Women Push for Greater Gender Awareness in Climate Change Talks
Former Irish President Mary Robinson says United Nations climate change talks need to start getting politically incorrect about women.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the body that’s led climate treaty negotiations for two decades, has seen an influx of women leaders over the past three years, yet little progress has been made when it comes to raising the gender issue and giving women a bigger role throughout the scope of the process, according to Robinson.
“There’s a reluctance of individual women to bring out the gender dimension, partly because it’s so obvious,” Robinson said in an interview in Durban, South Africa, where more than 190 countries are trying to reach new agreements to fight global warming today. “They feel it’s expected of them and then become inhibited and don’t do it.”
While the UNFCCC 10 years ago called for improvement in the “gender balance” within the group, “it’s not happening,” Robinson said.
The technology executive committee formed last year, for example, has 18 men and two women. A board focused on funds for adaptation to climate change, a critical issue for women worldwide, has 12 men and four women.
Advocates for stronger focus on women’s issues within the climate talks say their mission is twofold: to influence negotiations with more of a woman’s perspective, and to highlight the need for more focus on helping women grappling with the droughts, food shortages and rising coastlines linked to climate change.
‘Uphill Struggle’
“We are still in an uphill struggle trying to explain why this issue is so critical to the overall discussion we are having on climate change,” Melanne Verveer, U.S. ambassador-at- large for global women’s issues, said in an interview in Durban. ‘The majority of women are dealing with energy issues, fuel issues, food security issues. They are severely impacted by all of this. They are most vulnerable and the most burdened.’’
Negotiators trying to strike new deals in Durban are stuck over issues including establishing a Green Climate Fund and raising $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor nations shift to low-emissions energy sources and combat the effects of global warming.
It’s crucial women have access to the funds, said Robinson, whose foundation bearing her name has pushed for a “troika plus” of women’s leaders within the climate talks.
‘No Good’
“The $100 billion is no good unless it’s also accessible and it’s not too complicated,” she said.
Women also are critical within the climate talks because of their inherent inclination to seek agreement, according to Edna Molewa, South Africa’s lead negotiator.
“If any party is unhappy, it’s a recipe for disaster,” she said in an interview in Durban. “Women pay attention to those kinds of details. We are always massaging and bringing negotiations back from the brink.”
Christiana Figueres, the UN diplomat leading the discussions, agrees.
“I guess I’m biased because I’m a woman, but I feel that women have a greater tendency to look for the common ground and to really listen to each other just because that’s in our DNA,” she said in an interview. “We are the ones who bear the children and we’re very sensitive to the state of the future of this world.”
Former South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo, now chairman of the Global Green Growth Institute in Seoul, says women can have a soothing effect on often tense negotiations.
“Not just in climate change, women play a much calmer role in major policy issues domestically as well as internationally,” he said in an interview in Durban. “They are more sensitive to the issues as well, so their role in the future should be expanded.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Kim Chipman in Washington at kchipman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net
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