Women and the Environment

Beijing+20 - Women and the Environment

Climate protection activists are struggling to see the strategic objectives of the Platform for Action included and implemented. Their motto: “System Change, not Climate Change”. — Creator: Kris Krug@flickr. CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

Climate change, and its significance, is one of the greatest challenges of our time. As far back as twenty years ago, the Platform for Action called for the active participation of women in environmental decision-making as well as the inclusion of gender perspectives. One reason: women and men are affected differently by the effects of climate change. Women often need to overcome greater problems that arise in the course of climate change: they are more deeply afflicted by poverty, for example, and are denied access to land, property and education in many countries. The struggle to implement the strategic objectives of the Platform for Action in this area:

Involve women actively in environmental decision-making at all levels
Integrate gender concerns and perspectives in policies and programmes for sustainable development
Strengthen or establish mechanisms at the national, regional, and international levels to assess the impact of development and environmental policies on women

continues.

The UN’s 2012 Doha Climate Change Conference produced a first institutional success. Gender must now be included on every Conference of the Parties agenda. Regrettably, an explicit feminist perspective is missing from the negotiating texts for the UN climate protection processes. As a result, climate protection activists are left to continue their struggle to see the strategic objectives of the Platform for Action included and implemented. Their motto: “System Change, not Climate Change”.

Article

„ Women are not protected from risks associated with climate change“

Hoy Sochivanny reports on the achievements in matters of Women's Rights in Cambodia in the last 20 years since the Beijing Conference in 1995 and today's challenges

By Hoy Sochivanny

Climate change: the empowerment of women seen as an added value

Rural women increasingly come to be seen as vital agents in response to climate change. Disproportionately affected by it's impacts, these women also have a critical role in combating the weather changes, analyses Camila Moreno.

By Camila Moreno

Taking a Gender-Sensitive Approach in the Green Climate Fund to the next Level: Recommendations for the 6th GCF Board Meeting

The Board of the Green Climate Fund, meeting in Bali, Indonesia from February 19-21 for the sixth time, will discuss an options paper presented by the Secretariat on what a gender-sensitive approach for the climate instrument will mean.

Policy Analysis

Operationalizing a Gender-Sensitive Approach in the Green Climate Fund

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has a mandate to fund mitigation and adaption action in developing countries while "taking a gender-sensitive approach." With the Fund Board set to discuss and decide the vision, objectives and business model for the Fund, this paper makes a case for mainstreaming gender into the processes and financing of the GCF in conjunction with these decisions.

By Liane Schalatek and Katya Burns, edited by Gail Karlsson and Ana Rojas

Videodocumentary: Women fighting for Evironmental and Climatejustice

This videodocumentary shows how women on the countryside and in urban areas try to improve their situation by being geared to ecological principles. Further they are engaged in politics, too.

Beijing+20 in the Regions

Good to Know

Progress of the World's Women 2015/2016: detailed report by the UN Women on the economical barriers facing women, and strategies of improving the political participation of women on a global scale. more>>
Beijing Platform for Action
Read the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action here
[PDF].
An overview the Platform's 12 critical areas of concern by the UN Women. more>>
Women in Armed Conflicts: in the context of the CSW 59, the GWI co-hosted an event at concering a pressing issue for the Platform - women in armed conflicts. more>>