COP28 review: gender progress in climate action continues to be slow

From climate finance to national delegations, women are underrepresented in climate negotiations and conventions, further jeopardising a just transition

Climate change and biodiversity loss have a bigger impact on women’s livelihoods. Women tend to be more reliant on natural resources and public services, have less secure land rights and have lower incomes than men, says UN Women, making the integration of gender-inclusive factors in climate policy crucial.

The UN agency adds that women’s different priorities and interests should be reflected in climate adaptation, mitigation and loss and damage – yet female views continue to be underrepresented in COP negotiations.

At 2022’s COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, women represented 35 per cent of national delegates – a similar proportion to COP26 in Glasgow – and one in five delegation heads at COP27 was a woman, compared to 13 per cent at COP26. Figures for this year are not yet verified, but an initial analysis by Carbon Brief suggests women made up around 38 per cent of national delegations. 

At the top of the food chain, only 15 out of 133 world leaders participating in the climate negotiations in Dubai this year were women, however. Civil society participation was hardly better: just 2.3 per cent of attendees from non-governmental organisations at COP27 represented women’s groups, says UN Women.

“The COP28 closing was still terribly male dominated. We have more work to do to make the COP process much more inclusive and gender-balanced, including at the top level,” Elise Buckle, co-founder and co-director of SHE Changes Climate, told Sustainable Views.

The group highlighted as an example the treatment of Razan Al Mubarak, UN climate change high-level champion at COP28, and Hana AlHashimi, chief climate negotiator for the United Arab Emirates, saying: “Our disappointment extends to the way the COP28 closing plenary was handled by Sultan Al Jaber. We believe that Hana Al Hashimi and Razan Al Mubarak have worked both tirelessly and diligently in the preceding months in preparation, and yet no credit or visibility has been given to them.”

Gender-inclusive language

The “global stocktake” agreed at the end of COP28 makes two references to women and eight to gender. The section on adaptation suggests that by 2030 all countries should have implemented “country-driven, gender-responsive, participatory and fully transparent national adaptation plans, policy instruments, and planning processes and/or strategies, covering, as appropriate, ecosystems, sectors, people and vulnerable communities, and have mainstreamed adaptation in all relevant strategies and plans.”

However, for many women’s advocates, this does not go far enough.

Despite acknowledging the importance of gender-responsive approaches, the stocktake does not put human rights protections in place as a “cross-cutting” obligation and framing moving forward, says Mwanahamisi Singano, senior global policy lead at the Women’s Environment & Development Organization. She would like to see gender-disaggregated data included in countries’ nationally determined contributions.

A reference to gender and loss and damage was erased from the last draft of the stocktake, which had five references to women and eight to gender. The line “stresses the importance of approaches to loss and damage that are gender-responsive, conflict-sensitive and respect human rights” did not appear in the final version.

“There is much work to do to ensure that gendered loss and damage (both economic and non-economic) is properly recognised,” says UN Women.

Risk of ‘gender blindness’

Some progress was made on the sidelines of COP28, however. Eleanor Blomstrom, senior manager for policy and advocacy at Women Deliver, welcomes the introduction of a “health” day at COP, in addition to a day devoted to gender issues.

She is, however, fearful that the mainstream climate negotiations are taking place separately from gender issues. “Gender did not figure prominently in most of the mainstream conversations and we did not see a discussion of the intersection of gender and key climate issues, such as health, just transition away from fossil fuels, or loss and damage,” Blomstrom told Sustainable Views in a written statement.

There is a risk, she says, that these parts of the climate negotiations will progress in a “gender-blind” way, excluding the expertise and aspirations of marginalised girls and women.

UN Women told Sustainable Views it is looking forward to COP29 in Azerbaijan, where a new gender action plan is expected to be agreed. The draft proposal was signed off at COP28, although specific language on indigenous women was reportedly blocked by Russia, and details on finance are another point still to be fleshed out next year.  

This year’s COP also saw the launch of a “gender-responsive just transitions and climate action partnership”, which focuses on getting better data for transition planning, increasing finance and boosting green skills. Implementation of the initiative, which was endorsed by more than 60 countries, is set for COP31.

Lucy Pearson, executive director of international network the Climate Parliament, said the partnership emphasises the intrinsic link between a just transition and the promotion of gender equality.

“As we work towards improving universal energy access to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7, we need to look at how women are marginalised in access and use of energy, and to comprehend the associated social, economic and health consequences,” she told Sustainable Views.

Green skills

The need to scale up green skills across the board is becoming increasingly apparent, with women particularly poorly equipped for green jobs, and research pointing to a “green gender gap”.

A recent study by LinkedIn indicated that men make up two-thirds of the global green talent pool, talent being defined as having at least one green skill or job experience. Furthermore, only one in 10 women have a green skillset, compared with one in six men; and the green skills gender gap has grown 25 per cent over the past seven years. The gap currently stands at 6.1 percentage points, up from 4.9 percentage points in 2016, according to the LinkedIn analysis.

This dynamic particularly manifests itself in the renewable energy industry, the study suggests. While women are underrepresented throughout the economy, only 34 per cent of workers in the renewable energy industry are women, compared to 44 per cent in other industries.

“The inclusion of women in national and international decision-making processes is essential to an inclusive and sustainable development strategy,” says Pearson at the Climate Parliament.

Climate finance is another aspect that needs more consideration, given that only 3 per cent of climate-related development finance has gender equality as a principal focus or is directed towards women’s environmental activism. UN Women is proposing a new gender and climate fund, to channel finance directly to women’s organisations and gender equality initiatives.