Is there a link between gender equality and climate action?
The human sex ratio is clear: the population is cut in half. A division that is elevated by a wide variety of gender identities. In the global picture of the world, it is also clear that we can’t leave these rich diversities apart. All voices need to participate for common causes.
This is why today, for the Women’s Day 2024, we decide to dedicate some thoughts on the link between gender equality and climate action. According to the World Bank in 1991: «Women play an essential role in the management of natural resources, including soil, water, forests, and energy […] and often have a profound traditional and contemporary knowledge of the natural world around them». Over the years, this consideration has got more and more evident, along with the realization that genders are not equally represented in the tables where climate action and talk are usually displayed.
Although recent global climate policy spaces demonstrate efforts towards this integration, there is an evident lack of commitment towards further advancement, as well as a lack of ambition. Feminist and environmental coalitions are notably allied to get people more conscious through communication campaigns and grassroot movements.
Advocacy organizations are born all around the world to promote an equal access to institutional floors, and this is the case of WEDO. The Women’s Environment and Development Organization was established in 1991 by former US Congresswoman Bella Abzug and journalist Mim Kelber, mobilizing step-by-step an extraordinary group of women from different countries. WEDO foresees a just world that promotes and protects human rights, gender equality, and the integrity of the environment. To do so, the organization wants to advance feminist leadership and solution towards a healthy planet through some strategic approaches That is, advocacy and influence, capacity building and training, knowledge production and outreach, redistribution of resources.
WEDO framework includes:
- Moving Power by growing grassroots leadership.
- Moving Money by increasing access to and influence over multilateral financial instruments.
- Moving Minds by increasing knowledge and data.
Data-driven assets are carried on by WEDO thanks to the Gender Climate Tracker, which seeks to tackle gender-responsive action globally, particularly in relation to the implementation of UN policies. GCT is a platform and a digital application too, which provides easy, on-the-go access to key statistics, documentations, and research related to the matter for the community who recognizes the interlinkages between gender and climate change. Browsing the website, users can find country reports and latest news on the state-of-art in all the different areas of the world. Every question on transparency and accountability is solved through neat communications and external sources to integrate the knowledge on the issue.
What we learn from an international recurrence, such as the Women’s Day, is that it is usually celebrated because there is a picture (genders live and exist) where some spots (not everybody is well represented) are missed (although they have a role in the environmental crisis) and need to be filled (by the equal access to the decision-making process). Organizations and movements’ efforts are thus fundamental for the promotion of the greatest painting deserved by the Earth.
Cover image: © 2004-2018 Women's Environment and Development Organization