COP30 is an important moment to strengthen gender justice in climate action, as it progresses negotiations to agree a new Gender Action Plan to implement inclusive climate policy and action around the world to leave no one behind.
While the global climate crisis intensifies year-on-year, not everyone is affected equally. Women and girls of all ages, gender-diverse people, older people, people with disabilities, Indigenous Peoples, and other marginalised groups in low- and middle-income countries experience the impacts of climate change disproportionately and in different ways, due to intersectional and systemic disadvantages caused by colonial histories, patriarchy, and profit-driven systems. These systems are the root of both climate injustices and gender injustices, deeply interconnected and compounded by other intersecting and systemic inequalities.
CAN-UK welcomes the UK’s support of the Global Statement on Gender Equality and Climate Action launched yesterday at COP30 signed by 92 countries.
In the statement countries including the UK commit to:
- Mainstream gender equality,
- Promote inclusive, effective and meaningful participation,
- Enhance gender-responsive finance,
- Enhance data and knowledge,
- Address multidimensional factors,
- Adopt a strong and inclusive Gender Action Plan at COP30.
To mark the importance of this issue for COP30, today CAN-UK has published our CAN-UK COP30 briefing on inclusion priorities, outlining Gender Action Plan priorities alongside wider inclusion opportunities for COP30. CAN-UK’s dedicated briefing on the Gender Action Plan is also available here.
Catherine Pettengell, Executive Director of Climate Action Network UK (CAN-UK) said:
“By signing this statement, the UK is sending a high-level positive signal that gender is a priority at COP30 and it will not stay on the sidelines. We are particularly encouraged to see key issues that women and girls face when experiencing climate climate impacts – such as gender-based violence and disproportionate care work – included in the statement, with calls for them to be addressed. This demonstrates an important commitment to address the structural barriers to equality that women and girls face.”
Alison Marshall, CEO, Age International said:
“We welcome this endorsement that climate justice requires gender justice. We now call on parties at COP30 to agree an implementable and inclusive Gender Action Plan which will support girls, women, and older people in all their diversity.”
Zahra Hdidou, Senior Climate and Resilience Advisor, ActionAid UK said:
“For centuries systems of extraction and exploitation have driven the climate crisis and the inequalities that define it around the world. Today, communities in the Global South are living with the worst impacts of this crisis – with women and girls most affected. Unequal systems – built on colonialism and patriarchy – limit women’s access to land, resources and decision-making, even as they shoulder the responsibility for securing food, water, and fuel for their families made even harder in climate induced emergencies like floods or droughts.
During climate disasters women and girls are often the first to go hungry when food is scarce, face increased risks of gender-based violence and bear the burden of poor sanitation and lack of clean water. Yet despite these injustices, women are leading climate responses every day: growing climate resistant crops, caring for families, rebuilding communities and driving solutions for survival.
By signing onto this statement, the UK is recognising that gender equality must be central to climate justice. Now it must follow through by helping to deliver a stronger, more ambitious Gender Action Plan at COP30 that truly puts women and girls at the forefront of climate action.”
ENDS
Notes for editors:
- Climate Action Network UK (CAN-UK) brings together international development and environment organisations in the UK working on the poverty-nature-climate agenda to advocate for climate justice and sustainable development for all.
- CAN-UK is the UK node of Climate Action Network (CAN), a global network of more than 1,900 civil society organisations in over 130 countries driving collective and sustainable action to fight the climate crisis and to achieve social and racial justice. climatenetwork.org.
- Read CAN-UK’s COP30 briefing paper, which outlines our key asks for COP30.
- CAN-UK Executive Director Catherine Pettengell will be attending COP30 in Belém, Brazil and is available for interview.
