Gender equality, a pending debt in climate negotiations

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Recent history is full of women, environmental and social leaders, who have changed the course of the planet.

Just as an example, in 1973 the rural women of Chipko, India, managed to stop the total deforestation of the Himalayas;

In 1977, environmentalist and activist Wangari Maathai led the creation of Kenya's Green Belt Movement, which offered work opportunities in tree-planting programs to impoverished women;

and more recently, Patricia Gualinga and her daughters, of the Sarayaku people, have led the defense of the Ecuadorian Amazon against the terrible human rights violations that result from oil extraction projects.

Many more women have stood out for the defense of their territories and the natural heritage of humanity and others fight from anonymity.

And her work has inspired the growing participation of young activists in the climate agenda.

More than a century and a half ago, several organized and collective struggles by women began to denounce and fight against systemic inequalities.

Their voices have catapulted changes in labor, social and environmental policies.

Many times putting their own lives at risk, women have led processes and actions that have opened paths for the defense of their communities, territories and ecosystems.

And even today, women at all levels continue to face conditions of inequality and discrimination in political and ecological decision-making scenarios.

As is the case with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The Conference of the Parties (COP), the annual summit held within the framework of the CMUCC, has been committing to adopting gender balance since 2012.

In 2014, it created a Work Program – the Lima Work Program on Gender – to promote the balance and participation of women in climate policy creation scenarios.

However, at the recent COP28, the largest summit ever organized, only 34% of party delegates were women – an increase of just 3% from 2008;

only 19% of the delegations were headed by a woman;

and only 2% had achieved gender parity within them.

Not only that.

Of the 18 UNFCCC councils and advisory bodies, only four had achieved gender parity by 2022.

There is evidence that climate change exacerbates existing gender discrimination.

Scientific studies show that climate change has a greater impact on women and girls, especially those who are indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasants.

Often these women depend on agricultural production.

And their living conditions – often marked by poverty and marginalization – directly expose them to the consequences of extreme climate events, loss of biodiversity and pollution.

According to the FAO, in Latin America women who depend on their crops as a source of food and income represent the majority of people in poverty.

These rural women make up 29% of the workforce and are responsible for more than 50% of food production.

Which means that, although Latin American women guarantee half of the food sovereignty of the entire continent, they are not equally taken into account to participate in the structures that decide on climate change policies.

Recently, the Constituent Assembly of Women and Gender – the platform for organizations that ensure women's rights and gender justice in the context of climate change conventions – published an open letter to the presidency and the organization of the future COP29, in which they are required to ensure gender parity at the summit.

Not only the constituent organizations signed.

More than 180 civil society groups subscribed to the intention of this statement, which urged gender equality from a necessarily intersectional approach, and that it should not continue to be a subsequent or additional consideration.

The global framework for action on climate change, internationally supported although not limited to the Paris Agreement, recognizes that respect for gender equality and the promotion of women's empowerment are key to the environmental future of the planet.

For this reason, it is a priority not to continue postponing the place of women within the conversations that define the future of humanity, especially those who are on the front lines of the climate crisis: indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasant women;

defenders of their families, nature and their communities.

COP30 returns to Latin America, and will be held in Brazil in 2025. This is our opportunity to show real progress towards gender equality in decision-making scenarios on climate change.

We have already recognized that gender considerations must be integrated as a transversal element of climate actions and ambitions, without losing sight of the socioeconomic and cultural aspects of different groups.

It is time, then, to promote and implement the gender approach at all levels, inserting solutions led by women themselves from the different countries and contexts of the global south.

2024 presents a key opportunity to accelerate gender equality.

We call on all countries that have the obligation to review and update their climate commitments for the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) that will be presented at COP30 to include the gender approach in a transversal way , accompanied by financing and promoting the leadership and participation of women in all climate action scenarios, in order to outline a new framework for action.

A fair and effective response to climate change depends on the sum of different voices and perspectives.

We urgently need to listen to and actively include women.

The fight for climate justice is and must also be a fight for gender equality.

The contribution of female leadership is decisive in ensuring a fair, sustainable, resilient future.

As Ana Sandoval, an environmental and human rights defender from Guatemala, said: “In the end, all struggles have the same objective: the defense of life.”

Ana Guzmán León

is a journalist specialized in environmental issues, with an emphasis on the participation of communities and youth in favor of climate justice and

 María Alejandra Aguilar

is a lawyer, with experience in the promotion of human rights and climate action.