Climate Change is Far From Gender Neutral

On September 21, 2007, The Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL), the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) and the Heinrich Böll Foundation North America organized a high-level roundtable entitled "How a Changing Climate Impacts Women" at the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations. The roundtable was a landmark event, one of the first high-level sessions to focus on the linkages between gender equality and climate change.

The roundtable recognized that while there are no references to gender in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), climate change is far from gender neutral.

Participants shared experiences from Honduras, Senegal, Uganda, Thailand, Suriname, and the US (New Orleans) showing the gender dimensions of climate change and how women's participation is critical to developing solutions. The roundtable was a call to action, recognizing that gender equality is a critical component of responses to climate change at all levels of planning and decision-making.

Following the success of this event, the roundtable organizers are engaged in these next steps:

• The official report of the roundtable will be published in preparation for the UNFCCC COP-13 in December 2007.


• WEDO is organizing a workshop on "Adaptation and Gender Equality: Experiences from the South" in partnership with Heinrich Böll Foundation, UNDP, and ActionAid International, at COP-13 on December 10 at 8pm. The workshop is connected to WEDO's advocacy campaign in developing countries to incorporate a gender perspective in national adaptation platforms.


• The Council of Women World Leaders is organizing the International Women Leaders Global Security Summit in partnership with the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, the Women Leaders Intercultural Forum and the White House Project. The Summit, which incorporates the topic of climate change, aims to enhance the effectiveness of women's leadership on security concerns to illustrate a more integrated approach to critical issues of international security.


• Heinrich Böll Foundation is organizing a range of events at COP-13, including a side event on a programmatic CDM for Renewable Energies (in cooperation with Germanwatch); an event on "Greenhouse Development Rights" (with EcoEquity & Christian Aid); the "African Climate Appeal"; "Nuclear Energy: Myth and Reality"; and "Human Rights and Climate Change" organized by Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).

The outcomes of the roundtable-including the summary report with speaker interventions, policy recommendations and endorsements, and participant list, as well as media coverage, audio interviews with Mary Robinson and Gro Brundtland, and photo gallery-are now available on the websites listed below.

Women's Environment and Development Organization
http://www.wedo.org/ ;
http://www.wedo.org/files/climatechange-orng
Council of Women World Leaders
http://www.cwwl.org/
Heinrich Böll Foundation
http://www.boell.org/

Changing the Climate: Why Women's Perspectives Matter
This resource draws the links between gender and climate change and lays out why women need to be at the center of the climate change debate and policymaking. A must-read for activists, academics and policymakers. Find out more