COP27 is the perfect vehicle to recognise and augment how women and girls can bring innovative climate actions and solutions, despite the astonishing fact that the world is 300 years off track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5 – the achievement of gender equality by 2030.
Sima Bahous, the United Nations under-secretary-general and executive director of UN Women, told delegates at the COP27, being held in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt and which ends today, November 18, that without gender equality, there was no climate justice.
She said gender equality was the crucial missing link to achieve the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, the Agreed Conclusions of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the Paris Agreement and subsequent COP outcomes, as well as the collective commitments of Generation Equality, a campaign that demands equal pay, equal sharing of unpaid care and domestic work, an end to sexual harassment and all forms of violence against women and girls, healthcare services that respond to their needs and their equal participation in political life and decision-making in all areas of life.
Fatima Mohammed Mafi, a climate activist, youth and girl child advocate, told RNI that women had a significant role to play in combating climate change at the community level by establishing measures to protect small kids and infants against extreme harsh weather conditions and diseases. This was extremely important because children were the leaders of tomorrow.
“So, protecting children against the effects of climate change is the same as protecting the future generation,” the 21-year-old said.
Many women were doing their bit to combat climate change already by planting trees which in the years to come would be of benefit to human beings, animals and all living species, providing shade and vegetables and fruits.
“As a woman and a climate activist, youth and girl child advocate, I do my best to create awareness among women about the effects of climate change on local communities, particularly in rural areas. I and fellow like-minded women feel strongly that not enough has been done to make women and girls aware of the hazards of climate change. So, we have already started creating the awareness, education and enlightenment at schools and communities through our movement, Girls Get Equal, which is supported by Plan International. We believe girls deserve more recognition and respect for their rights to be seen, to be heard and to have a say in how their future will be shaped,” said Mafi.
“We feel it is very important to make women aware about the effects of climate change and the necessity to find its short- and long-terms solutions. For example, we tell them to try to avoid cutting down trees to forestall deforestation. Instead, we encourage them to plant many more trees to ensure afforestation.
“Sometimes, Girls Get Equal collaborates with other local and international non-governmental organisations [NGOs] as well as government ministries, departments and agencies. Our activities encompass all aspects of women and girls’ lives and we encourage them to participate in politics, the total inclusion of women in decision-making processes, girl child education, the role of women in business, science and technology. This is a patriarchal society and we want women to fight that. They should be allowed to do whatever they want, without male interference.”
Mafi said women should help to consolidate the efforts of government in the fight against climate change.
“It’s our responsibility to voice issues concerning us in terms of climate change and to urge world leaders to include women in the fight against it. COP27 has been called the summit of implementation. So many other summits have held negotiations and discussions; there are speeches galore but the problem is that nothing is implemented. Let’s hope this COP will be different.”
On Monday, November 14, delegates at COP27 spent time talking about women and climate change. Some of the issues discussed were women’s agency in climate dialogues and implementations; voices of women leaders in climate debates; policies, implementations and beyond; women and climate change finance; African women climate realities: adaptation, mitigation and response; as well as COVID-19 and climate change – women at the centre of planning and response.
Bahous disclosed the astonishing fact that: “Our latest research tells us that the world is not on track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5 – in fact it is 300 years off. Raised ambition and accelerated action for our planet absolutely require the full and equal participation and leadership of women and girls, in all their diversity. Without gender equality, there is no climate justice.
“Our opportunity at COP27 is to recognise and augment how women and girls are bringing innovative climate actions and other solutions; to understand how our current structures are preventing women’s engagement; and to respond with credible policy and investment measures that take account of the immediate and longer-term effects of the climate change disaster.”
As with all crises, she said, the climate crisis had a greater negative impact on women than men. Women and girls were doubly affected – first by the crisis itself, and further by a set of enduring repercussions that were specific to women’s lives and that had to be tackled as an equal priority.
Bahous said women played transformative roles in climate change adaptation and mitigation and were at the forefront of environmental and climate justice movements, spearheading innovative and effective approaches to promote sustainable energy transitions and agroecology that protected local ecosystems and were based on indigenous knowledge.
“Yet damaging imbalances in decision-making processes persist at all levels, from national governments to intergovernmental climate negotiations. These inequalities are present across all the sectors that are vital for increasing climate adaptive capacity, including energy, agriculture, water infrastructure and education.
“My first ask to COP27 is to take special measures, including quotas, to increase women’s and girls’ full, equal and meaningful participation and leadership at all levels of decision-making, and to address inequalities, including in their access to and control of productive resources such as finance, technology and land.”
This was particularly important for women and girls from poor and marginalised communities.
“We also must act in parallel to address the other factors that exclude and constrain women. As things stand, many women will simply not be able to take up opportunities for increased engagement, whether adding their voices and solutions to decision-making bodies or taking up their full share of the estimated 24 million new jobs in green sectors worldwide.
“Crises bring in their wake an inexorable and chilling intensification of all forms of gender-based violence in both public and private settings – including domestic abuse, trafficking, child marriage, attacks on human rights defenders and cyberviolence. Crises also sharply increase the burden of care, with enormous implications for women’s engagement outside the home, including their ability to contribute to climate action. During the COVID-19 pandemic, women did an additional 512 billion hours of unpaid care work. Millions left the labour market and have not yet returned. These are compounding losses further stimulated by the climate emergency that demand urgent action.”
Bahous said her second ask at COP27 was for support for a just transition for women through an alternative development model. This model would expand gender-responsive public services, universal social protection, health and care systems, integrating measures to generate a care economy and to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls in climate policies and actions. It would also foster sustainable transport and infrastructure with guaranteed new and decent jobs, she said.
“The 66th Session of the Commission on the Status of Woman [CSW66] held in March was clear: We must integrate a gender perspective in the design, funding, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of all national climate plans, policies and actions. It also urged its member states and other stakeholders to expand gender-responsive finance, as does the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Gender Action Plan.”
She said only an estimated 0.01% of global official development assistance addressed both climate change and women’s rights. Making the necessary structural measures required intentional global investments that responded to the crises and supported women’s organisations, women’s leadership and programmes.
“My third ask is that COP’s decisions on global investments, especially for women and girls in developing countries, intentionally and directly amplify and foster women’s skills, resilience and knowledge; ensure that women’s organisations, including young women, are supported and protected; and include specific investment to remove critical barriers for women and put protections in place.
“Our best countermeasure to the threat multiplier of climate change is the benefit multiplier of gender equality. Let us make this the foundation of our global solidarity and our global response.”
SHETTIMA LAWAN MONGUNO
