Women's Leadership for Climate Action in View of

the Gathering and the Paris Climate Summit

Seeds of Power: Women's Gathering in Bolivia,

International Women's Convocation's Webinar

Carmen CaprilesReacción Climática

La Paz, 20 de febrero del 2016

Women and Climate Change• Although less than a decade ago the relationship between women and climate change, as well as the gender dimension of climate change were unknown or not visible, as the impacts of global warming become more severe and tangibly manifest, the relationship becomes increasingly apparent, a series of changes in climate that are manifested in the form of floods, droughts, snow, frost, heat or wind off season have shown a marked relation that is difficult to ignore.

• These events have highlighted the vulnerability of women, especially in rural areas because they are responsible for much of the small-scale farming and highlighting the lack of access to resources, education, health systems Unlike the man who has a different dynamic migration that allows you to opt out of the activities of the house to work in different settings, in the community, in the city or in another country, according to what the situation demands, accessing more education and greater resources

Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development GoalsGoal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhereGoal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agricultureGoal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all agesGoal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for allGoal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girlsGoal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for allGoal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for allGoal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for allGoal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovationGoal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countriesGoal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainableGoal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patternsGoal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts*Goal 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts*Goal 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable developmentGoal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity lossGoal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levelsGoal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development* Acknowledging that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change.

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org

GOAL 5Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls• 5.1End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls

everywhere• 5.2Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in

the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation 

• 5.3Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation 

• 5.4Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate

• 5.5Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life 

• 5.6Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences 

• 5.aUndertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws 

• 5.bEnhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women 

• 5.cAdopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels

GOAL 13Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts*• 13.1Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards

and natural disasters in all countries• 13.2Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and

planning 

• 13.3Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning 

• 13.aImplement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible 

• 13.bPromote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities 

* Acknowledging that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change.

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org

Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework on the

Convention on Climate Change• The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or “UNFCCC”, was adopted during the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992. It entered into force on 21 March 1994 and has been ratified by 196 States, which constitute the “Parties” to the Convention – its stakeholders. 

This Framework Convention is a universal convention of principle, acknowledging the existence of anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change and giving industrialized countries the major part of responsibility for combating it. The Conference of the Parties (COP), made up of all “States Parties”, is the Convention’s supreme decision-making body. It meets every year in a global session where decisions are made to meet goals for combating climate change. Decisions can only be made unanimously by the States Parties or by consensus. 

21st Session of the Conference of the Parties and 11th Session of the Conference of the

Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol- UNFCCC COP 21/ CMP 11

• From November 30th to December 11th, 2015, France hosted and presided the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21/CMP11), otherwise known as “Paris 2015”. COP21 was be a crucial conference, as it had to achieve a new international agreement on the climate, applicable to all countries, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C.

• For more than two weeks, women around the world participated directly in the negotiations, press conferences, training, organizing events, wrote articles, publishing reports and newsletters, joining the demonstrations, marches and collaborating with dozens of colleagues around the world who participated to make an urgent call to action in Paris.

Civil Society participation on the UNFCCCThe Constituencies: Shared platforms for civil society and non-

governmental organizations which observe the annual conferences• There are now around 1,400 such organizations observing the annual

conferences and many have grouped themselves into constituencies. These constituencies provide focal points for easier interaction with the UNFCCC Secretariat, based in Bonn, and individual governments. There are currently nine constituencies and they are broadly grouped by the type of organizations they represent: businesses and industry organizations; environmental organizations; local and municipal governments; trade unions; research and independent organizations; and organizations that work for the rights of indigenous people; young people; agricultural workers; and women and gender rights.

The Women and Gender Constituency: The platform for observer organizations working to ensure women’s rights and gender justice within the climate change convention framework• The Women and Gender Constituency provides a number of ways for

civil society and non-governmental organizations which work for women’s rights and gender justice, environmental protection, or both, to influence the annual conferences and help develop the UNFCCC. It provides a platform to exchange information between members and with the UNFCCC Secretariat. The constituency also ensures that meetings, workshops and conferences include the participation and representation of women’s civil society and non-governmental organizations which otherwise would not be able to attend.

