Gender perspective in relation to climate change and the UNFCCC negotiations

1
Gender perspective in relation to climate change
and the UNFCCC negotiations
Civil Society Towards COP5 12-15 May Copenhagen
Martha Chouchena-Rojas
2
Gender key in social considerations of climate
change

• Gender aspects critical for social and economic
  aspects of UNFCCC (Preamble, Art.2. Art.3)
• measures contributing to social development,
  economic growth, eradication of poverty, food
  production
• economic development contributing to adopting
  measures to address climate change
• Specific relations between gender and climate
  change, both in terms of
• Vulnerability
• Contributions of women as agents of change

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Impacts are gender-differentiated

• Although climate change impacts will affect all
  countries, its impacts will be differently
  distributed among different regions, generations,
  age classes, income groups, occupations and
  genders (IPCC, 2007)
• Climate change is likely to magnify existing
  patterns of gender disadvantage (2007 Human
  Development report)

• The poor will be disproportionately affected.
  70 of poor are women. (Drexhage, 2006)

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Gender inequalities, vulnerability and climate
change

• Vulnerability depends in large part on the
  assets available the more assets, the less
  vulnerable a person is
• The majority of the 1.3 billion people living in
  the deepest levels poverty worldwide are women
• Women produce 1/2 the worlds food in rural
  areas, women produce 60-80 of staple crops
• Women earn only 10 of the worlds income and
  own less than 2 of property

5
Gender inequalities, vulnerability and climate
change

• Worlwide, compared to men, women tend to have
  more limited access to ressources that would
  enhance their capacity to adapt to climate change

• Evidence that gender differences in deaths from
  natural disasters are directly linked to womens
  economic and social rights
• In the major disasters of the past two decades,
  the female mortality rate has reached 55-90 of
  total deaths

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The Impacts of Climate Change on Women
WEDO 2008
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Impacts on sustainable development

• Increased climate related risk and associated
  losses are exhacerbating existing inequalities
  and gender inequality is among the most
  pervasive. Existing inequalities in turn increase
  vulnerability and exposure to risk
• This spiral undermines efforts towards
  sustainable development and the ability to
  achieve the MDGs

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Womens perspectives matterleaders, innovators,
organizers, agents for change

• Women from many indigenous communities possess
  repertoires of coping strategies
• In Peru, Araguana women plant more than 60
  varieties of manioc
• In Rwanda, women are reported to produce more
  than 600 varieties of beans
• Women play critical role in forest management
  (e.g. Green Belt Movement) and agriculture
• In some OECD countries women make 80 of
  consumption decisions

Oxfam
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Connection between gender equality and
sustainable development is not new

• Nearly every major global agreement now includes
  a gender component
• United Nations Declaration on Human Rights (1948)
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
  Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (1979)
• Convention on Biodiversity (1992)
• Chapter 24 of Agenda 21 (UNCED 1992)
• World Conference on Human Rights (1993)
• International Conference on Population and
  Development (1994)
• Convention to Combat Desertification (1994)
• World Summit for Social Development (1995)
• Beijing Platform for Action (1995)
• Millennium Declaration (2000)
• Johannesburg Plan of Action (2002)
• Hyogo Framework for Action (2005)
• ECOSOC Res. on Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective
  into all Policies and Programmes in the UN System
  (2005/31)
• UN Convention on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
  (2007)

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Gender and international framework for disaster
reduction

• Hyogo Framework for Action (2005)
•  A gender perspective should be integrated into
  all disaster risk management policies, plans and
  decision-making processes, including those
  related to risk assessment, early warning,
  information management, and education and
  training 

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Gender and the UNFCCC despite facts

• Gender not properly incorporated in international
  and national policies and initiatives
• main tools and measures on mitigation and
  adaptation dont reach the most affected
  populations, including women
• women have not been afforded equal opportunity to
  participate in decision making at all levels

Bonn Climate Change Talks, UNFCCC
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Towards COP15 key points for negotiations

• Prioritization of vulnerable populations in
  evaluation of impacts, measures taken and access
  to financing, capacity building and technologies
• Participation in decision making, planning and
  implementation at all levels
• Drawing upon womens capacities as agents of
  change in the development and implementation of
  measures
• Getting appropriate data at every level

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Long term vision (LCA)

• BAP A shared vision should include a long-term
  goal and take into account social and economic
  conditions and other relevant factors (Dec
  1(CP.13 1 (a))
• Comprehensive long-term cooperative action needs
  to be based on relevant scientific, technical,
  social and economic considerations and regularly
  re-evaluated in the light of new findings in
  these areas
• Effective and responsive implementation requires
  that gender considerations and gender balanced
  participation be incorporated at all levels

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Adaptation (LCA)

• Adaptation framework (including adaptation plans
  and disaster risk management, early warning)
  should
• Be responsive to the differentiated needs of
  women and men, recognizing that women, children
  and the poorare among the most
  disproportionately affected
• Draw upon the capacities of women and men through
  gender-balanced participation to ensure optimum
  implementation of policies and programmes, in
  alignment with Hyogo Framework for Action
• Be supported by adequate financial, technological
  and capacity building resources, prioritizing
  most vulnerable groups

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Nairobi Work Programme (SBSTA) important for
future adaptation framework

• Need to determine further action/ guidance to
  ensure that gender considerations are included in
  work area on adaptation planning and practices,
  e.g. in
• Integration of practices, tools and systems for
  climate risk assessment and management and
  disaster risk reductions strategies, drawing from
  Hyogo
• Scaling up local and community-based adaptation
• Developing guidance on socio-economic information
  needs and integration into assessments,
  including gender-disaggregated data on impacts,
  vulnerability and contributions
• Enhancing understanding of and guidance on
  research needs including social and economic
  aspects

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Mitigation (LCA)

• Ambitious emissions reductions are required in
  accordance with the provisions of the Convention
  and the Bali Action Plan, ensuring that both men
  and women can contribute to and benefit from a
  low-emissions pathway that does not compromise
  but fosters sustainable development
• Enhancing womens access to policy approaches
  and positive incentives in, inter alia,
  conservation, sustainable forest management and
  enhancement of forest carbon stocks

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REDD

• AWG-LCA
• Mechanism should ensure gender balanced access to
  design and implementation of REDD activities,
  decision-making and funding (BAP)
• Guidance needs to be developed drawing from 23-24
  March Bonn expert meeting with special emphasis
  on aspect of REDD
• SBSTA
• Include gender aspects under methodological work
  of SBSTA building on SBSTA29 guidance, noting the
  importance of
• Promoting readiness
• Recognizing need to promote the full
  participation of indigenous peoples and local
  communities
• Exploring co-benefits

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Financing (LCA) Technology (LCA)

• Delivery of funds should prioritize vulnerable
  groups, including women, through appropriate
  guidelines and criteria, especially gender
  indicators to demonstrate progress towards
  targets
• Technology transfer and capacity-building should
  prioritize vulnerable groups, including women, to
  enhance womens and mens innovative capacity

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Data and analysis

• Sex-disaggregated data and gender analysis
  should be used at all levels to identify and
  assess needs and contributions of women and men,
  and enhance the livelihoods of both equally, thus
  enabling all of society to optimize mitigation
  strategies and adapt to climate change

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Global enabling framework needed

• Gender needs to be included explicitly at global
  level in the international post 2012 framework
  to ensure that action required at national and
  local levels to respond to climate change and to
  achieve sustainable development is enabled and
  supported

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For more information martha_at_gender-climate.org
Global Gender and Climate Alliance
(GGCA) www.gender-climate.org info_at_gender-climate.
org Womens Environment Development
Organization (WEDO) www.wedo.org