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GenderCC Newsletter

October 2021

This newsletter features updates from the GenderCC projects and publications, updates from its members and much more.  

 

GenderCC has been very active with its projects such as GUCCI, Not Without Us! and Education and Awareness Raising Events to promote a global gender just climate policy. Advocacy work of GenderCC has been especially active these past three months in the context of the recent political changes in Germany and upcoming COP26 in Glasgow. GenderCC and other organizations are sharpening their focus on what gender topics to address at the COP26, while still criticizing UK's Covid-19 regulations.

 

This edition will also feature exciting updates from GenderCC members. Among them, the UN House Scotland calls for the participation in their Climate & Gender podcast series, Connecting Women's Voices on Climate Justice.

 

We hope you enjoy this issue!

 

Kind regards,

the GenderCC Secretariat team

 

Content

News from GenderCC

  • DIALOGUES research project on energy citizenship
  • Education and awareness raising events to promote a global gender just climate policy

 

Gender @ UNFCCC

 

Activities of the Gender and Climate Change Community

 

  • Pragya´s work on Gender friendly farm tools for climate adaptation

  • Badabon Sangho Groups’ volunteers, members and team consulted and planned the climate justice programme

  • UN House Scotland invites to listen to and participate in their Climate & Gender podcast series

 

 

News on Gender and Climate Change

  • Why is a gender equitable world also more climate friendly?

 

Who is Who at GenderCC

  • Our new colleague

 

Publications

  • The link between climate change and sexual and reproductive health and rights
  • COVID-19 and the African energy sector: Energy insight

 

Calendar of events

  • Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) Glasgow (https://ukcop26.org/)-- 31 October – 12 November 2021

 

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News from GenderCC

DIALOGUES research project on energy citizenship

GenderCC is part of a large research consortium that will be working on the role of citizens’ initiatives in the energy transition. The key focus of DIALOGUES is on co-creating energy citizenship innovations that include the perspectives of groups currently on the margins of the energy transition such as women, low-income households, energy poor, and ethnic minorities. Beyond the theoretical work such as literature reviews, data bases and a knowledge platform, Citizen Action Labs in eight countries will be designed and carried out. Among others, the project will develop tools to measure the degree, and map the modes of expressing energy citizenship, and finally develop a policy decision tool.  GenderCC will contribute with our gender and energy expertise and ensure that gender will be taken into consideration throughout the project. The project is funded under the EU Horizon2020 research programme. Find the project website here.

Education and Awareness Raising Events To Promote A Global Gender Just Climate Policy

Within our Germany-wide project called 'Education and awareness raising events to promote a global gender just climate policy', more than 100 young adults and adolescents as well as activists and NGO members have been trained throughout the summer. 6 events have been carried out, mostly online, in cooperation with other organisations, regarding ‘global climate justice and gender-responsive climate protection and adaptation measures. A briefing paper and an explanatory video are to be launched in the month of November. 

Gender @ UNFCCC

As the COP26 in Glasgow is nearing, GenderCC and other organisations are sharpening their focus on what gender topics to address at the COP26, while still criticising UK's Covid-19 regulations. As a response the Women and Gender Constituency has joined calls to postpone COP26 to highlight inequality imposed by additional challenges for civil society from the Global South to attend. Moreover, a strong feminist voice at the negotiations seems necessary to show the interlinkage between the global pandemic, patriarchal structures, injustices and the climate crisis and to push countries to support a gender just transition. GenderCC has participated in the preparatory meetings for COP26 organized by the Women and Gender Constituency. It has become clear that negotiations in Glasgow have to be pushed towards including gender and human rights aspects at all levels to reach ambitious National Determined Goals (NDCs), particularly from the Global North, to keep the goal of 1.5°C alive. Women, gender experts and groups need to be actively included in formulating and shaping the NDCs and targets need solid sex and gender disaggregated data, reflecting differences in how women are affected by climate change. A path to 1.5°C also needs strong reflection of Indigenous Peoples rights. Adjusting to a global pandemic, NDCs have to be shaped to include policies addressing the needs of those who have been affected most by the pandemic, and combine efforts to fight social inequalities as well as climate change to join forces for a gender just transition.

With the COP26 held in Glasgow, it is to be expected that activities to declare nuclear power as a "green" solution to the climate crisis will be reinforced. GenderCC has therefore taken up the initiative to dismantle false solutions and highlight once more that women have always been more risk averse and opposing high-risk technology such as nuclear power. Nuclear power remains a costly, high-risk and green-house-gas emitting technology that often is portrayed as being green and a good solution to reduce emissions in the energy sector. Anti-nuclear protests have long  existed, also led by women in particular, but many countries see nuclear power as part of their solution to reduce emissions. At COP26 GenderCC wants to underline that nuclear power is not the way forward and rather urge countries to enhance participation of women in shaping the transition to a zero-carbon, sustainable, fair and  safe energy system. 

