COP30’s uphill battle to shift from gender rhetoric to action
Gender-responsive policy is vital for climate resilience, but that requires actionable and better resourced plans.
Women and girls make up 80% of people displaced by climate change, leaving them at risk of increased poverty, violence and exploitation. They are also much more likely than men to be injured or killed in natural disasters because gender inequalities have created discrepancies in healthcare, access to information, resources and decision making.
Climate change also amplifies existing gender inequalities, intensifying the vulnerabilities of those already disadvantaged. Gender-responsive climate policies are therefore vital for building resilience and ensuring transformative and effective climate action.
Integrated responses are required to address these deeply linked issues. However, no country in the world is on course to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals’ gender equality targets. These goals are critical for climate resilience and could enable women to help their communities withstand the impacts of climate change.
At the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), states agreed that a comprehensive Gender Action Plan would be developed at this year’s COP30 in Belém, Brazil. They also agreed to extend the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) Lima Work Programme (LWPG), set up in 2014 to address climate and gender at the intergovernmental level. The programme recognises that climate justice requires addressing environmental and social inequities, positioning women as vital agents of change.
Although valuable, the LWPG has struggled to deliver due to insufficient resources and limited integration of gender across the convention. Persistent issues include inconsistent representation of women in UNFCCC processes and COP delegations, and limited implementation support for developing countries.
Gender Climate Tracker shows that since 2008, no COP has achieved equal gender representation and participation in delegations. At COP29, only 35% of all country delegates were women, suggesting systemic barriers in achieving gender equality in climate negotiations.
Another setback at COP29 was the pushback against language on human rights, intersectionality, and recognising the diversity of women’s experiences. Egypt, Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia opposed the use of gender-inclusive language and sought to ensure binary distinctions, limiting any wording that could reference lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other (LGBTQ+) people.
These disagreements reflect a complex global rollback on human rights and gender, including at UN events.
COP must also grapple with the tension between what some countries consider progressive and others see as controversial or unacceptable. In addition, some Nationally Determined Contributions outlined specific gender-related commitments, while others made general references or excluded them entirely. These differences undermine consensus, making it difficult for states to align their ambition, language and scope of action at COP.
Africa faces severe climate risks, which hit women and girls hardest, especially in rural and conflict-affected areas. This underscores the importance of Africa’s involvement at COP, particularly regarding gender.
Despite the continent’s growing participation in talks, the African Group of Negotiators lacks a strong position on gender. African delegations face significant financial gaps, limiting their attendance, preparation and meaningful engagement. All states at COP29 urged the UNFCCC secretariat to help ensure that national gender focal points could attend meetings. This kind of support is critical to strengthening Africa’s voice at the negotiating table.
Without implementation funding, the Gender Action Plan will remain aspirational, especially for developing countries
Ahead of COP30, the African Group of Negotiators is calling for the new Gender Action Plan to respond to Africa’s realities on the ground and the needs of vulnerable women and girls. Their recommendations include asking developed states to provide technical and financial means to implement the plan.
Technical requests include training national gender focal points, enhancing gender data and monitoring systems, supporting the mainstreaming of gender in climate policies, and building capacity for gender impact assessments. Financial requests are for implementing national gender action plans, supporting women’s participation in climate negotiations, providing access to climate technologies, and improving women and girls’ resilience.
The COP29 decision on the Gender Action Plan emphasises the urgency of greater support for developing countries, but lacks financial and enforcement mechanisms to deliver it. Without dedicated funding for implementation, the plan will remain aspirational, especially for developing countries. For a COP aiming to negotiate ambitious finance goals, Baku missed the opportunity to ensure arrangements to fund the plan, with clear, measurable targets.
The African Group of Negotiators must push for gender to be integrated across COP agenda items
The New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) is a climate finance agreement that aims to raise at least US$300 billion a year by 2035 to support developing countries’ climate action. While it says climate finance must benefit women and other marginalised groups, the agreement is not legally binding. That, together with the lack of accountability measures, makes the NCQG’s call for ‘scaled-up support’ a mere ambition for developing countries.
Billed as the ‘People’s COP’, Belém is expected to centre the voices and needs of local and indigenous communities. But to make a difference, the Gender Action Plan needs measurable targets with a dedicated funding mechanism. Gender must be elevated from a peripheral issue to a cross-cutting issue incorporated across key COP30 outcomes, particularly the Nationally Determined Contributions, just transition and adaptation.
In the lead-up to COP30, stronger internal coordination in the African Group of Negotiators is needed to present a clear position with a coherent message that centres Africa’s priorities. The group must push for gender to be integrated across COP agenda items, requesting the UNFCCC secretariat to support this.
This will require African negotiators to be supported with the expertise and staffing to meaningfully engage in the UNFCCC processes, especially as negotiations become more technical and focused on outcomes.
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