Gender activities leading up to COP17 in Durban

A series of AWG sessions paves the road to Durban, advancing the negotiations in order to facilitate results at COP17. The next sessions take place from 3 to 8 April in Bangkok (AWG-KP16 and AWG-LCA14) and from 6 to 17 June in Bonn (34th session of the UNFCCC Convention Subsidiary Bodies). At the end of COP 16, parties didn’t come up with a fair, ambitious and binding deal to tackle climate change. However, the reached agreements could provide a basis for an agreement to be made in Durban at the end of 2011.

In many respects, women and gender organizations and activists could be happy about the outcome of COP 16. Not only that the total number of references in the final text of the Ad Hoc Working Group on long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) increased, there are also qualitative differences compared to previous draft texts.

Have a look at the women and gender references in the decisions from COP 16 here.

Outcome: Grassroots Women’s Conference on Climate Change

On 24 and 25 November 2011, over 50 women from South Africa and other world regions came together in Durban at the Grassroots Women’s Conference on Climate Change.

The conference was jointly presented by GenderCC and the Land Access Movement of South Africa (LAMOSA). The two days were a wonderful opportunity for participants to come together to discuss climate change issues, share experiences and consider strategies and solutions. Key themes that were raised at the conference included education and awareness-raising, access to land and resources, and transparency in decision-making. The conference also considered ways in which grassroots women’s experiences could be linked into the UNFCCC process.

At the end of the conference, participants endorsed a conference statement to be presented at COP 17. The conference statement will be released during the first week of COP 17.

Grassroots Women's Conference on Climate Change

GenderCC – Women for Climate Justice will host an international conference of grassroots women prior to the UNFCCC COP17 on 24th /25th of November 2011, in Durban (South Africa), for exchange and expression of grassroots women’s climate change issues and demands for COP17.

GenderCC – Women for Climate Justice, in cooperation with LAMOSA, is pleased to host an interna-tional conference for grassroots women in Durban, South Africa, on 24 and 25 November 2011. The conference will take place just prior to the UNFCCC's COP 17 and will focus on how grassroots women can take part in the global movement towards achieving a fair, just and legally binding international climate change agreement. The conference will bring together grassroots women from various world regions and representatives of development organisations, NGOs and other groups working on the issues of gender and climate change.

In particular, the objectives of the conference are to:

provide a platform for women from different backgrounds to share their challenges and experi-ences on issues of climate change;
highlight the key needs of grassroots women, particularly in terms of climate financing;
explore opportunities for lobbying and advocacy for inclusive and gender-sensitive national and international climate change policy;
strengthen and rejuvenate grassroots women's movements and networks; and
develop a conference statement in order to bring the demands and interests of grassroots women to the attention of COP 17 and future international climate change negotiations.

As countries prepare for COP 17 and work on their negotiation positions – which in most cases do not consider gendered impacts of climate change or gender-sensitive strategies for mitigation – it is time for grassroots women to come together and strengthen their voice.

The conference is kindly supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit.

Bonn: SB 34 Climate Change Talks, June 6-17, 2011

During the first days, GenderCC, in cooperation with Boell foundation, WECF, WEDO and others, have prepared a submission to the Transitional Committee on how to include gender considerations in the Committee’s work to design the Green Climate Fund. The establishment of the Green Climate Fund, and of the Transitional Committee and its tasks have been adopted at the last COP in Cancun.
(Submission in the download box)

GenderCC hosted a side event “Financing gender sensitive adaptation in developing countries: problems and prospects” on the 9th of June. Speakers were Sharmind Neelormi from Bangladesh, GenderCC’s Focal Point for Asia, Dr. Uddin Ahmed from the Center for Global Change (CGC), Bangladesh, and Rachel Burger, Practical Action, UK. WEDO, together with partners, hosted a side event on “Women and Climate Finance: Past Experiences Inspiring Future Funds”
Downloads of the presentations of both events can be found at
http://regserver.unfccc.int/seors/reports/events_list.html?session_id=SB34

During an SBI workshop stakeholder participation (SBI in-session workshop to further develop ways to enhance the engagement of observer organizations), Gotelind Alber, Focal Point of the Women and Gender observer NGO constituency, gave a presentation. She proposed, among others, to establish a Gender Advisory Group to respond to the need for more gender expertise in the process.

