpleasant for those who live and work in mountainous regions.

That is why the UN has stepped in with a new project to enable women to build their own solar hot water systems.

“There is data to show than an average temperature in a class room is 10-11C. It is just normal that you’re freezing in school,” Robert Pasicko, who works on low carbon projects at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Croatia, told RTCC.

“The main idea was to heat the water, which can be used as pre-heated water for cooking, tea, and washing. Warm water is quite a commodity. If you don’t have basic needs your life can get really bad.”

The team in Croatia was invited to work in Tajikistan, following their success at installing solar systems in villages cut off from the electric grid during the Bosnian War of the 1990s.

Leaving for Russia

Tajikistan has its own problems.

The lack of electricity means that people have to rely on firewood for heat, which is driving deforestation in the country. 70% of Tajikistan’s mountain woodlands have disappeared since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of its fuel subsidies.

There is also an absence of men, with around one million of them leaving every year to find work mainly in Russia.

But the country also has over 300 days of sun every year, making it particularly suited to clean, off grid solar energy projects.

And the annual departure of the men means that the women have learnt to become more resilient.

“They call them handy women. They take care of the household, providing energy – it’s their task. You cannot rely on men,” said Pasicko.

Pic: Marko Capek

The Croatian team therefore decided to teach the Tajikistan women to make solar water heaters themselves.

This week, in Jilikul village next to the Afghan border, 15 women took part in a workshop where they were taught to assemble the technology.

Each system is capable of heating 40 litres of water in just a few hours – a dramatic improvement on the previous method of leaving bottles of water to heat in the sun.

Now the plan is to extend and improve the project by setting up informal cooperatives of women, so that they can buy the materials as cheaply as possible and holding more workshops across the border in Kyrgyzstan.

The idea is that the women will then be able to train others who are in a similar predicament themselves.

The UNDP team has even produced a manual to help the idea spread.

And, at the request of the women, plans are now afoot to bring more skills to the region, including how to build clean cook stoves, reducing the problem of indoor air pollution.

“They were smiling all the time and happy they were able to learn something,” said Pasicko. “They said please come back with some new things.”

The post Tajikistan’s women take solar power into their own hands appeared first on Climate Home News.

Women rest after collecting firewood in Central Kalimantan
(Pic: Flickr/CIFOR)

By Megan Darby

When UN-backed forest protection scheme REDD+ came to central Kalimantan in Indonesia, it promised employment to the indigenous community.

Women were excluded from planning meetings, given no say in the running of the project and offered the lowliest jobs, if anything.

At the same time the scheme, intended to help tackle climate change, risked closing off women’s access to the forest that supplied their traditional livelihoods.

This was one of the stories brought by the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development to last week’s UN climate talks in Lima.

Grassroots activists were there to speak up for their rights as part of gender day, the third such annual event at the talks.

The arguments are becoming familiar: women are often at the sharp end of climate change; they are motivated to be part of the solution, if we let them.

“Gender equality is going to be instrumental and defining in meeting the objectives of climate action,” Lakshmi Puri, acting head of UN Women, told RTCC.

Inequality is not confined to distant forests; the negotiating chamber is dominated by suits, although women are increasingly visible.

Last year, 36% of country delegates were female, up from 29% in 2012. Across 12 UN climate committees, the number of women has crept over the one in four mark.

UN climate chief Christiana Figueres at a press conference in Lima
(Pic: Flickr/Ministerio del Ambiente)

Former Ireland president Mary Robinson was this year appointed a UN climate envoy, representing the female of the species alongside climate chief Christiana Figueres.

Women led the delegations from South Africa, Brazil and Australia, among others.

Laurence Tubiana is the top climate envoy for France, which hosts next year’s critical summit, where countries hope to strike a global climate deal.

The test is whether these women at the top – with male allies – can use their influence to make life better for those at the bottom.

BRIEFING: What was agreed in Lima?

The “Lima call for climate action” uses the phrase “gender-sensitive” twice and “gender-responsive” twice.

These are acknowledgements that climate change affects men and women differently, and solutions should take into account women’s needs.

Not too controversial, you might think.

Yet it was reportedly a female negotiator for Saudi Arabia who fought these mentions every step of the way – efforts that earned the country a “fossil of the day” award from the Climate Action Network.

In a concession to countries like Saudi Arabia, which bans women from driving cars, three of the references to gender are juxtaposed with “country-driven”.

This phrase effectively provides a get-out for cultures that have restrictive expectations of women.

Men and Women Taking Action on Gender Equality and Climate Change: How Far Have We Come? from IISD Reporting Services on Vimeo.

The host country, Peru showed more enlightenment with plans to become the 14^th country to integrate gender in its national climate policy.

“We want to include women in high-level decision-making on environmental threats and opportunities, as we know this will increase our odds of success,” said Gabriel Quijandría, head of the Peruvian delegation.

Gambian envoy Pa Ousman Jarju called on men to show support. “It is not just a women’s issue,” he tweeted.

“We have come a long way” from the gender-blind Kyoto Protocol and early days of the UN climate convention, said Puri.

But she would like to see stronger language. The gradations are subtle: “Gender-sensitive” is good, “gender-responsive” better, and “gender equality” best.

The first says women will be considered; the second says decision-makers will respond; the last says women’s contributions will be equally weighed and valued to men’s.

Women from grassroots movements around the world at Lima climate talks
(Pic: Megan Darby)

Back at the grassroot women’s press conference, the inequality was the other way. At a rough count, female journalists outnumbered male 10:1.

It didn’t inspire a huge amount of confidence that men took women’s concerns seriously.

The speakers represented those who are doubly disadvantaged, both by gender and poverty.

They gave voice to parts of the world vulnerable to the ravages of climate change, with economies underfunded to clean up the mess.

In a large part, their positions reflected the broader tension between rich and poor, emitters and adapters, climate makers and climate takers.

“Wealthy countries are negotiating away our futures,” said Dewy Puspa, from Indonesia.

“Instead of recognising their responsibility for the impact on our communities, they are negotiating how many communities will be wiped out, how many cultures will be lost, how many lands will be decimated and how many lives will end.”

Within those communities, women are often at the sharp end. In developing countries, they grow an estimated 60-80% of the food. Increasingly volatile weather threatens their livelihoods. Yet few have any formal rights to the land, depending on male relatives for survival.

As the Kalimantan experience showed, well-meaning initiatives can end up further marginalising women.

INTERVIEW: Slow progress at climate talks “costing lives”

Winnie Byanyima, head of Oxfam, made a succinct case for embedding women’s rights in climate action, in an interview with RTCC.

We should do so, she said, “not only because women are more impacted by adverse weather patterns, by disasters, but also because women provide leadership at the community level.

“Not tapping into that potential is a huge loss for society.”

Figueres herself has told RTCC a climate deal must rebalance the economy in women’s favour.

The UN’s efforts to promote gender balance include training and mentoring for women, to overcome objections that there are not enough qualified women to fill roles.

Equality is also about valuing what women are already doing, argued Agnes Otzelberger, of CARE International.

“We need to stop treating women as a group with special needs. We are half of humanity; we are rightful stakeholders.”

The post From Kalimantan to Lima: Where do women stand in climate? appeared first on Climate Home News.

Women are in a minority at UN climate talks (Pic: UNFCCC)

Women make up half the global population. Yet at the last count, they held less than a quarter of positions on UN climate committees.

Of the 5,090 people from all over the world at the Doha summit in 2012, 29.4% were female. Among lead negotiators, the figure is lower.