 

Activities of the Gender and Climate Change Community

Pragya´s work on Gender friendly farm tools for climate adaptation

Sejuti Basu is a GenderCC member from India. He has been involved with Pragya NGO as its senior manager for research and advocacy. He has shared some insights of recent activities of Pragya NGO. Recognising the crucial role, they play in food security and family nutrition of rural farmer households, Pragya NGO has been working with female farmers in India to provide them with weather updates, soil testing facility, hands-on trainings on climate smart agriculture, and other services at their doorstep through a cadre of trained local youth extension workers. Surveys conducted across 6 districts in Assam and Uttarakhand states in India showed that the female farmers are engaged in time-intensive agricultural activities, with rudimentary tools that are not ergonomic. The women reported experiencing severe pain and discomfort during land preparation, sowing/planting, weeding, harvesting, post-harvest processes. The research team worked with technical experts to identify gender friendly tools for these specific agricultural activities for the target districts according to their crop varieties and terrain characteristics and created a series of videos and digital database on the tools, their benefits, etc. Village level trainings were held with appropriate precautions for COVID-19. The team is now equipping 700+ female farmers of 59 women's Self Help Groups with these gender friendly farm tools to enhance their participation in agricultural activities, while reducing physical drudgery.

 

Badabon Sangho Groups’ volunteers, members and team consulted and planned the climate justice programme

Badabon Sangho is a GenderCC member from Bangladesh. It is a women-led feminist organization  with a  group-based structure. Badabon Sangho started with a feminist approach in engaging women who face the worst forms of sufferings and discrimination regarding land and water-bodies ownership, race, natural disaster and are even expelled from their own lands but forced to remain silent. They have shared that in order to plan the climate justice programme, Badabon Sangho´s groups organised a workshop on 17-18 Sept 2021 at Catholic Bishop Conference of Bangladesh (CBCB) centre. It was a two-days long workshop where participants debated, consulted, and planned the future strategies. Most importantly, it was discussed how needs and constraints of groups members in climate change conditions can be addressed, what  the rights violation issues in the working areas are,  what kinds of field implementation tools there are. Governance structures were deeply discussed, consulted, and finally the groups came up with points. 

Particularly the workshop discussed on the land and river grabbing/ownership conflicts and how it is affecting the members´ livelihoods as well.

UN House Scotland

UN House Scotland, a volunteer-run, women-led civil society organization based in Edinburgh, invites you to listen to and participate in our Climate & Gender podcast series, Connecting Women's Voices on Climate Justice. We are bringing together women climate activists to dialogue on shared strategies and common goals for climate action and have so far covered topics including food security and women in farming, the Sustainable Development Goals, child marriage and climate change, and women in WASH careers. Please get in touch with us at climate.justice(at)unhscotland.org.uk and listen in at unhscotland.org.uk/podcasts

News on Gender and Climate Change

Why is a gender equitable world also more climate friendly?

A contribution from Sarah Louis Montgomery, the GenderCC employee, on the topic of how and why gender-equitable world is also climate friendly. She posits that the climate crisis affects us all. But we do not all contribute equally to it and we are not all equally affected by its impacts. For now, it is only available in German. Read the german version here

Who is who at GenderCC

Our new colleague

Farina Hoffmann is a new addition to the GenderCC team and has already started supporting the "Not Without Us!" project working towards COP26 in Glasgow. From November onwards Farina will also be part of the "Gender Into Urban Climate Change Initiative" project. Her political interests and hobbies include: climate justice, postcolonialism, online security and privacy/digital colonialism, queerfeminism and intersectionality. She obtained her graduate studies in Environmental Sciences at the University of Bayreuth in Germany and has worked at an environmental NGO (GRÜNE LIGA e.V.) on resource issues before. 

Publications

The link between climate change and sexual and reproductive health and rights

We know that a gender-equal world would be wealthier, healthier, more peaceful, and more productive. We also know that to realize that vision and reap the benefits of a gender-equal world, we need to identify and address how interconnected climate change issues and the health and rights of girls and women are. Gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and climate change issues are inextricably linked. Read more

COVID-19 and the African energy sector: Energy insight

As elsewhere in the world, COVID-19 continues to ravage Africa, causing thousands of deaths and an unprecedented health crisis that is damaging to every aspect of the social and economic lives of millions of people. The energy sector is among the hardest hit, with far-reaching consequences for access to electricity for millions of Africans. Drawing on key COVID-19-related energy tracker reports and recent studies, this Insight Paper argues for stimulus packages that enhance universal access to sustainable electricity. Policy responses always need to be context - based, as different African countries and regions face different challenges and opportunities. Read more

Calendar of Events

•    Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) Glasgow - 31 October – 12 November 2021.