Gender and Climate Change. Overview Report

„The absence of women, particularly those from the global South, from national and international discussions and decision-making on climate change and development must change. The battle to protect the environment is not solely about technological innovation – it is also about empowering women and their communities to hold their governments accountable for results.‟
Mary Robinson and Wangari Maathai (Huffington Post 2010)
Why focus on gender and climate change?
Climate change is increasingly being recognised as a global crisis, but responses to it have so far been overly focused on scientific and economic solutions, rather than on the significant human and gender dimensions. This report highlights the need to put people at the centre of climate change responses, paying particular attention to the challenges and opportunities that climate change presents in the struggle for gender equality.
It advocates for an approach in which women and men have an equal voice in decision-making on climate change and broader governance processes and are given equal access to the resources necessary to respond to the negative effects of climate change; where both women‟s and men‟s needs and knowledge are taken into account and climate change policymaking institutions and processes at all levels are not biased towards men or women; and where the broad social constraints that limit women‟s access to strategic and practical3resources no longer exist.
The report shows that there is much to learn from innovative, gender-aware approaches to climate change that are already happening at the local level, led by non-governmental organisations, communities and individuals, which are leading to transformations in gender and social inequalities in some cases. National, regional and international initiatives are also playing a key role in promoting the need to integrate gender dimensions into all climate change policy and practice.