With world leaders set to agree a climate deal in Paris next year, time is running out to influence the outcome. It is widely acknowledged women bear the brunt of climate change and have a valuable perspective to bring to the talks. So how do we make sure women’s voices are heard?

Tasneem Essop, lead climate policy advocate at WWF, argues quotas could be part of the solution.

It is generally accepted that for any real transformation to happen in society one needs a critical mass of those needing change to drive this. They must be represented in decision-making structures.

In the context of gender equity and ensuring that women are at the center of decision-making on sustainable development and climate change, a quota system is useful.

Having one woman or a few women in leadership positions will not automatically result in change for all women. There are enough case studies to show this.

Such a quota system has to also reflect the real differences that exist among women, such as class and geography. Women do not and will not experience the impacts of climate change in the same way.

Poor women will bear a different burden and are likely to be more vulnerable than wealthy women for example. Women’s material conditions and socio-economic status will influence their views on how to deal with climate change. There is not necessarily a common perspective among all women about all matters related to climate change.

A quota system for women is therefore not enough. It will only be successful if it also gives women who are poor and working class a strong voice.
Those who are from the global South and are most marginalised must be represented.

To conclude: a quota for women would help create the critical mass required to drive change. It will not in itself result in real and meaningful change for all women if it does not also factor in the existing power relations among women as well.

We’d like to hear what you think. Are quotas part of the answer?

Does the UN need to take affirmative action to boost the number of women involved at the UN talks?

Or are there other steps the process can take to rebalance the negotiations?

You can use the comments form below, or tweet us using the hashtag #climatefrontline

The post Woman drought at UN climate talks: are quotas the answer? appeared first on Climate Home News.

By Ed King

International climate conferences are usually a sea of dark suits – like a mass audition for Men in Black – only there’s not much action.

It’s a situation UN climate chief Christiana Figueres describes in an interview with RTCC, published on Monday: “I don’t think I am the only woman who is very acutely aware, every time I walk into a room, how many men and how many women are sitting round the table.”

But dig a little deeper, and the influence of women in the climate sector is more profound than it looks, evident across most countries and all sectors.

Below are 20 women who are set to play a vital role in shaping the conversation and structure around a proposed emissions reduction treaty.

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Laurence Tubiana
Appointed special representative of the French minister of foreign affairs in May, Tubiana will advise the Paris 2015 climate summit president Laurent Fabius and his negotiating team. An aide to Prime Minister Jospin between 1997-2002, Tubiana was recently Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), where she was an advocate for tougher climate action.

Laurence Tubiana, French Ambassador for climate negotiations (Pic: UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras)

Angela Merkel
The German chancellor is the most powerful woman in Europe and one of the most influential politicians in the world. A former environment minister, she ran the 1995 UN climate summit in Berlin, where the idea of the Kyoto Protocol was born. Last month she reaffirmed Germany’s commitment to a UN deal, and pledged $1 billion to the Green Climate Fund.

Malia and Sasha Obama
They are highly unlikely to feature at the UN talks, but President Obama has frequently cited his daughters as one of the reasons why he wants to address the causes of climate change. “You talk to Malia, you talk to Sasha, you talk to your kids or your grandkids — this is something they get,” he said. “They don’t need a lot of persuading.”

Connie Hedegaard
She leaves her post as EU climate chief later this year, but the fiery Dane has a critical part to play in securing the 2015 treaty she has fought for. In October the EU’s 28 member states meet to agree the bloc’s 2030 climate targets. An ambitious package will place pressure on other leading emitters like the US and China to follow.

Marlene Moses
Nauru’s UN ambassador is the current face of small island states, the conscience of the UN climate process. The 39-strong group represent countries that may soon disappear under the waves. That may be inevitable. Moses is charged with letting the world know it’s also unacceptable.

(Pic: Rachel Kyte/IISD)

Rachel Kyte
The tough-talking West Ham football fan runs the World Bank’s clean energy division and together with president Jim Kim has led its transition away from its roots as a fossil fuel funder. Kyte wrote the investment standards for the Bank’s private arm – these have now been adopted by the UN’s Green Climate Fund – making her one of the architects of the clean revolution.

Izabella Teixeira
Brazil’s uncompromising environment minister treads a delicate line. Climate science studies indicate the country will be hit hard if warming breaches 2C. But as an emerging economy she wants to retain flexibility over its pathways and ownership of the Amazon rainforest. Host of the 2012 Rio+20 summit, she’s also on Ban Ki-moon’s post-2015 high level development panel.

Nawal Al Honsany
Masdar City’s director of sustainability is the face of clean tech in the Middle East. The oil- and gas-rich region has struggled to embrace the UN climate process, fearful of how its economic model could be affected. Masdar and Al Honsay, based in Abu Dhabi, is an attempt to demonstrate the benefits from low carbon growth, through solar power and hi-tech urban centres.

Frances Beinecke
When President Barack Obama announced new carbon standards for power plants in June, corks popped (metaphorically) at the NRDC. The influential green NGO, based in Washington, was instrumental in designing the new legislation with the White House. Tipped by some to join the administration, for now Beinecke still leads the NRDC, where she has been for 30 years.

Lisa Jackson
“Climate change is real and a real problem”. That message carries real weight when it’s from tech giant Apple. Former Environmental Protection Agency chief Jackson is now head of sustainability at the iPhone makers, which has set ambitious climate goals, proving business can lead in this sector. It says 94% of its corporate facilities and 100% of its data centres are now powered by renewables.

Mary Robinson
Passionate and eloquent, Robinson probably rages about global injustice in her sleep. The former Ireland president turned climate justice campaigner was recently appointed Ban Ki-moon’s climate envoy. A barrister and 20 years an Irish senator, Robinson played an important role in the early 1990s laying the foundations for the Northern Ireland peace agreements.

Sheikh Hasina
Low-lying Bangladesh faces increasing climate impacts as sea levels rise, and extreme events become more common. First elected in 2009, Bangladesh’s prime minister ‘gets’ climate change, according to local campaigners. Evidence can be seen in the country’s Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP), and two climate change funds worth half a billion dollars.

Hela Cheikhrouhou
The little known Tunisian is now one of the most important green finance officials in the world, in her position as Green Climate Fund executive director. Formerly at Citibank, the World Bank and the African Development Bank, Cheikhrouhou is tasked with raising $15bn by the end of 2014 so the GCF – an essential part of plans for a 2015 UN climate deal – can invest in developing countries.

Claudia Salerno
Known for dramatic interventions at UN climate negotiations, Venezuela’s chief negotiator Salerno plays a central role in the Like Minded Group of Developing Countries (LMGDC), which includes Saudi Arabia, Iran and Ecuador. The small but influential body will need to be brought on board for the 2015 agreement to achieve full consensus. That will need careful and quiet diplomacy.

Pilita Clark
The FT’s environment correspondent performs a vital role in communicating what is being discussed at UN talks to the global business community. Widely respected among her peers, Clark’s coverage is known for its clarity, impartiality and apparent eagerness to avoid acronyms – not a trait always associated with reporters following the UN process.

Monica Araya
The Costa Rica climate campaigner and former climate negotiator ran for vice president in recent elections on a green ticket. She failed in that attempt, and now runs Nivela, an environmental thinktank focused on Latin America. Araya caused chaos in 2013 when she was removed from Costa Rica’s UN team for complaining about the country’s oil investments with China.

Tasneem Essop
Former South African provincial minister, now a central player in WWF’s efforts to secure a global climate deal. A strong advocate for an agreement that involves poverty alleviation and climate justice, Essop is part of an influential global team including Sam Smith in Norway, and Leo Hickman in the UK.

