DHAKA: The momentum achieved in Paris last year in embracing gender equality and women’s empowerment assurances in climate change decisions and actions reached greater heights this year in Morocco at the 22nd session of the Conference of Parties (COP).
In Marrakech, the Parties unanimously agreed to mainstream gender perspective in all action areas of the convention - mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology development and transfer and capacity-building. The decision also reinforces the 2014 Lima work program on gender and climate change for a period of three year.
Gender Balance in UN Climate Change Negotiations
The 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing was the key global policy that addressed women’s role as critical to solve poverty through building knowledge on resource management adhering to Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and the International Conference on Population and Development.
Though Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action emphasized on the turmoil that environmental degradation and global warming bring upon women living in vulnerable areas, it was only in 2001, for the first time in the history of UN Climate Change negotiations a decision to strengthen gender balance and improve women’s participation in all climate change relevant policies was adopted.
This benchmark decision regarding women’s active participation in climate change diplomacy under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) bodies was taken forward in Doha at the 18th session of the COP that promoted the decision on gender balance and women’s presence in climate change negotiations for advancing gender-sensitive climate policy to guarantee women’s voices in the global climate change actions.
Later in 2014 at COP 20 in Lima, Parties undertook the Lima Work Programme on gender and climate change emphasizing on the importance of coherence between gender-responsive climate policies and effective participation of women delegates in negotiations.
The two year work programme adopted at COP 20 encouraged parties on building skills and awareness training for male and female delegates on climate change relevant policies and issues as well. The success on gender equality and gender mainstreaming at COP 20 paved its way to COP 21 in the landmark Paris Agreement (PA). In decision 1/CP.21of the PA, Parties recognize that,
"climate change is a common concern of humankind, Parties should when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity".
While the PA is great in many ways on the subject of gender participatory approach, the Moroccan COP of this year is far reaching in this regard through its overall gender-responsiveness and the decision to enhance the Lima work programme on ‘gender and climate change’ for another three years.
After fifteen years from the first decision on women and gender under the UNFCCC, mainstreaming gender prospect in all aspects of the convention in the African COP of this year has marked itself as the first gender inclusive climate deal to address gender equality, women’s empowerment issues and gender-responsiveness while implementing climate change actions.
Status-quo of Gender Balance in Climate Change Policies
Climate change is real, so is its impacts. From raising sea-level to melting glacier, the evidences of human caused climate change due to global warming is irrefutable. While it is the poor developing nations that face the adverse effects of climate change more severely, the women living in these nations are the worst victim to its adverse effects. Yet, they are often neglected in climate change related policy making, planning and implementation due to lower socio-economic status. The prevalent patriarchal culture in these regions inhibit women from primary education, let alone awareness building trainings for climate change. Thus, exposing women from the grass-root society to even greater risks by aggravating the pre-existing barriers and gender inequality.
The scenario is not much different in the national and global climate change decisions and policy making. In 2015 at UNFCCC negotiations, around 38% of all national party delegates and 24% of the Heads of Delegations were women, published on the Gender Climate Tracker App that was launched by the Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO) on the Gender Day of this year’s COP. The statistics presented by WEDO shows a notable distinction in gender imbalances across different regions.
While around 53% of the delegates from Eastern and Western Europe represents women, only around 29% of the delegates from Africa and the Asia-Pacific are women. The research further shows, a steady rise in the participation of women in high level UN climate change negotiations between 2008 and 2015, women delegates from the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), African Group and Organization of The Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is still below 25%.
Though the urgency to improve participation of women delegates has been mentioned in global climate change decisions time and again, only a little has been achieved in representing women in major climate change decisions. With an all-inclusive gender balanced action decision at COP 22, the prospect to have women representation in reality and not just in paper has elevated.
Writer Shaila Mahmud is a Bangladeshi based researcher and a Climate Tracker Fellow for COP22
BDST: 1948 HRS, DEC 04, 2016
BD
