- There has been new momentum from around the world to put gender at the forefront of climate action on Gender Day, as countries and non state actors set out gender and climate commitments, including:
- Bolivia committing to promote the leadership of women and girls, especially indigenous, Afro-Bolivian, community and rural women, through their involvement in sustainable development projects, as well as to reflect gender data in its Nationally Determined Contributions, and to work with UN Women to promote the use of gender breakdowns in official national statistics on environment and climate change.
- Canada to ensure that 80% of its $5.3 billion climate investments over the next five years target gender equality outcomes.
- Ecuador committing to strengthen leadership, negotiation, and decision-making capacities within women’s organisations working on climate.
- Germany announcing a new Gender Strategy under its International Climate Initiative (IKI) which will promote gender-transformative approaches in international climate and biodiversity cooperation.
- Nigeria expanding on its Implementation Strategy for their National Gender and Climate Action Plan.
- Sweden announcing new measures to firmly embed gender equality within all their climate action, as mentioned in Sweden’s Climate Policy Action Plan.
- The UK setting out how £165 million in funding will address the dual challenges of gender inequality and climate change.
- The USA promoting gender equity and equality in responding to climate change as a priority of its National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality; investing at least $14 million of the Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund toward gender-responsive climate programming; and investing more than $20 million towards initiatives to increase women’s economic opportunities in the clean energy sector, strengthen action on gender-based violence and the environment, address barriers to women’s land rights, and support women farmers in East Africa to adapt to climate impacts.
- These announcements help build momentum internationally to drive implementation of the Gender Action Plan agreed at COP25, ahead of the sixty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) in March 2022 which will focus on gender equality in the context of climate change, the environment and disaster risk reduction. A full list of commitments made under Feminist Action for Climate Justice can be found on the Generation Equality website (PDF). Further commitments can be found in notes to editors below.
- COP26 President Alok Sharma and UK International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience Anne-Marie Trevelyan hosted the Gender Day plenary event accompanied by Little Amal, the 3.5 metre puppet travelling 8,000km in support of refugees. The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, was among other high profile speakers to address the event.
- Under the Science and Innovation Day, initiatives launched today will enhance international cooperation between governments, academics, businesses and civil society and ensure science and innovation delivers for all in order to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement:
- 47 countries have committed to building health systems which are able to withstand the impacts of climate change and which are low carbon and sustainable. These include 42 countries, representing over a third of global health care emissions, which have committed to develop a sustainable, low-carbon health system. 12 of these 42 countries have set a deadline of 2050 or earlier, by which their health system will reach net zero.
(courtesy UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021)