Ban Ki-Moon and Thorning-Schmidt visited Greenland to witness first-hand the impacts of climate change there (Pic: UN Photos)

Helle Thorning–Schmidt
In March Denmark’s prime minister accompanied UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the Arctic to explore the effects warming temperatures are having on the region. The country has consistently pushed for tougher EU climate laws – and recently passed its own legislation binding it to reducing its emissions 40% by 2020.

Lavanja Rajamani
A professor at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, insiders say Rajamani is “a quiet mover but influential”, advising UN officials and at times the EU and India. At a time when information over what levels of emission cuts developed and developing countries make take is limited, she is likely to play an important bridging role.

Bernarditas Muller
This complex and experienced Philippines negotiator helped draft the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, but has a mixed relationship with UN talks, finding herself kicked off the national delegation in 2009. Closely linked with the China-funded South Centre, Muller recently cropped up at the Green Climate Fund talks in Bali, with some board members accusing her of obstructing the negotiations. One to watch.

The post Women to watch ahead of the UN’s 2015 climate summit appeared first on Climate Home News.

A woman farmer harvests rice by hand in Timor Leste (Pic: UN Photos/Martine Perret)

By Aira Kalela

Integrating a gender approach in the new climate agreement will be vital to provide the legal base for promoting gender responsive climate action both at international and national level.

That will be necessary for the improvement of effectiveness of climate policies and its implementation, as both women and men can make considerable contributions to adaptation and mitigation and because climate change impacts women and men differently.

Climate change would actually increase the inequalities if no counter measures will be taken.

In developing countries women are in majority in the agriculture labor force, to name one example. They produce up to 70% of the staple food.

Estimates from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) suggest that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20–30%.

Adaptation to climate change will require strengthening of enabling conditions and practical efforts in agriculture, coastal areas and water management. In most developing countries, women and girls are the primary providers of water for domestic consumption.

Agriculture can, together with sustainable forest management, also provide a considerable mitigation tool, which is readily available with relatively modest investments compared with the energy or transport sector.

In many developed countries household energy consumption is some 30%.

Women manage most of this energy consumption, as well as water consumption and waste management. Women also do 80% of the daily purchasing for households in the OECD countries.

In many developed countries and fast developing economies, women are also in majority in the workforce in many service sectors such as schools, day care centres, elderly homes, hospitals and shops and could take the lead for consuming less energy and material.

These few examples indicate why it will be vital to increase the participation and leadership of women in both adaptation and mitigation and provide equal access to the means of implementation in the new agreement.

Christiana Figueres: Climate deal must bring gender equality

The negotiations within the UN’s climate body the UNFCCC have this year been carried out in a slow but positive atmosphere.

Proposals on integrating gender equality have been made in the latest meetings by important regional groups and some countries.

Some of the proposals emphasise gender equality as guiding principle and cross cutting issue. That kind of provision would cover all activities of the new agreement. Some proposals have been addressing adaptation and means of implementation.

The parties and groups of parties making these proposals include the Africa Group, Least Developed Countries, Environment Integrity group and Latin American and Caribbean group as well as Iceland, Mexico and Norway.

The co-chairs of the negotiations have included gender approach as guiding principle and also in capacity building   in their informal paper on elements of the draft treaty, which will be considered in the coming meeting.

The introduction of gender equality as a principle in the new agreement is of the utmost importance, as explained here and also because the convention itself does not include gender provision, unlike the other major Rio conventions on biodiversity and desertification.

However, parties need to consider not just whether, but how, to best ensure gender equality in the new agreement. The traps of victimising women, reinforcing gender stereotypes and categorizing women with minority groups need to be avoided.

Legal framework

Along with the negotiating process concrete decisions have been made during the last five years on the activities within the UNFCCC.

Already almost all relevant programmes supporting parties’ climate work and the establishing decisions on the new bodies like Green Climate Fund, Technology Mechanism and Adaptation Commute consider gender in their approach.

In accordance of a major gender decision in 2012, gender is now a permanent item on the agenda of the main UN climate conferences.

Interested parties are working on a framework decision for Lima to give further guidance and support for concrete action to promote gender equality and active participation of women.

Aira Kalela is senior advisor on sustainable development, climate change and gender equality for the Global Gender and Climate Alliance. Previously she was special representative on climate and gender in Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

The post Why effective climate policy needs women – and vice versa appeared first on Climate Home News.

Christiana Figueres is the UN’s lead climate negotiator (Source: Flickr/UNFCCC)

By Megan Darby

“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.” – Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Nobody could accuse Christiana Figueres of being hard-hearted. Her passion for tackling climate change has many times spilled over into tears.

Yet as UN climate chief, she must be hard-headed. Her reputation hinges on striking a deal between nearly 200 parties with vastly divergent interests and priorities.

And as a woman, she tells RTCC of her determination to put gender equality at the heart of efforts to tackle climate change.

The core task of UN climate talks is to agree a plan to cut the greenhouse gas emissions heating up the planet. The deadline is December 2015, when negotiators meet in Paris.

These cuts must be deep to limit global temperature rises to 2C, the politically agreed “safe” threshold.

That will involve a huge shift away from polluting sources of energy to cleaner alternatives, reshaping the economy.

It is a wrench for some countries that have grown wealthy on the back of dirty fuel. And it is a challenge to those poorer nations tempted to follow the high-carbon path to prosperity.

At stake is nothing less than the economic trajectories of every country in the world, making it perhaps the most fraught political process in history. Every word of every document is subject to minute scrutiny.

Figueres took up the challenge in 2010, after talks in Copenhagen ended in failure. At a time when many people were questioning the value of the whole process, she had a lot to prove.

With so many conflicting positions, reaching agreement is always a challenge. The Durban talks in 2011 came close to collapse before a last-minute deal was struck.

If Paris is to be a success, Figueres must praise the ambitious, spur on the stragglers and keep minds focused on the goal.

In heading for that goal, there needs to be a move away from the “explicit male focus” of policy, she says.

“It is critical that that new economy not only re-establish the relationship between man and nature, which has been thoroughly not respected, but it also re-establishes the balance that is needed between the genders.”

Women make up half the population but are under-represented in the world’s major political and economic institutions; the UN is no different.

All eight secretaries general of the UN since its inception have been male.

At the last count, on the high-level committees delivering climate action fewer than one in four seats were held by women.

Just 29% of the 5,090 delegates at the Doha conference in 2012 were female. That figure includes junior officials; among lead negotiators the proportion is lower.

“I don’t think I am the only woman who is very acutely aware, every time I walk into a room, how many men and how many women are sitting round the table,” says Figueres.

“More often than not, we are in a minority. Quite often, I am the only woman in the room. That is not right.”

Parties to the talks adopted a goal of gender balance in 2012 and the UN monitors the data.

Within Figueres’ department, there is a “preference” to appoint a woman in cases where there are two equally qualified candidates.

“I would not call it affirmative action,” she says.

“I am Miss Impatient,” Figueres says. “I honestly don’t know of any institution that has already been able to effectively meet the challenge.

“No, we are not making enough progress, but does that mean we give up? We just work harder.”

She believes that women can bring a different quality to the talks that helps with reaching agreement.

“What I think is not exclusive to women but perhaps more common among women is our sense of inclusiveness, our sense of awareness of all the different points of view that must be expressed. I often find myself aware, not just of what has been contributed but what has not been said.”

Her desire to include all voices has not always been successful, as when NGOs walked out of 2013’s Warsaw summit in protest at the slow progress – not helped by a hefty coal lobby presence in a parallel conference.