What do we want? A gender responsive climate

agreement!A just and gender-responsive climate agreement can take different forms, but fundamentally it will; • respect and promote human rights and gender equality: • ensure sustainable development and environmental integrity;• require fair, equitable, • ambitious and binding mitigation commitments in line with the principles of Common but

Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR); • call for urgent and prioritized adaptation action and resources that respond to the most

vulnerable countries, communities and populations; • demand a sustainable energy paradigm that prioritizes safe, decentralized renewable energy

systems that benefit people and communities; • ensure adequate, new, additional and predictable climate finance for developing countries; • provide resources to reconcile loss and damage already incurred from climate inaction; • and, ensure full, inclusive and gender-equitable public participation in decision-making, with

increased mandatory ex-ante and periodic human rights and gender equality impact assessments.

• It must ensure that gender equality, equal access to decision making, and benefit sharing are integrated into all its provisions, including through gender-responsive means of implementation.

• Sex and gender disaggregated data and analysis of the underlying causes of any gender disparities must be mainstreamed in all information, communication and reporting systems.

Opening interventions at COP21• PARIS, France (Dec. 1, 2015) – On Tuesday, several interventions were held on behalf of the

Women and Gender Constituency during the opening plenaries at COP21. • Bridget Burns from Women’s Environmental and Development Organization (USA) called in the COP opening plenary

“for a true act of defiance” that would let us leave this COP committing to “a genuinely transformative and binding agreement which challenges dirty economies, political and military systems, and fund renewable and just futures for all”.

• In the SBSTA opening plenary, Kalyani Raj from All India Women’s Conference (India) demanded “safe, affordable and gender-responsive technology development and transfer”, as well as a “rejection of market-based mechanisms in the new agreement”, and progress on gender aspects in other areas of the SBSTA agenda.

• Kate Cahoon from GenderCC – Women for Climate Justice (Germany/Australia) held an intervention in the SBI opening, pointing out that in discussions under the new agreement, the linkages between gender and mitigation and technology are still lacking. She urged Parties to take the lessons learned under the Lima Work Programme on Gender into consideration and push forward with more urgent action

(WGC, Dic 2015)

The Paris Agreement • Acknowledges that climate change is a common concern of humankind, Parties should, when taking action to

address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity.

Aims• The aim of the convention is described in Article 2, "enhancing the implementation" of the UNFCCC through: • "(a) Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to

pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change;

• (b) Increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food production;

• (c) Making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development."

• Countries furthermore aim to reach "global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible".

A Reality Check on the Paris Agreement: Women Demand Climate

JusticeWhat is the purpose of a global climate agreement if not to save people and the planet?• We see that the world wants hope, that we want to congratulate ourselves for moving forward with this process, but

leaders, we are here for a reality check. • This agreement fundamentally does not address the needs of the most vulnerable countries, communities and people

of the world. It fails to address the structures of injustice and inequality which have caused the climate crisis and hold the historical polluters sufficiently to account.

• We know we need to stay below 1.5 degrees for a chance at survival, and we recognize the importance of seeing this goal in the final Paris Agreement. But seeing this goal on paper is not enough. We demand it in actions as the proof of the full commitment to that goal, not a vague aspiration. If not significantly ramped up, countries’ collective emissions plans lead us to the prospect of a 3.2 – 3.7 degree rise.

• We will never give up on our beautiful planet. We will never give up on our demand for climate justice.• This agreement has failed to embrace and respond to this moment for urgent and just transitions, but we have not.

We have used this space of international policy-making to raise our voices and embolden our movements.• Together, we will continue to challenge injustice for the protection of the people and the planet: Another world is

possible!

Climate Action in View of the Gathering• In 2015 new international agendas where agreed focus on sustainable development and climate

change.• We know that there is still a lot to be done and that may be a great opportunity to do things that

involve the women that committed in the gathering to keep on engaging with women and climate change.

• We are aware that although commitments have being made at an international level it is important to work on ground at local and national levels.

• Women are key to achieve sustainable development and to find solutions to climate change therefore it is important to keep empowering women at all levels.

• Spirituality helps us have more conscience on what is going on in the world it is important to have a clear mind and an open heart to be ready to help our beautiful planet.