Women conducting water quality measurements as part of an initiative training women officers to lead in environmental management in Suriname. Photo: Harvey Lisse / UNDP Suriname
The next few years are a make-or-break moment for global efforts to tackle the climate crisis. The window of opportunity to keep global average temperature rise below 1.5°C – a critical threshold beyond which some of the impacts of climate change become irreversible – is quickly closing. According to some recent studies, it may have already closed.
But every fraction of a degree matters and countries must come together to accelerate rapid, sustained and large-scale climate action to limit warming as much as possible. In this context, the next round of national climate pledges under the Paris Agreement, or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), offer a vital chance to radically alter our course, transforming the global economy into one that is low-carbon, resilient and inclusive. In this process, it is crucial that we recognize the rights, needs and priorities of those who already shoulder a bigger share of climate change impacts, from women and young people to Indigenous Peoples and communities in the Global South. We must also support these groups to lead on climate action, as unequal access to the implementation of climate solutions can compound or even exacerbate social and gender-based inequalities.
At COP29, the Enhanced Lima Work Programme on Gender was extended for 10 years, reaffirming the crucial role of gender equality and women’s empowerment for climate action and, ultimately, reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement. This decision also reiterated the importance of gender-transformative implementation and means of implementation for increasing ambition in climate policy and action and enabling a just transition of the workforce.
Given the multiple benefits that gender-transformative approaches in climate policy frameworks and implementation plans can bring, countries must consider how to strengthen them in their next round of NDCs. In order to do so, they have to overcome some persisting challenges:
- Women and girls from diverse backgrounds are increasingly taking leadership roles in decision-making, planning and implementation processes for climate action. But despite some progress in advancing their meaningful, informed and effective participation and engagement, structural inequalities can still limit their ability to get involved and hinder empowerment.
- At the same time, there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve gender-transformative climate action across the board. While most countries have integrated a range of gender equality considerations in their current NDCs, they do not always include specific measures in their implementation plans or strategies. Moreover, even when specific priorities are mentioned, they do not all translate into concrete and sustainable actions due to lack of resources and institutional capacity.
- Most governments are working to ensure that they are building up the expertise and knowledge to implement climate action. However, further progress is needed in developing ongoing capacity development processes and structures, especially those that target women and other underrepresented groups. For example, globally, women represent only 32 percent of the workforce in the renewable energy sector. Even though this is higher than their participation in the conventional energy sector, which lags at 22 percent, many of the jobs that women occupy in the renewable energy sector are administrative roles, while men occupy almost three quarters of jobs related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
- There are also persistent barriers limiting women’s access to climate finance. Finance is key to supporting women’s contributions to climate solutions and providing them with training and new skills that ensure their participation in a low-carbon economy. However, financing frameworks and strategies do not always include specific measures to ensure women’s economic empowerment. For example, in 2019, only 2 percent of global climate finance reached small farmers, Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the Global South. Moreover, climate finance flows largely exclude women, girls, Indigenous women and women with disabilities.
- In many countries, Indigenous women’s knowledge is a key element of climate solutions. But this knowledge is sometimes at risk as efforts to recognize, assess, apply and preserve it are limited. To ensure that climate action is more effective and contextually relevant, with local ownership and larger impact, increased recognition and conservation of Indigenous women’s knowledge is needed.
Women engineers helping increase the climate resilience of rural communities in Timor-Leste. Photo: Ayumi Kimura / UNDP Timor-Leste
Women taking part in a demonstration session on how to use new energy-efficient cookstoves in Malawi. Photo: UNDP Malawi
How can we further advance and cement gender-transformative climate action?
With countries undertaking a new revision of their NDCs this year, we have a unique opportunity to ensure that barriers to women’s leadership and meaningful participation and engagement in climate action are removed and that their rights, power, knowledge and skills are recognized and enhanced. In addition, we can strengthen their central role in building a low-emission, resilient and inclusive global economy, including through dedicated climate finance. Doing so will not only advance gender equality but also acknowledges women as agents of change who are vital to delivering more ambitious and widespread climate action.
As UNDP, our approach to supporting countries to integrate gender equality in NDC planning and implementation processes rests on effective governance, inclusive planning and policy coherence. Based on this approach, here are some of the actions that countries can incorporate into their NDC revision process to advance gender-transformative climate action:
- Integrate gender-transformative policies and actions across climate sectors and initiatives. By strengthening institutional capacities and ensuring policy coherence and budget allocation as part of a comprehensive approach to address both climate change and structural gender inequalities, countries can close gender gaps and achieve more equitable outcomes in climate action. Coordination between government ministries and structures is essential to ensuring the policy and programming cohesion necessary to achieve this.
- Expand access to climate finance, training and skills for women’s economic empowerment. While developing climate finance frameworks or investments plans for NDC implementation, countries can strategically align and channel financial resources to ensure women can contribute to, and benefit from, climate solutions and the low-carbon economy. This can be done through public, innovative and multilateral sources of climate finance.
- Improve data collection and analysis. Data collection on climate adaptation and mitigation needs to identify specific indicators to better understand gender disparities and gaps and the differentiated impacts of climate change on different social groups. Innovative approaches to data collection and analysis, such as using AI, could enhance the analysis of gender equality issues and ensure they are not excluded from climate impact analysis. These analyses can then help improve the quality of policies and programming.
- Integrate gender equality and social inclusion principles into just transition processes. Effectively integrating gender equality into just transition strategies and processes at the national and global levels presents an opportunity to bring together compatible agendas and goals, ensuring that women have play a crucial role and access to jobs in the green economies of the future. Moreover, as countries embark on just transitions, it is crucial to avoid perpetuating current gender pay gaps and gender norms and stereotypes that limit women’s access to the labour market.
- Foster partnerships with women's groups and civil society organizations. These partnerships can help deliver capacity development, communicate national climate priorities and actions to the wider public, and ensure climate planning and implementation represent the views of different voices in society. They can also help address societal norms and stereotypes that restrict women’s involvement in climate action, through an intersectional lens, encouraging women’s leadership and meaningful participation and engagement across different groups.
By committing to these actions, countries can show that NDCs are not only gateways for advancing climate action but also for achieving sustainable development goals such as gender equality and leaving no one behind. In doing so, they can build low-carbon, resilient and inclusive economies and ensure equal rights, power and opportunities for all women and girls, securing a liveable future for all.
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Under the Climate Promise, UNDP is mobilizing support for advancing inclusive approaches in climate planning and policy processes, as well as integrated climate action solutions around the world. In the second generation of NDCs, 96 percent of countries who received support from UNDP included gender-related considerations in their submissions.
Delivered in collaboration with a wide variety of partners, UNDP’s Climate Promise has supported over 120 countries to enhance and implement Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. Pledge to Impact is generously supported by the governments of Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Iceland, the Netherlands, Portugal and other UNDP core contributors. This programme underpins UNDP’s contribution to the NDC Partnership.
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