Various interventions were held by members of Women and Gender, during the LCA opening session, and during the SBI and SBSTA closing sessions. In the SBI intervention Rachel Harris from WEDO addressed the need for integrating gender into national communications of developing countries. In her SBSTA intervention, Ulrike Roehr from LIFE e.V. called for a paradigm shift in REDD, in putting forest people in the centre of efforts rather than counting tons of carbon. For further information see the download box on the right.

Further events included a workshop on gender and mitigation organised by the German Development Agency GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) on 10 June. After an overview of the practical experiences in the field of gender and mitigation, a keynote statement was given by Ulrike Röhr, representing GenderCC, addressing the challenges, ideas and opportunities of mainstreaming gender into mitigation processes.

Bangkok, Thailand: Climate Change Talks, April 3 to 8, 2011

As the Bangkok climate talks are about to end, there are more reasons for women to be worried, not only about substantive issues but also the very direction where the talks are heading. Efforts of developed countries in keeping the Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Action Plan in oblivion are quite apparent while discussion on the Long Term Cooperative Action has been stalled. We fear that we are stuck with a half-baked pie from Copenhagen and Cancun.

Contact person: Nina Somera – nina(at)gendercc.net / +63 9218122066

Interventions

Sharmind Neelormi, GenderCC, representing GenderCC and WECF, was supposed to address adaptation in her intervention in the opening AWG-LCA plenary. Unfortunately, the plenary didn't take place until the very last evening of the talks and civil society was not allowed to submit interventions anymore.

Nina Somera, GenderCC, was able to hold the first intervention on behalf of the Women and Gender Constituency at the AWG-KP plenary.

The constituency asks for a concrete improvement of gender considerations within the AWG KP process through the establishment of an advanced differentiated database to demonstrate empirically the differences between men and women regarding climate change. In addition, the constituency sees the need to train policymakers properly on the links between gender, vulnerability and solutions for climate change such as decentralized energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions. Finally, parties need to assure that women represent 50% in all assessment committees and boards of funding mechanisms.

All interventions are available in the interventions box on the right side.

Press release Women more vulnerable but neglected in climate talks

Women leaders from various social movements and civil society
organizations from across the world sounded a warning at the direction of the United
Nations climate negotiations.
In a press conference chaired by the Thai Working Group on Climate Justice, and held
at the current round of the talks in the UN headquarters in Bangkok, Wardarina of
Jubilee South-Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development, Anne Maina of the
Pan African Climate Justice Alliance and Meena Raman of the Friends of the Earth
International said women are more harshly affected by the climate crisis.Women speak out on climate change, demand climate justice

You can read the full press release here.

Submission to the UNFCCC AWG-LCA: Views on New Market-based Mechanism

In February 2011, Focus on the Global South made a Submission on new market-based mechanism (decision -/CP.16, paragraphs 80 – 82) on behalf of a number of other organisations, among them GenderCC.

In the submission, the organisations take a critical view at the performance of the market based mechanisms established under the UNFCCC so far and present their concerns with sectoral approaches, as they appear to be gaining interest among parties.

The conclusion of the organizations is that the precautionary principle and experience from the CDM together suggest that any baseline-and-credit based market mechanisms must be rejected unless – which is highly improbable - credible efforts are made to resolve the problems outlined in the submission. (…) The foremost mitigation objective of any future climate regime must be the support of the decarbonisation of developed countries’ economies and support for low-carbon development of developing countries. Any mechanisms under such a regime, including any market based mechanisms, must be thoroughly scrutinised to assess whether they support rather than weaken or neutralise these main mitigation objectives.

You can download the submission in the download box to the right.