GenderCC @ COP19

Driving home the link between gender and climate change

The development sector online information hub Devex has published an article on gender events at COP19. It features an interview with GenderCC member Maira Zahur, who spoke at a side-event organised by the Indonesian government in the first week aiming to more fully explore the linkages between gender and climate change. An expert on disaster risk reduction, Maira shares her experience of working with the Pakistani government: “in simple terms, I advise them on how to use certain policies on the ground, how they can benefit women, how they should be revised, edited or extended, and how they can be taken to the grassroots level, explaining to people what things are there for their benefit.”

The article also features her full assessment of the negotiations in Warsaw, as well as an interview with a representative of Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF).

To read more, please click here.

Gender Events @ COP19: An Overview

Impressions from the GenderCC team in Warsaw

Trish Glazebrook, GenderCC board member (USA): "I had several expectations from the COP, such as to connect strongly with the women's caucus, meeting with the GenderCC and get some business done, but I was also hoping that the high level would try to make some progress.
Now I feel like we are actually going backwards and that the gender decision has been turned into a joke, which doesn't actually have anything to do with the concrete agreement that we are supposed to be ironing out. I also think Paris is becoming an excuse to not actually do something now. The system is desperately broken and my only comfort is that there are states, municipalities and different organisations that are working really hard on this."

Nicky Broeckhoven, GenderCC member (Belgium): "I was already pretty disappointed with the process after being at the intersessionals in Bonn but the reason for me to come to Warsaw was more seeing what civil society organisations are doing and how they putting pressure on governments and delegates. I also feel that from the side events there is a lot of things going on at the national at the local level and that the things that are going on there are much more important than the negotiations. I will keep following the process, because I think it is really important for women and gender organisations to be involved."

Kuini Rabo, SPC, GenderCC project partner (Fiji): "It was nice to be here but I actually prefer working locally because I really see the benefits for the community. Capacity building, as through the ICI project (International Climate Initiative, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety), is really important as it gives people training and tools to adapt to the influence of climate change, in a positive way, together with applying peoples traditional knowledge."

Yvette Abrahams, GenderCC member (South Africa): "This is my third COP and somehow it is a very disappointing process, with parties playing power games in the face of severe planetary disturbance. On the other hand this is the only global process we have, so I continually come to the COP being conflicted. The thing I always like about it is that civil society organisations from different localities are able to come together. The fact that something someone is doing in Berlin matters to what another one does in Fiji, and also matters to what I am doing in Cape Town. That side of COP is never disappointing! The official talks this time appear to be more than the ordinary ineffective COP and all I can say is if this is the best we can do in the global process, then there is every reason to quietly sit and cry.”

Patricia Bohland, former intern (Germany): "I think think process really has to more strongly engage the civil society because in Copenhagen there was really the expectation that there will be an agreement and change but nothing has really progressed. We have to get activated again and engage and put pressure on governments.”

Publications

Exposing Gender Gaps in Financing Climate Change Mitigation – and Proposing Solutions

By the International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy (ENERGIA), published by the Global Gender and Climate Alliance (GGCA) and the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) and supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) (2013):

Over the past few years, the UNFCCC has adopted gender-sensitive decisions on nearly every thematic area of the climate change negotiations.
While there has been exceptional progress on the understanding of the intersection of gender equality issues and climate change adaptation, less is understood about the connections between gender equality and climate change mitigation.
This paper presents three case studies and an overview highlighting the best practices from mitigation projects implemented in Colombia, Mali and Nepal, and makes recommendations for next steps to improve research on the issue and develop gender-sensitive tools geared to climate finance and mitigation experts and practitioners. Please find the full paper here.

Call for papers

“Gender and Global Ecological Crisis” for International Feminist Journal of Politics (IFjP) Annual Conference, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA May 9-11th, 2014 by Jade Sasser (Department of Women’s Studies, Loyola Marymount University)

Potential topics include: critical gender, race, and class analysis of ecological crisis discourses and narratives; new framings of population-environment crisis; gendered dimensions of natural disasters and climate change; gender, consumption, and technology; gender, ecological crisis, and international development, and more. The submission deadline is the 31st of January, 2014

For more information, please visit the event homepage.