GGCA COP18 priority actions for gender equality

Women are on the front line of climate change, yet too often are missing in key climate policy discussions, including at the UNFCCC. The Bali Action Plan (including the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action under the Convention (LCA)), which is due to close in Doha, has marked real progress in mainstreaming gender into the UN climate change negotiations, yet still women remain significantly under-represented in key bodies of the Convention.

As the transition to the Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) is made in Doha, it is vital that women’s voices are heard and gender considerations continue to be mainstreamed across the negotiations. In particular:

• Recognising the progress achieved over the last four years to integrate critical gender equality and women’s rights issues across the six pillars of the Bali Action Plan, the LCA should reaffirm the importance of gender-responsive climate policies and programming.
• Building on the significant progress on gender provisions in the UNFCCC while looking ahead toward more effective implementation, the ADP vision should embrace a comprehensive approach that integrates social dimensions and further advances gender equality provisions already achieved in the LCA.
• UNFCCC decisions should translate into meaningful action and practice that promotes and ensures gender responsive climate policy and practice. The proposal for a new decision to promote gender equality through improving the participation of women in UNFCCC negotiations and in the representation of Parties in bodies established by the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol is an example of one such meaningful action.

Source: UNFCCC