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Gender and Climate Change Activities @ COP22 - Marrakesh 2016

The twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) and the first meeting under the Paris Agreement took place from 7 November to 18 November in Marrakech, Morocco.

GenderCC was there to follow the negotiations, host talks and workshops, and meet participants at our exhibit booth. We were closely involved in the activities of the Women and Gender Constituency.

Below you can read GenderCC's statement on the outcomes of COP22 and learn more about the events, meetings and actions that took place, and take part of the Women and Gender Constituenc's key demands and interventions. 


Joint statement on the outcomes of COP22

GenderCC and LIFE e.V. have published a joint statement on the achievements of COP22 and expectations for the future negotiations. Although COP22 had been labelled the "COP of Action", we have a much more critical view on the follow-up to the Paris Agreement. The overall pace of progress achieved in Marrakech was slow with Parties struggling to come to meaningful actions on pre-2020 emission reduction targets, finance for loss and damage and convincing contributions to the US$100 billion roadmap for climate adaptation. Continue reading the full statement


Gender and urban climate policy @ COP22

Several of GenderCC's activities at COP22 had a focus on urban issues, given that cities are increasingly one of the most important sites of climate action. GenderCC presented its experiences and first findings from the current project Gender into Urban Climate Change Initiative (GUCCI) in the following two side events

Is your city's climate policy gender proof?
Monday, 14 November, Green Zone

This side event gave an introduction to gender-responsive climate policy-making in cities. It addressed non-governmental organisations, researchers and local civil society groups with the aim to raise awareness for the necessity to integrate gender in climate policies and activities for urban areas. Gotelind Alber and Patricia Bohland from GenderCC, Ndvile Mokoene from GenderCC Southern Africa and Kalyani Raj from All India Women's Conference presented their experiences from the implementation of the GUCCI project. Their presentations were commented and discussed by Lisa Junghanns from GERMANWATCH, Makoma Lekalakala from Earthlife Africa & Women Energy and Climate Change Forum and Colin McQuistan from Practical Action.

Tools to Translate, Track and Transform: A dialogue on the transformative implementation of gender-responsive climate solutions
Tuesday, 15 November, Blue Zone

On Gender Day GenderCC co-hosted this side event together with the UNFCCC Secretariat, the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) and other organisations. It explored how tools and methods can support governments as they implement their NDCs, NAPs and other climate policies to ensure that 'no one is left behind' in the transition to a zero emission and climate resilient future and in the building of more inclusive societies and economies. Part of the event addressed implementation at the local level, with Gotelind Alber from GenderCC presenting new findings on gender-responsive urban climate strategies.

All presentations from the side event are available here.

All events that took place at Gender Day can be found here.


Women and Gender Constituency @ COP22

The Women and Gender Constituency hosted a daily women's caucus which was open for all interested individuals to meet and discuss women’s rights and gender issues in light of climate change. In order to exchange knowledge on different topics, four theme days were held: African Women's Day, Trade/Labour Day, Young Feminist Day and Indigenous Women's Day.

Key Demands

The WGC had 18 key demands for COP22 focusing on implementation, finance, solutions and gender equality in general.

Gender Just Climate Solutions Awards

During a ceremony on Gender Day, the Women and Gender Constituency announced the winners of the Gender Just Climate Solutions Award.  This award was launched in 2015 in order to honor and highlight contributions made by women in the struggle against climate change.

We congratulate this years' winners (by category):

  • Technical climate solutions: Fondation Mohammed VI, for a project in which women and school children install and use solar cookers in order to preserve the Argan forest;
  • Non-technical climate solutions: YAKKUM Emergency Unit (YEU), for using community based sustainable water management as a tool to empower women's groups in disaster prone areas; and
  • Transformational climate solutions: ENDA Graf Sahel, for empowering women to use ancestral fishery techniques in order to preserve mangrove resources in the Saloum delta.

Read more about and see pictures of the award ceremony here.

Interventions

Several interventions were held on behalf of the Women and Gender Constituency during plenaries and meetings. Several of these interventions were given by GenderCC members or representatives of GenderCC member organisations.

Actions

Several actions by the Women and Gender Constituency took place within the conference venue. Take a look at selected photos from these actions and from the feminist block at the climate march on November 13 here.


GenderCC @ GGCA Innovation Forum

The 2016 GGCA Innovation Forum brought together grassroots leaders and gender experts from the Global Gender and Climate Alliance (GGCA) diverse and powerful network, alongside students, researchers, practitioners and decision-makers, to reflect on milestones in achieving gender-responsive climate policy, learn valuable skills and best practice for implementation, and plan real action on climate for women and men around the world.

GenderCC's Gotelind Alber joined other panelists during the opening plenary, "Gender on the Agenda: Where We Are, Where We Are Going" to take a look at the history and work of the GGCA to put gender on the agenda in all levels of climate policy planning and delivery, followed by an esteemed group of speakers who provided insights into the main challenges which lie ahead.

In cooperation with WEDO, GenderCC furthermore hosted a skill sharing session on approaches, methodologies and tolls to integrate gender into urban climate policy. Find out more about the event and speakers here.