Asked about her role models, Figueres quickly changes the subject. “I was blessed with both male and female role models and I think that is probably a very healthy balance. More important is: what would I like to see with respect to the next generation?”

It does not take a great leap of imagination to deduce who some of those role models might be, however.

The Costa Rican is member of a powerful political dynasty.

Her father, José Figueres Ferrer, served three terms as Costa Rica’s president. Her mother, Karen Olsen Beck, did stints as Costa Rican ambassador to Israel and on the legislative assembly.

Her older brother José Maria followed in his father’s footsteps to become Costa Rican president from 1994 to 1998. Her half-sister Muni is Costa Rica’s serving ambassador to the US.

Whatever advantage she may have gained from being born into such a heavy-hitting family, Figueres is keen to pass it on to others.

“Despite the fact I have a job that keeps me a little bit busy,” she says, with understatement, “I do take time to mentor young women, in particular, who are coming up…

“It is very important that my generation be the last generation that has this imbalance.”

Figueres often cites the next generation in general and her two grown-up daughters in particular as her inspiration for taking on her mammoth diplomatic task.

Taking two weeks leave to enjoy time with at least one daughter. Happy mother! You will not hear much from me over next 14 days.

— Christiana Figueres (@CFigueres) July 27, 2014

On several occasions, she has shed tears at the enormity of the problem.

She cried in 2010 as she told youth campaigners how they inspired her. She wept in 2011 as she addressed faith groups in Durban. And she was visibly emotional in 2013 as she reflected on “unfair and immoral the impact of climate change on future generations at Chatham House in London.

It is rare to see a male leader display such vulnerability in public, although not unheard of – Figueres’ predecessor Yvo de Boer broke down after an exhausting round of talks in Bali proved fruitless.

A woman choking up risks being labelled weak or manipulative, as Hillary Clinton has found on a couple of occasions.

One climate sceptic blogger snidely remarked Figueres “should consider a career in the movies” for her tearful speech.

To the less cynical observer, Figueres shows an empathy for the victims of global warming that is all too easily lost among the wonkish jargon and abstract concepts of climate talks.

She has argued that as women bear the brunt of climate change, particularly in the developing world, they are uniquely placed to do something about it.

Her UN body highlights climate-friendly initiatives in which women take the lead.

These include training women in Ghana to make and sell bikes made from bamboo, a sustainable material; planting trees and building energy efficient brick stoves in Guatemala; and Australia’s 1 Million Women campaign to cut energy consumption.

While you can’t fault the intentions behind these projects, their impact pales into insignificance besides the investments made by fossil fuel companies, financial institutions and governments.

With a few honorable exceptions – German chancellor Angela Merkel, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and Christine Lagarde of the IMF spring to mind  – the leaders of these economic powers are male.

As one Grist blogger puts it: “Figueres focuses on minor personal changes, conveniently setting aside the fact that the people with the power to make major environmental decisions are overwhelmingly male.”

Given the small scale of these efforts, how can they make a difference? Figueres says: “We have initiatives in women for results that are both small and large scale.

“The ones that are at small scale, we are very fond of because we see the possibility for nurturing them into larger scale. What we are very intent on is how we can support these initiatives to grow in scale – both in recognition and impact.”

For example Bernice Dapaah, founder of the bamboo bikes business, was named a 2014 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

And Figueres says the bikes have been so in demand Dapaah is hiring more women.

Meanwhile, more than 100,000 women have already signed up to the Australian campaign, making it the country’s largest women’s organisation.

Every little helps. But the true test of Figueres’ leadership comes next year, in Paris, when the world must agree an effective climate treaty.

Many rounds have talks have broken down, to the frustration and disappointment of delegates.

Will Paris, too, end in tears? With Figueres at the helm, there is a fair chance of waterworks. But there is every hope for tears of joy at a job well done.

The post Christiana Figueres: Climate deal must bring gender equality appeared first on Climate Home News.

UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and South Africa’s Minister of International Relations Mashabane open COP18 (Pic: UNFCCC)

By Kelly Rigg

It was an inspired idea – bring together 100 of today’s boldest women leaders in sustainability, and see if they can produce an accelerated, gender-aware climate action agenda which can be implemented everywhere, from households and communities to boardrooms and negotiation halls.

One of its organizers, Osprey Orielle Lake first approached me about the idea at the Durban climate conference in December 2011. And now it’s happening – the International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit kicks off on Friday in New York.

The nature of the gathering might leave some asking: are women uniquely positioned to tackle climate change?

Data and knowledge of climate impacts that are gender blind — that lump men and women together — make invisible the disproportionate toll that climate change takes on women. It also hides the important knowledge that women have of climate change, its causes and its solutions.

Women are more vulnerable to climate impacts due to their unequal position in society.

Women are disproportionately affected by natural disasters: after the 2004 Asia tsunami men outlived women 3:1, and women who survived Hurricane Katrina faced additional personal danger (rape, for example) and discrimination in comparison to male survivors.

In the developing world, women stand at the nexus of food, water, and energy. It is women who are responsible for food production and the collection of water and fuel wood, which makes them keenly aware of changing weather patterns that alter growing seasons, decrease crop yields and lower water levels.

Adaptation pioneers

With their unique knowledge and perspectives, women hold the keys to adaptation strategies and are critical to implementing mitigation plans at the grassroots level.

The Barefoot College in India trains women to be solar engineers, simultaneously bringing electricity to communities, avoiding additional carbon emissions and empowering women with valuable skills.

Energia International, led largely by women, uses knowledge of gender norms in the areas where they work in order to better implement clean energy solutions varying from solar grid installation to clean cook stove projects.

But it’s not just women in the developing world who play a central role in the fight against climate change.  Polling in the developed world (in Germany, Australia, and the US) indicates that women see climate change as real and dangerous in higher numbers than men, and they’re more likely to take action against it.

In Germany, the polling also revealed that women are more likely to believe in the power of the individual to protect the climate. That kind of empowered thinking drives NGOs like One Million Women, which works to inspire one million women to cut one ton of carbon dioxide from their daily lives.

Women in high powered leadership positions also bring something unique to the table. For example, though women are only a small proportion of corporate boards, their presence is critical for bringing fresh vision to company governance.

New thinking

A study on gender inclusion on boards found that having at least three women – a number that exceeds simple ‘tokenism’ – caused a fundamental change and improvement in a board’s decision-making: the perspectives of more stakeholders were addressed; controversial issues were tackled instead of ignored; and the dynamic of the group was more open and collaborative.

Imagine if this experience were applied to the UNFCCC negotiations, where women are outnumbered by their male counterparts on the order of three to one, and where only 15% of country delegations are led by women.

At last year’s conference in Doha a landmark agreement to promote gender balance in the negotiations was adopted, an important step in the right direction. And let’s remember, this isn’t just about fairness, but about improving the quality of decision-making, as women bring important – and different – perspectives and critical knowledge to climate talks.

So to answer my own question, are women uniquely positioned to tackle climate change? I say yes, for the reasons explained above. But being uniquely positioned is not the same thing as being solely positioned. When it comes to climate change, everyone has an important part to play.

With that in mind, I’m excited to attend the summit, to collaborate with a group of incredibly passionate women from around the world, and to see what emerges from these discussions. And those who are not in New York are encouraged to join the Summit through interactive live-streaming during the plenary sessions each day.

It will be a powerful opportunity to elevate the voices of those still underrepresented in discussions about climate action, and to promote stronger solutions as a result.

