At the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, it would seem that gender is a marginal topic. It is outside the negotiation rooms, in the pavilions and in the hallways where words such as care economy, climate justice and calls are heard that remember that without feminism there is no fight against climate change.
“Our search, that of the women's and gender movement, is that these spaces serve to truly achieve a systemic transformation,” explains Colombian Gina Cortes, member of the Gender and Women Constituency, one of the nine official observer groups of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). “Yes, women are more vulnerable to climate change, but not because it is spontaneously like that, but because the system has made us more vulnerable.”
The interrelationships between gender and climate change are several. But since this is a COP where there is a lot of talk about financing, it is worth giving some information about how the resources to confront climate change barely reach women. According to data compiled in a report by the Global Gender and Climate Alliance, Only 0.01% of all global funding supports projects that simultaneously address climate change and women's rights, and by 2015, female representation in major climate funds was barely 22%.
Other reports, such as those published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), also they give a warning on the same road. “Individual livelihoods have been affected, for example, by the destruction of housing and infrastructure and the loss of property and income, human health and food security, with adverse effects on social and gender equity.”
In Latin American countries, the situation could even be more critical. In the region, climate change accentuates other problems that women already experience, such as poverty, poor access to health and education, migration, and even makes work in the fields more difficult. “Women, especially indigenous women, are often unaware that these climate financial funds exist because the information does not reach them,” says Sara Omi, a lawyer and indigenous Embera from Panama. Therefore, one of the missions that the movement has during this summit is to ensure that, at least, the main decision texts produced by COP28 recognize that women are one of the most vulnerable groups to climate change, as well as like talking about actions with a gender focus.
Gender in texts
In the world of climate negotiations there seems to be an obsession with which words are included or deleted from the final documents. Not in vain, one of the most critical points that is still being debated during this COP28 is whether mention will be made of abandoning fossil fuels (known in English as phase out), decrease them (phase down), or if, to the surprise of many, nothing was mentioned about it. But how has the gender issue sneaked into the climate negotiations, at least in the texts?
In the draft of the Global Balance published on December 8, which could be interpreted as the most anticipated document of this COP28 since it will not only say how far behind climate action is since the famous Paris Agreement was signed, but will point to how to improve it, the word gender appears six times: in the preamble of the document, in adaptation, in loss and damage (twice), in international cooperation, and in the part of the text that gives recommendations on how to move forward. This last part, however, comments Rwandan Scovia Ampumuza, facilitator of the program. Resonate, is the one that has the most chances of being eliminated from the text. Specifically, it says it “encourages parties to implement climate policies and measures that are gender-sensitive, fully respect human rights, and empower youth and children.”
But it was not always like this. The UNFCCC, something like the “cradle” where these negotiations are housed and which was created in 1992, was described as “gender blind.” In its text, which exceeds 20 pages, the words gender or woman are never mentioned. Over time, however, the language began to change. The organization Gender Climate Tracker has made a judicious analysis of the matter. After tracing several documents, they have found that in 120 of the decisions that have been made under this Convention the word gender or women is mentioned: in the area that appears the most, paradoxically, is in financing (with 30 decisions), and in which The least that happens is in adaptation (with 23 decisions).
The problem, as commented by Jamaican Ayesha Constable, founder of GirlsCare and member of Global Fund for Women, is that the number of times these words appear in a text is not necessarily an indicator that there is progress. “Although we have seen that words like gender and women are used more in texts, this is not reflected in the way decisions are being made at the international level or within the same countries.” History, he also says, has been repeated in the climate commitments that countries submit to the United Nations. “We see the word up to 50 times in the texts, which could be up to twice as many times as ten years ago, but it seems that it is simply a word that they throw in the documents, without having a real impact.”
More renewables, less fuel and more gender
COP28 had barely started three days when it was learned that more than 100 countries had committed to tripling the world's renewable energy capacity by 2030, a goal that the president of COP28 himself, Sultan al Jaber, had set on the agenda. table and which, at least, in a non-binding way, seems to have achieved. Almost at the same time, but with much less spotlight and barely supported by 60 countries, the Just Transitions and Climate Action Partnership with a gender perspective was also launched at COP28, a document that, so far, has been signed by only 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Since COP27, in Egypt, there has been pressure to talk about a fair transition with a gender focus,” explains Micaela Guillen Ramírez, coordinator of the Citizen Climate Exchange Movement of Peru and part of the Climate Action Network for Latin America. “The International Labor Organization estimates that around 1.2 billion jobs, representing 40% of the world's workforce, are at risk from climate change. And it is expected that women would be the most affected.”
The partnership that was announced and whose implementation must be reviewed in three years – during COP30 – has three pillars: “achieving the creation of better quality data to support decision-making in transition planning, obtaining more effective financing flows for the regions most affected by climate change, and guarantee access to education, training and training to support individual commitment in transitions.”
This is, again, something that could still fall short. An advertisement that, in the end, simply provides a political compass. “What we would like is for the Global Balance to not only recognize the differentiated effects of climate change on women, but also to give signals so that any energy transition that is made has a gender focus,” says Cortés. “The ideal is that any text that talks about tripling renewable energies and abandoning fossil fuels also has mentions of the care economy and social protections.” Something that, for the moment, is not in the text.
Summit structures remain masculine
History repeats itself at all climate summits. When it comes to taking what they call “the family photo”, in which the world leaders who attend the COPs are gathered during the first days, it is evident that the majority are men. And this COP28 was no exception: of the 133 leaders who arrived, only 15 were women. “Although there is no official data on delegations, women are also believed to be a minority, which does not help push the gender agenda.”
This is not something to which the United Nations, despite everything, has not put its face. Since 2014, a program was launched to promote gender balance in climate negotiations and, during COP25, which ended up being held in Madrid in 2019, this idea was renewed by proposing the creation of the Gender Action Plan which, in theory , must be reviewed at COP29.
The latest document on this plan, signed at COP27, refers to these gaps at the heart of the summits themselves. For example, future COP presidencies are “invited” to “encourage greater gender balance in national delegations” and event organizers to “promote gender-balanced participation.” They also “encourage” countries, public and private entities to strengthen the gender-responsiveness of climate finance.”
The data, on the other hand, indicates that there has not been much progress. Participation goes in small steps. Gender Climate Tracker also reports that while in 2009 30% of delegates were women, the figure only rose to 38% for 2021, and even fell slightly last year, at COP27, with 35% women delegates.
Since the Paris Agreement was signed – in which gender issues are discussed, mentioning this word three times – only one woman has been named president of these summits: the Chilean Carolina Schmidt Zaldivar, who led the negotiations during COP25 .
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