In parallel to COP1, which took place in Berlin in spring 1995, the International Women’s forum “Solidarity in the Greenhouse” was organised by Women for Peace and Ecology, a German based organisation. The forum attracted 200 women from 25 countries who came together to discuss their views on climate protection.

Organised in four fora, the forum addressed issues like “The energy policy turnaround”, "Transportation and urban planning. Perspectives of women”, “On the implementation of Agenda21: From Rio over Berlin to Beijing and back home” and “Fighting poverty in the South – Changing lifestyles in the North”. The two-days-conference ended with a panel discussion “On the way to the World Women’s Conference: What demands do women have of the UN Climate Summit?”

A list of demands was developed and discussed during the conference for consideration by the delegates. Looking at the demands, there is not much difference to those from today. Women asked for

• The principles of Agenda 21, especially Chapter 24, to become part f climate protection policy;
• Increased participation of women at the policy and expert level of decision making;
• To explicitly consider women’s aspects in the planning and implementation processes in energy, agriculture, transportation etc. To supplement environmental-impact and climate-impact assessments by gender disaggregated research and impact-on-women-studies’;
• To acknowledge in the development process of climate protection strategies that technologically-oriented approaches are not enough; and
• To fund women’s NGOs and networks in order to support their exchange of ideas and to organise themselves.

Eva Quistorp and Alexandra Wandel, main organisers of the conference, sent a letter to Angela Merkel, the current Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, at the time of the first COP she was Germany’s Minister for the Environment and President of the Conference. Signees demanded Ms. Merkel to give representatives from women’s and environment organisations in the conference as the business lobby from coal and oil producing countries have. And referred to their position as the former Women’s Minister to take seriously the demands of the women’s NGOs.

Additionally, women were strongly involved in the drafting of the 10 key demands for the climate summit in Berlin. E.g.: Stop nuclear energy! Change transportation policies in industrialised countries! Climate policy has to be done at home (opposing JI)! Increase significantly the funds!