Kelly Rigg is the Executive Director of the Global Campaign for Climate Action, a global alliance of 350 organizations cooperating under the banner of the tcktcktck campaign. She has been leading international campaigns for 30 years on climate, energy, oceans, Antarctica and other issues. Follow her on Twitter @kellyrigg 

The post Kelly Rigg: Women’s leadership will strengthen climate action appeared first on Climate Home News.

Quotas and targeted funding could be used to boost the participation of women at the UN climate talks, a new report by UN Women and the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice (MRFCJ) has recommended.

With only a third of delegates at the talks women and only one in five delegations headed by women, the MRFCJ calls for a series of actions to improve the situation.

At the UN talks in Doha last year, all governments agreed to start work on tackling the problem by: “Promoting gender balance and improving the participation of women in UNFCCC negotiations and in the representation of Parties in bodies established pursuant to Convention or the Kyoto Protocol.”

There has been little evidence of that sentiment in recent years with no significant increase in the percentage of women in delegations which has remained between 30 and 33% in the last five years.

The 2012 Doha climate summit witnessed the launch of the Momentum for Change: Women for results initiative (Pic: UNFCCC)

Speaking at the launch in Bonn on Friday, UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said the issue should not only permeate the procedures at the talks, but also their output.

“We need to go beyond literature and really act on gender issues by implementing gender sensitive climate policies,” she said.

Mary Robinson, president of the MRFCJ said the agreement in Doha was only the first step.

“At Doha last year the commitment was made. Now the opportunity must be seized,” she said.

“In presenting this research, it is hoped Parties and observers are inspired by some of these recommendations, and consider them in preparing their submissions to the UNFCCC secretariat in the coming months on options and ways to advance the goal of gender balance,” added Robinson.

The report makes five key recommendations including setting targets on gender balance for key bodies within the UN climate change process, sanctions on nations that fail to promote gender balance, a public database detailing covering gender balance, a fund to encourage women’s participation and helping new bodies to address the issue during their formation.

The post Affirmative action can restore gender balance at UN climate talks – report appeared first on Climate Home News.

The post Why it’s time to ramp up gender focus at UN climate talks appeared first on Climate Home News.

A giant spider at the last round of UN climate talks in Doha reminded me of who’s too often missing from the climate conversations we sorely need.

It straddled the main concourse of the Qatar National Convention Centre — the venue for the 2012 round of UN negotiations aimed at tackling climate change.

It was a massive irony. While the spider — called ‘Maman’ — is a monument to motherhood, the negotiators who passed beneath her during the two-week conference were largely men.

In fact, there has never been a conference of parties (COP) to the UN climate change convention at which even one-third of the negotiators were women. In recent years women were the heads of fewer than 15% of the national delegations.

This chart from GenderCC shows the disparity.

This shameful pattern is set to change. One of the few rays of light to shine out of the Doha conference was a decision [PDF] by the nearly 200 governments present to promote gender equality in the negotiations.

What’s shocking is that it has taken 18 years for governments to get to this point. What’s saddening is that the language of the binding decision remains weak.

It only “invites” countries to strive for gender balance in their delegations. What’s a source of hope is that gender and climate change will now be on the agenda of all future negotiations.

Until more women participate in the UN climate change conferences, we can expect a male-skewed view of the problem and ways to solve it.

We can expect outcomes that fail to reflect fully the needs, wisdom and vision of half of the world’s population. And we can expect more of the bullying and indifference to suffering that have tainted the talks over the years.

The failure of the talks so far — the slow progress, the weak agreements, the lack of leadership — has been the failure of men.

I’ve attended the negotiations for each of the past six years and each time I’ve come away less sure that the big men of the world who claim to be leaders have any real desire to lead.

Momentum for change

This time it’s personal. This time I am a father-to-be with a child in my mind.

So when I arrived at the Doha conference and saw the giant spider, it mesmerised me.

I knew that Louise Bourgeois had made the sculpture as a tribute to her mother, who had died when Bourgeois was 21.

I spent 30 minutes there deep in thought about my wonderful pregnant partner, thousands of miles away, about the family we will form together and the climatic changes our child will experience.

For the next five days, I took a photo of the spider every time I passed it and counted the number of men and women who stood beneath the sculpture.

It’s not scientific, I know, but for every woman, there were 2.6 men. I wonder how many of them saw the plaque on the wall that named and explained the sculpture with a quotation from the artist:

“The spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend… Like spiders, my mother was very clever… spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother.”

Clever. Helpful. Protective.

That’s just what the UN climate change negotiations need to be but what, mostly in the hands of men, they are not.

Perhaps they will be when more women –  more mothers — take part.

Mike Shanahan is a press officer at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). The article first appeared on his underthebanyan blog. Follow Mike on Twitter @shanahanmike

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The world must transition to a low-carbon growth model to meet the climate challenge.

This paradigm shift can only take place if women, half of the world’s population, are fully empowered to contribute to the solution.

The issue of gender in climate change may sound general, but it represents repeated, heartbreaking experiences and observations— from development to disaster management around the globe.

Climate change vulnerability has a woman’s face.

Particularly in developing countries, women are disproportionately impacted by climate change, as they stand at the core of the water, food and energy nexus.

In addition, due to continuing gender imbalances, women are likely to be worse affected by natural disasters. For instance, a recent report found that women accounted for 80% of fatalities from the Asian tsunami in 2004.

The UNFCCC’s Momentum for Change: Women for Results project is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation (Pic: UNFCCC)

On the other side of the ledger, I believe that the international development community has already started to come together in recognizing women not just as victims, but as vital actors in tackling the climate challenge.

For example, at the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in Doha, governments adopted a decision on promoting gender balance and improving the participation of women in the climate negotiations and in the representation of governments in the bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change  and the Kyoto Protocol.

This decision is expected to advance gender balance in the negotiations in several ways:

– It sets a goal of gender balance in the UNFCCC bodies, invites governments to strive for gender balance in their delegations and requests the United Nations Climate Change secretariat to maintain information on the gender composition and report this information on an annual basis.

– It adds the issue of gender and climate change as a standing item on the agenda at future United Nations Climate Change Conferences, including an in-session workshop at the next conference in Warsaw, Poland in November 2013.

– It calls for gender responsive policies at both the international and national levels.

I am convinced about the need to shine a light on gender-responsive solutions to climate change taking place on the ground and demonstrating significant results.

With this in mind, the United Nations Climate Change secretariat launched Momentum for Change: Women for Results.

This initiative recognizes the critical leadership and participation of women in addressing climate change.

It is seeking inspiring examples of activities from around the world that demonstrate measurable impact on the ground and potential for scalability and transformational change.

VIDEO: Launch of Women For Results initiative

For example, Solar Sister a project in Africa that is part of the clean energy revolution and empowers women entrepreneurs in a direct sales network is a concrete example of the type of activity that we want to showcase with Momentum for Change.

Solar Sister uses a micro-consignment model, which allows women to sell solar lighting and phone charging equipment to others in their community.

The results of this activity positively impact the private sector by giving women more buying power, allowing the community to save money on kerosene fuel typically used to light homes, and providing a health benefit of cleaner indoor air, and reducing the burning of fossil fuels for much needed household energy.

Solar Sister is just one example of women helping to bridge the gap between need and response and establishing a low-carbon growth model as the new normal.

The Momentum for Change: Women for Results initiative will begin taking applications on March 8, International Women’s Day.

I hope that by showcasing these projects on the international stage, we can inspire action across the globe, increase equality and encourage women to speak up.

Christiana Figueres is the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

This article first appeared on the Rockefeller Foundation website.

