Women lead in Bali for a better climate

12 December 2007

Women environment ministers and leaders have come together in a unique event to ensure that gender issues are prominent in climate policy and action. The Network of Women Ministers and Leaders for Environment, created in 2002, was meeting during the UN Climate Changge Conference in Bali, Indonesia.

In her opening remarks, South African Deputy Minister of Environment, and Network Co-Chair, Rejoice Mabudafhasi pointed out that women – more than half the world’s population – must be equal partners in order to meet the complex environmental challenges of our time.

IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre, attending the meeting, said that all people – women and men – are needed to solve the serious environmental issues that the world is facing. “We need equitable access to information, transparency in decision-making processes, and good stakeholder analysis to prevent potentially negative impacts from not including gender in climate policy”. She also stated that IUCN will continue to support the Network.

As result of the meeting, the Network called upon the signatory countries and Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to:

• Recognize that women are powerful agents of change and that their full participation is critical in adaptation and mitigation climate policies and initiatives, and hence, guarantee that women and gender experts participate in all decisions related to climate change;

• Take action in order to ensure UNFCCC compliance with human rights frameworks, international and national commitments on gender equality and equity, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW);

• Develop a gender strategy, invest in gender-specific climate change research and establish a system for the use of gender-sensitive indicators and criteria for governments to use in national reporting to the UNFCCC Secretariat;

• Analyze and identify gender-specific impacts and protection measures related to floods, droughts, heat waves, diseases, and other environmental changes and disasters;

• Given that millions of poor women affected by climate change live and work outside the reach of formal markets, design and implement funding mechanisms accessible to them to reduce their particular vulnerabilities. In addition, increase equitable access by poor women and men to climate change market-based approaches such as the Clean Development Mechanism.

For more information:

Lorena Aguila, lorena.aguilariucn.org