COP22: Women in all aspects of climate change solutions

The 22nd session of the Conference of Parties (COP22) in Marrakech, Morocco is a sequel to last year's momentum achieved in Paris - embracing gender equality and ensuring women's empowerment in Climate Change solutions. In Marrakesh, the parties unanimously agreed to disseminate 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 Programme 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 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing, China was the key global policy that addressed women's role as critical to poverty minimisation through building knowledge on human resource management - adhering to Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and the International Conference on Population and Development.
Though the Beijing Declaration emphasised on the turmoil that environmental degradation and global warming bring upon women, it was only in 2001 that a decision to strengthen gender balance and improve women's participation in all climate change policies was adopted. This benchmark decision regarding women's active participation in climate change solutions under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) bodies was taken forward at COP18 in Doha - promoting 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 solutions.
In 2014, COP20 was held in Lima, Peru where the parties undertook a two-year work programme emphasising on the importance of coherence between gender-responsive climate policies and effective participation of female delegates in negotiations. The work programme adopted at COP20 encouraged parties on building skills and awareness training for male and female delegates on climate change policies and issues. The success on gender equality and gender mainstreaming at COP20 paved its way to COP21 in the landmark Paris Agreement. According to Decision-1 of the COP21:
"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 Paris Agreement was comprehensive on the subject of gender participatory approach, the COP22 is more extensive through its overall gender-responsiveness and the decision to enhance the Lima Work Programme for another three years. By mainstreaming gender prospect in all aspects of the convention, has marked itself as the first gender inclusive climate deal to address gender equality, women's empowerment factors and gender-responsiveness while implementing climate change actions since the UNFCCC of 2001.
STATUS-QUO OF GENDER BALANCE IN CLIMATE CHANGE POLICIES: Climate change is real, so are its impacts. From the raising sea-level to the melting glaciers, the evidence of manmade climate change and global warming is irrefutable. While the least developed countries (LDC) face the brunt of climate change, the women living in these countries are the worst victims to the adverse effects. However, they are mostly neglected in climate change policymaking, planning and implementation due to a low socioeconomic status. The prevalent patriarchal culture in these regions inhibits women from primary education, let alone awareness-building training for climate change. Thus, women should be included in climate change solutions aggravating the pre-existing barriers and gender inequality at the grassroots.
Moreover, the gender scenario at both national and international levels of climate change policymaking is unsatisfying. In 2015, at UNFCCC negotiations, around 38 per cent of all national party delegates and 24 per cent of the Heads of Delegations were women - published by the Gender Climate Tracker App that was launched by the Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO) on this year's Gender Day. The statistics presented by WEDO shows a notable distinction in gender imbalances across different regions. While around 53 per cent of the delegates from Europe represent women, only around 29 per cent 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 LDCs, Africa and the Organisation of The Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are still below 25 per cent.
Though the urgency to improve participation of women delegates has been consistently mentioned in global climate change decisions, only a little has been achieved in representing women in major climate change decisions. With an all-inclusive gender-balanced decision at COP22, the prospect of female representation has been elevated - not only in paper but also in reality.
The writer is a freelance researcher and a Climate Tracker Fellow for COP22.
shaila.mahmud91@gmail.com