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By Isobel Braithwaite

Population and family are complex topics but must be addressed, argues Isobel Braithwaite (Source: IRRI images/flickr)

There are far too many stories of forced abortions and sterilisations from the last hundred years, and unfortunately they aren’t confined to the past.

Horrific things go on to this day, with Uzbekistan’s recent violations of women’s reproductive and human rights forming just one of the more recent tales in a long and murky history.

We know about the various negative consequences of China’s one-child policy: the gender imbalance that it led to, and the isolation and overwhelming pressure felt by many of the only children born.

There are a string of other reasons too why almost everyone in the environmental movement steers away from talking about population. It’s too controversial, too complicated, or not important.

The economist Malthus was wrong: the problem is our over-consumption or the big bad corporate – population growth will slow of its own accord with development and we can’t alter the trajectory.

Last year, I heard the British naturalist David Attenborough give a speech, and one of the things he talked about was the urgent need to slow population growth.

The audience didn’t react too well – until he explained that what he meant by that was to make sure all girls had the chance to be educated, women an equal chance to be employed and that everyone who wanted family planning had access to it.

So does thinking about population really matter, or is it just a side issue without a significant bearing on our current environmental challenges?

To help answer this question, I went to see Simon Ross, chief executive of UK-based think-tank and campaign group, ‘Population Matters’.

Simon’s argument is that, ‘human impact is driven partly by human numbers’. Which makes sense: our numbers have gone from one to seven billion in a couple of centuries – as Mark Lynas noted in 2004, ‘the biomass of humans is now greater than that of any other animal species that has ever existed on land’.

Along with greatly increased average consumption of natural resources per capita, humans’ environmental footprint has sky-rocketed in the same time.

Simon argues that ‘using rights-based family planning to slow population growth is a reliable and cost-effective way of addressing climate change, and should be a central part of our climate change strategy.’

As a recent UNFPA report with the subtitle ‘By Choice, Not By Chance: Family Planning, Human Rights and Development’ makes clear, family planning is a human right – and what he wasn’t saying is that we should just tackle either population or consumption. It’s about both.

But we’re clearly not going to implement drastic measures, like a global one or two-child policy, so it could be argued that more minor efforts made would have only a marginal impact on the rate of population growth.

So is it even a relevant question to be asking? I think the answer is yes – but the reason has little to do with reducing climate change.

Attenborough argues, we should be actively promoting all of the things that generally bring down fertility rates; educating girls, ensuring gender equality, providing access to (and education about) family planning methods.

Not primarily for environmental reasons, but because they’re good things in themselves. If environmental concerns provide a driver to improve women’s lives and ensure that their rights are upheld, where’s the dilemma?

It’s hard to believe that there are still over 220 million women who want family planning but don’t have access to it in 2012; and it’s something we need to talk about more.

This July’s Family Planning Summit in London was a big step towards the goal of making family planning available to all women, with groups including governments and the Gates Foundation coming together to provide $2.6 billion per year.

That will meet the need of over half of those currently without access, but the UNFPA estimates in its recent report that another $4.1bn will be needed to ensure coverage for the remainder, but also emphasises the importance of non-financial factors such as promoting gender equality, reinforcing a rights based approach and inc.

If, as an international community, we work to provide comprehensive access to family planning and to ensure girls have equal chances and rights more generally, the benefits in terms of development and reduced resource depletion are likely to cover that investment many times over in the decades to come. If we do, it will be better for children, for parents and for society.

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2.4 billion women still use traditional biomass fuels or cook over health-threatening open fires (Source: CDM Photo Contests/Flickr)

The Rockefeller Foundation will fund a new UN programme highlighting the role women have in addressing climate change.

The charity has awarded the UN climate convention (UNFCCC) a grant for their Momentum for Change: Women for Results project, supporting activities to inform governments, media and the public about the role of women in solving climate change.

Women often run households in the developing world, and as a result are hardest hit by climate change. This can force them to travel vast distances for water, food and fuel – and leave them at the front line when drought or famine strike.

“Women are often the most likely to suffer as a result of climate change,” said Dr Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation.

“As we see our changing climate increasingly impacting livelihoods, from food security to health, from poverty to education, it is critical that we work together to build the resilience of the poorest and most vulnerable populations, especially women and girls.”

The Rockefeller Foundation is one of the USA’s oldest charities. Its stated aim is to address threats facing the world’s poorest nations.

UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, who is a strong advocate of women’s involvement in climate action and dedicated a day to the issue at the Rio+20 earth summit in June, said this was just the start of what she hopes will be a longer partnership.

“I am convinced that highlighting activities which are led by women will help governments, international development agencies, civil society and the public at large to understand that action on the ground is already happening, and will act as a catalyst to encourage others to take action to address climate change.”

Momentum for Change: Women for Results will be formally launched on 5 December during the next UN climate conference in Doha, Qatar.

Related Articles:

PODCAST: Are women the key to moving climate change debate forward?

EU Summit: Empowering women a “triple win” for sustainable development

Gender Day: women “are more than 50% of the solution”

RTCC Video: UNFCCC chief Figueres explains why women need a voice at climate negotiations

The post Rockefeller and UN join forces to highlight women’s climate role appeared first on Climate Home News.

An increased role for women in climate and sustainable development talks is vital to ensure we do not have a repeat of the stalled Rio+20 negotiations according to a panel of world leaders.

Women make up 50% of the world population, account for 80% of household consumption decisions – but all too often lack access to transport, energy and control over their financial affairs.

Currently 20 women hold Presidential or Prime Ministerial offices around the world, but there are still deep concerns that major texts focusing on climate change and sustainable development do not take into account the role, needs and importance of women.

One recent example is the Rio+20 final document. Former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland said the text was a “step backwards from previous agreements” because it did not mention women’s reproductive rights.

Speaking during a podcast for RTCC and the Rio Conventions, the former Presidents of Finland and Ireland, UNFCCC chief Christiana Figueres, WWF President Yolanda Kabadse and Liberian Minister Julia Duncan-Cassell outlined their vision of the role of women in future talks.

PODCAST: Listen or download the full discussion via RTCC Soundcloud

Mary Robinson, Ireland President 1990-1997

“We have to create during COP18 more opportunities for women who know about the issues and give them access to those who are at the table – because they will raise those issues of gender and women’s empowerment and bring out the differential impacts and reasons why it is often much tougher on women for reasons that we all understand”

WWF President Yolanda Kakabadse

“To change we need more men in this room. In many of our societies and cultures men have taken over deciding our legal frameworks and institutional frameworks and unless we change their minds we will have a much tougher battle before us. I do conflict management – and always when you are dealing with a conflict you see that women have a different vision of where and why they want to go to a solution….women are much more creative when they are on the edge of the precipice … they can’t give up … they would never take the next step forward, they would always fight for change and improvement”

Julia Duncan-Cassell, Liberian Minister for gender and development

“The most affected by climate change in Liberia are women and children. They have to fetch wood and water. Yes gender is male and female – but our focus mostly on the women because they are the most vulnerable. We need strong women like the ones we have on this panel.”

Tarja Halonen, Finland President 2000-2012 Co-Chair of the UN High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability

“I’m happy that for the first time gender has good visibility (in Rio). Women know how difficult it is to make food when you do not have enough, or use water when you have run out. But I think there are more and more women in science, politics and economics…there is an under-representation – but what we need to do is show people around the world that women do it well. And that will encourage both men and women to ‘take a risk’ and choose a women. I often say that ‘the situation is so bad…why not try a women’”

UNFCCC chief Christiana Figueres

“An important part of leadership is to inspire people to go beyond where they think they can – and motivate them to think outside the box. A critical nexus is energy, water and food…and when you look in the middle of the triangle – what’s there? Women! My vision is that we should have 50-50 participation in all decision making, 50% women and 50% men.”

