The Future is now! On the relevance of the Beijing Platform for Action today Comment Equal power for women, a life with less violence and more justice are the goals that were set 25 years ago at the 4th World Conference on Women and in the Beijing Platform for Action. So far, gender equality has never been achieved. By Barbara Unmüßig
Gender: Unequal Exposure Biologically, women are more likely to be adversely affected by the toxins in plastics. Traditional roles, inequality, and a throwaway culture further amplify these harmful effects, especially in Asia.
Youth Against Climate Change in South Africa: “There is a major lack of representation in the movement” Interview Most of food production in Africa is shouldered by small scale farmers and the majority of farmers are women. Alarmed by the effects of climate change on her family’s farm Ayakha Melithafa from South Africa’s Western Cape joined an environmental school club and engages now in a national and an international youth movements for climate justice. By Imeh Ituen
The climate crisis is a result of the commodification of land and social relations Interview The climate crisis is the result of relations of power and exploitation, between the Global North and the Global South as well as between people and nature. A decolonial approach in climate activism stands for a radical break with colonial principles of economic, political and social systems – including industrial agriculture and landgrabbing. A conversation with Ruth Nyambura, climate activist from Kenya. By Imeh Ituen
The right to belong and the protection of cultural property Interview For centuries, resources have been extracted from the African continent without adequate payment or compensation. With colonialism, Khoikhoi and San, the first inhabitants of Southern Africa, lost their land and many lost their lives. During decades of Apartheid they were racially discriminated and still have to fight for political and economic inclusion in the post-Apartheid era. We spoke to the Khoikhoi lawyer Lesle Jansen about her fight for the community and for the legal acknowledgement of the cultural heritage of Indigenous people. By Imeh Ituen
The European Green Deal and Gender Diversity Conversation Is the European Green Deal gender blind? How can the EU deal with the danger of a backlash on gender equality in the face of pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis? Which ways forward are there to better connect the feminist and climate movements? By Dr. Ines Kappert
Broadening the just transition debate Report At the end of June, in the Warsaw office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, an incredible group of women met. A dozen female activists from two coal-mining regions – the Konin area and Silesia – came together to discuss how to make the voices of women better heard in the debate about ecological transformation. In order to find answers, they used a lot of their own wisdom and… Lego bricks. By Piotr Trzaskowski
Advancing gender responsive mitigation action and technology development under the UNFCCC At COP20, parties adopted the Lima Work Programme on Gender to advance implementation of existing gender mandates across all areas of the climate negotiations. This HBF-WEDO submission proposes how an in-session workshop during the forty-second session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (June 2015) could advance gender-responsive mitigation action and technology development.
Women and the Environment 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. One reason: women and men are affected differently by the effects of climate change.
Of Promise, Progress, Perils and Prioritization The Board and Secretariat of the Green Climate Fund have made some progress in implementing the Fund's promise for a gender-sensitive approach to its funding. A stock-taking after the recent 7th GCF Board Meeting reveals that there are perils to the full operationalization of the Fund's gender mandate and that some provisions and decisions supporting gender in the GCF should be prioritized in the next few Board meetings.