The Paris Climate Conference
(officially known as COP21) was the first time in over twenty years of UN negotiations
where the aim was to achieve a legal and universal agreement on climate change.
This landmark conference came after years of various climate change negotiations that produced the Kyoto Protocol and the Green
Climate Fund. What was clear was that the talks in Paris needed to provide
something new: a global consensus on the way forward. Alongside governments
were NGOs, activists, policy makers and experts wanting to give their input. Soroptimist International UN
Representatives, Marie-Christine Gries de la Barbelais and Rina Dupriet were active at the Paris Climate Conference too, representing the
voices of women and girls.

However, ensuring that gender, and
the needs of women and girls was integrated throughout this new global climate
deal was a struggle. In the eyes of many, this important requirement of any
climate agreement was not achieved.  Perhaps the reason for this was that not enough women were present at the negotiating table.

Mary Robinson, UN Special Envoy for Climate Change said: “This
is a very male world [at the conference]. When it is a male world, you have
male priorities.” As she points out, “If you don’t have women here, how can you
say this is about people?”

Despite Christiana Figueres being the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), there were few women at the negotiating table. Furthermore, out
of two weeks of talks only one day, known as ‘gender day’, was designated to specifically
talking about how climate change affects women and girls. The consequences of
these two things mean that women were not equal participants in the decision
making process.

Therefore, the significance of
the effects of climate change on women and girls, nor their role in
combating climate change in-situ, was reflected in discussions. As a result,
the needs of some are disproportionately heard over others living in more
vulnerable situations. It is possible to speculate that if women and girls had
been included then a different result may have been reached.

“It is necessary to promote
sustainable development, the protection of environment, and the quality of life
– especially for people who live in great poverty all over the world! … Across Africa
and South America, and indeed all over the world, women can contribute and
bring precious value in the process of climate change politics.” – an extract
of a blog from Rina Dupriet, SI UN Representative in Paris. Please click here
to read in full.

For some, the need to engage
women and girls in climate change issues is not obvious. Climate change is a notoriously complicated
global challenge, and actions that need to combat it appear to require national
and international approaches taken by governments and corporations. However, at
the core of the climate change issue, is how economic activity is undertaken. Therefore,
although climate change has global consequences it also concerns the behaviour
of individuals. This then directly affects how people are empowered within
their own communities to take action. For example, with many rural farmers being
women, their need to understand climate change and to adopt practices to farm
sustainably is significant. Another example can be seen with solar power, shown
by ‘See Solar, Cook Solar’. Equipping women with solar cookers and lights not
only reduces the environmental impact of power production but it also empowers
them, and can be the only effective energy solution in many remote places.

 

 

Photo: Women in Fiji are shown how to use a solar cooker funded by ‘See Solar, Cook Solar’, SI Past President Ann Garive’s President’s Appeal. 

This shows that it is also
important to remember that many of those most affected by the effects of
climate change live in precarious and vulnerable situations, and many of those
are women and girls. After natural disasters, women and girls face additional
risks and challenges. Rooted in pre-existing gender inequalities these impacts
can include increased rates of violence, unequal access to humanitarian
assistance, loss of economic and education opportunities and an increased
workload. 

Although the agreement reached
in Paris was positive – the aim to keep the global temperature rise well below
two degrees Celsius is a major success. However, because women were not equal
participants, the role that they have to play in promoting change at the
grassroots has been underestimated. This means that whatever actions
governments take, it will be harder for communities also to take the lead on
tackling climate change and its effects that they experience.

Photo: Christiana Figueres (left); Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (second left); Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); Laurent Fabius (second right), Minister for Foreign Affairs of France and President of the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP21) and François Hollande (right), President of France celebrate after the historic adoption of Paris Agreement on climate change. This year’s Conference is the twenty-first session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP21) and the eleventh session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 11). Image courtesy of UN Photo.