RTCC VIDEO: Gambia’s Minister for Foresty and Environment Fatou Ndeye Gaye on why the empowerment of women in her country is so important.

The post PODCAST: Are women the key to moving climate change debate forward? appeared first on Climate Home News.

– Day 8 coverage from the Rio Conventions Pavilion at RioCentro
– High-level segment begins
– Gender issues the focus in Rio Pavilion
– Tweet @RTCCnewswire
– Send your thoughts to jp@rtcc.org
– Latest news at top of page
– All times Brazil local (GMT -3)

1834 Well, the world leaders have arrived in Rio. They’ve brought helicopter traffic, an awful lot of security but little in the way of hope that the dismal draft text will change drastically in the remaining two days.

1818 Christiana Figueres dropped by earlier:

Christiana Figueres: I am suffering from ADD – Action Deficit Desperation at Climate Change TV @CFigueres @RTCCnewswire

— Mary Robinson @MRFCJ (@MRFCJ) June 20, 2012

1801 Iranian President Ahmadinejad did address the Rio+20 Summit today after all (see 0931): “The collapse of the current atheistic order is reaching its time,” he said predicting that resource pressures would topple capitalism.

1744 Dropped in to the World Green Summit just now. Richard Branson had an interesting suggestion for cutting shipping emissions. He proposed that cargo ships had energy efficiency ratings from A to F, like fridges. Retailers would then feel under pressure to use the cleaner fleets.

Richard Branson in conversation with Ted Turner, who has donated $1.6bn to charity including a large portion to environmental causes.

1726 Sergio Zalaya, the policy and advocacy coordinator with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification explains why he hopes to see land degradation at the heart of the Rio+20 outcome with its own Sustainable Development Goal.

1700 That’s the end of the panel, it finished with Caroline Spelman warning that sometimes politicians pass laws as a way to avoiding having to do anything about a problem.

1640 “If you think the US is blocking action now, just wait and see what happens if Obama loses the next election,” says Bob Watson.

1629 A European Commission negotiator has just described the last three days as “hell” and says she is not in any way proud of the Rio+20 document.

1626 A Girl Guide asks the panel about the role of education in prompting behavioral change. Spelman points out that the Guides now offer a badge for Biodiversity. Good to hear.

1622 Jeffrey Sachs says tradeable carbon permits are “exactly not the solution” for a price on carbon. He says a “spot price” is too short term and a longer term fixed carbon price in the form of rising a tax rising over time. He says if this lasted 20 years then it would effect decisions on big projects like power stations. “Funding through carbon taxes is easy but the US doesn’t want to do it.”

1619 Bob Watson calls fossil fuel subsidies “perverse” and says voluntary solutions won’t work. Agreements must be legally binding he says.

1617 “There’s an understanding gap on financing these problems. A bank manager given the choice of issuing a personal loan for a solar micro generation system or a motorcycle, would probably go for the motorcycle. It’s familiar, they understand it. We need to close that gap in understanding.” Sukhdev.

1612 “A mass movement can show the private sector that we need to change. It triggered change on the Ozone, smoking, seatbelts…but the solutions came from a combination of the right mix of legislation, technology and financing,” says Defra’s Bob Watson.

1603 “Paying farmers for protecting ecosystem services is going to have a role to play.” Watson.

1550 “The three original Rio treaties on climate change, biodiversity and desertification have not turned the needle one bit on any of these issues. They have failed because of the implementation, the treaties themselves are good.” Sachs

1548 Some great material coming out of this panel, they’re having to bring in extra chairs to cope with the demand for seats!

1544 Sachs: “US politicians afraid to write legislation on de-carbonising economy as it will become hostage to short-term political interests. We’ve wasted 20 years since the last Rio summit. Lets hope we have no shortcuts and no phony solutions at Rio+20.”

1540 “Organic farming feels great but its not the solution. If you seek out the people not using fertilizers, what you’ll find are some of the lowest yields on the planet, and people starving in droves,” says Sachs noting that the environmental consequences of them must be weighed against the food security crisis.

1538 Jeffrey Sachs: “This is more complicated than it seams. It we don’t understand the complications, we won’t understand the solutions. In every issue we face, there are unprecedented challenges.”

1528 Bob Watson, chief scientist at the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra): “It’s clear that we need to mitigate and adapt to climate change. That means we need to understand the economic impact of both. It’s not a choice of adaptation, mitigation or development individually, they’re interconnected.”

1520 “Nature’s benefits are especially vital to the poor,” says Pavan Sukhdev. “Nature is not just a luxury for the rich, it is a necessity for the poor.”

1514 Caroline Spelman: “The good thing about having a draft agreement settled at this early stage is that we can move from talking shop to working shop, and focus on getting these things going on the ground.”

1511 Great panel here; L-R, Pavan Sukhdev, Robert Watson, Caroline Spelman and Jeffrey Sachs. 1458 This just in:

Read this Rio watchers! Just out from colleagues down there: Our analysis of the #Rioplus20 final draft text bit.ly/Kzjy8V. — Andy Atkins (@Andy2Atkins) June 20, 2012

1450 Just waiting for UK Environment Minister Caroline Spelman to arrive at a press conference next to the Rio Conventions Pavilion. There’s murmurings that the UK delegation will be pushing hard to strengthen the existing text. Here’s their opening statement from Deputy PM Nick Clegg in The Guardian.

1440 President Hollande of France has arrived. One of many big names occupying the constant stream of helicopters overhead no doubt…

1310 UK Deputy PM Nick Clegg was heckled during a speech on natural capital. The UK will force all top businesses at the London Stock Exchange to declare their Greenhouse Gas inventories annually. We’ve got a video of the interruption and the announcement.

1153 Over the road at the Rio Conventions Pavilion, gender day is under way. UNFCCC boss Christiana Figueres, UNCCD chief Luc Gnacadja and former Chile President Michelle Bachelet are currently discussing HOW gender can be better included in the Rio Text and what the Rio Conventions can do to embed gender in their talks… 1143 The first session got underway around an hour ago. So far the NGOs have rejected the draft agreement and asked to be removed from it. A big blow for the host nation, which pieced together the compromise document.

Thank god someone stood up & said it. NGOs reject the text & ask to be removed from the text. Well done Wael from CAN! #Rioplus20 — Alex Farrow (@alexjamesfarrow) June 20, 2012

“@UN_Rioplus20: Happening now: Opening Plenary marking the formal opening of #Rioplus20 conference and #Futurewewant twitpic.com/9ykd37” — Yikaury Maria (@yikaurym) June 20, 2012

1122 Total. Transformation. Rio+20 has morphed into a different beast entirely today. Buzzing halls, protesters organising their columns outside the perimeter, queues at security, mainstream media have arrived en masse and high police presence. This is Rio+20 proper.

Security has been ratcheted up, predictably, as senior politicians arrive.

0931 Just seen a sign in Rio town centre saying ‘Ahmadinejad go home.’ I didn’t know he was coming.

0742 Or maybe the public’s participation should drive things forward…

#RioPlus20 – Governments & leaders call for strengthening access to transparency & public participation at Rio+20 bit.ly/MgjCtU — World Resources Inst (@worldresources) June 20, 2012

0736 So where might the much-needed leadership come from? The UK’s Deputy Prime Minister has staked his claim.

Clegg: I’ll lead debate at Rio bbc.in/NQMnA1 — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) June 20, 2012

0734 Dissatisfaction with the draft text was widespread but its unclear how much or how little, leaders will be willing to change. yesterday Greenpeace called for waves of civil disobedience in order to prompt action from politicians. It remains to be seen whether either event will happen.

0732 The heads of state and ministerial level talks kick-off this morning. They’ll be discussing the draft agreement that was finally signed-off yesterday. It also means tightened security and increased mainstream media attention.

The post Rio+20 Day 8 Live: Coverage from the UN Summit on Sustainable Development appeared first on Climate Home News.

Photographer: Britta Jaschinski
Publication: Rio Conventions Calendar

Gender will be a key talking point at the Rio+20 Earth Summit taking place in Brazil.

Ahead of the conference, development NGO CARE international have urged for the conference to act on three fundamental challenge – climate change, food security and gender inequality.

These, they say, will be crucial barriers to reduce poverty, achieve social justice and foster sustainable development.

For example, land degradation affects men and women in different ways, according to the different productive roles that each group carries out in society.

Women play a pivotal role in drylands, with diverse responsibilities regarding agriculture, land management, the livestock and the household.

Millions of women live in rural drylands and depend on the land to support their family.

The Rio Conventions Calendar is published annually by Entico in partnership with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

The post Photo of the Week #22 – Gender equality at Rio+20 appeared first on Climate Home News.

Women are responsible for two-thirds of working hours (Source: IRRI images/flickr)

“We are 50% of the population around the world and we represent more than 50% of the solution,” said the head of the UNFCCC Christiana Figueres when she came to the Climate Change Studio for Gender Day on Monday.

“It is not about inserting the word gender into a negotiating text and into an agreement,” she said. “It is actually about using these agreements to get down to the women who are on the ground and in the field and for them to actually be able to benefit from this.”

She was referring to a growing area of the climate change negotiation that looks specifically at the growing disproportionate climate impacts that are being felt by women across the world.

Women represent just over 50% of the global population but account for 45-80% of food production. It is also predominately women who, in many parts of the world, collect resources – including cooking products and water – and Winne Byanyima director of the UNDP Gender and Development Team said women globally do two-thirds of the working hours, while only owning 1% of property and 10% of income.

While these inequalities are not linked to climate change they are exacerbated by the changing climate. They have to travel further for resources, work harder in worsening conditions to get food to both feed the family and to sell. As the care givers of the family they are most impacted by climate related ill health in the family.

Byanyima said: “Because of these differences in climate impacts on them it is very important that in a negotiation like this that a new global climate policy addresses those differences between men and women.”

But many believe that women are not only most exposed to the effects of climate change but that they are also great agents of change, having the ability to implement shifts in their households and their role at the heart of education.

Figueres said: “Women are perhaps our strongest key agent of adaptation. On both sides, because of the vulnerability and because of the potential that women have to contribute to the solution, they really are one of the most important components here.”

Mary Robinson former president of Ireland and founder of the Mary Robinson Foundation echoed these sentiments. She said it was important to give women a voice in the negotiations as they are on the front line of the problem.

She spoke of her friend Constance Okellet – a subsistence farmer in Uganda – who faces the real threat of being unable to feed her family next year due to drought destroying her crops. It will be her burden to provide the food and her job to look after the children if they are poorly affected.

And it is this mothering instinct and multi-generational thinking which Robinson believes is so important.

“That is another reason for bringing women leaders together. We are actually instinctively more inter-generational,” she said. “I actually instinctively think about my four young grandchildren who will be in their 40s in 2050, when the population will be over nine billion. What kind of world for children of 2050?”

To take on this role, though, women must be given the opportunity, something many believe is still lacking. Boardrooms, banks and politics are still for many countries a male dominated world, leaving women with little of the power.

Maria De Fatima, Minister of Environment in Angola said her country represented this trend towards larger roles being dominated by men. She said: “You have to remember that in Angola women represent 50 per cent of the population but so far we are not represented in terms of political issues in which women can respond. We have to prioritise all the matters related to women and climate change.”

Over recent years there has been a noticeable shifts in the women involved in the climate change negotiations, with key roles including the head of the UNFCCC and COP16 and COP17 presidencies being filled by women representatives, many key environment minister posts filled by women and six agreements specifically looking at gender issues agreed at Cancun.

However, all of the panelists discussing the issue for Gender Day agreed that there was much more to do to get the gender issue further ingrained in the climate change debate.

Robinson said: “Although there are a lot of individual ministers they were constrained to raise the gender issue and on the whole they didn’t and there was a tendency to think climate is gender neutral. It’s not.”

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Women farmers count for between 45 and 80% of food production (Source: UN)

As COP17 moves into its second week, heads of states and ministers join their delegations and the talks intensify, is the voice of women being represented sufficiently in the process?

Making up over 50% of the population – and 60% in some of the world’s poorest countries – the effects of climate change are more acutely felt by women.

With women also being at the heart of many households in the most climate vulnerable areas – both as care giver and as decision maker – there is a huge potential for them to act as agents of change.

Ahead of COP17 women’s day, where the Climate Change Studio will be joined by Christiana Figueres, head of the UNFCCC, Winnie Byanyima, Director UNDP Gender Team and Cecilia Njenga, from the UNEP, to name a few, we took at look at why gender and climate change is so important.

Climate Vulnerability

While in most communities both the men and women, particularly in the developing world, are either already experiencing or will experience climate change vulnerabilities, research has shown that this impact is being felt worse amongst women.

Women farmers account for around 45-80% of all food production. As droughts, flooding and other natural changes put their agricultural livelihoods at risk – both limiting the food for the household and for selling – work becomes much harder and research by the UN found that it is the women and the girls who experience the most noticeable health decline.

In most communities it is also the women who predominately collect the fuel for the home for example firewood and agricultural crops, and water. With women travelling further distances to find these sources of energy, they have less time for domestic tasks, less time to earn money and are also more at risk of injury or sexual harassment.

Finally with many climate impacts – flooding and drought – disease and illness spreads and with the traditional role of women as mother and caregiver, this puts even more stress of their daily lives.

When Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and founder of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice spoke at the Climate Change Studio last week, she said: “It is an issue that is fundamental to climate justice, to the idea of putting a human face on climate, the importance of both food and nutrition security and women for agents for change who are going to bring about the changes on the ground.

“They will be the ones who will have to adapt to the climate shocks that we have so they need to be empowered, they need to be valued and they need to be at the table at decision making. They are not there enough.”

Potential for empowerment

Climate change – and the UNFCCC negotiations – however, also offer the potential for the empowerment of such women and a chance for them to be put at the heart of the decision making process.

But while there are signs of this change taking place, with UNFCCC Christiana Figueres, COP 16 President Patricia Espinosa and COP17 President Maite Nkoana-Mashabane all representing  women being put at the centre of the process it continues to be potential which is unrealised.

While more and more countries have female climate ambassadors amongst their delegations, for many countries – particularly in the EU, Americas and African States – the top roles within the climate delegations continue to be dominated by males.

Speaking at the Climate Change Studio Espinosa said: “I think that now it is basically important that the negotiating process is in the hands of women. This was already the case last year in Cancun. I am very happy that my successor is a previous foreign minister of Africa – not only that but an environment minister of South Africa but also a woman.

“Many many households in all countries of the world are really under the charge of women – under the authority and being provided for by women. Also the role women play also as educators is very important not only with the teaching but in the everyday life within their families (it is true that we are all educators to a certain extent but it is more true for women, so it is important.

“We do need to put an emphasis on mainstreaming gender issues in the policies which address the fight against climate change. I think this is the big challenge now.”

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