Making Nationally Determined Contributions Work for Gender Justice

Written By Care About Climate

by Annabel Rice, Climate Advocacy and Accountability in Policy Program

Climate change affects every country in every continent across the globe. Extreme climatic events are making the news on an almost daily basis and it is clear that the time for climate action is now. In 2015 the international community came together to tackle this crisis, signing the Paris Agreement which came into effect in 2020. In the Agreement, countries decided to work together to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and hopefully below 1.5 degrees Celsius. As part of this Agreement countries are required to submit successive road maps, known as a Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), stating how they plan to achieve this commitment. Enhanced NDC’s were due in 2020 but unfortunately due to the pandemic many countries have held off releasing their commitments which is a worrying signal for climate action.

EmpoderaClima leads Care About Climate’s gender justice work

EmpoderaClima leads Care About Climate’s gender justice work

Crucially, whilst climate change will undoubtedly affect us all, these impacts will not be felt equally and the poor and most marginalised will likely suffer the worst consequences. As such, NDCs are crucial platforms for advancing not just emissions reductions but social justice too. One group that is particularly important in this work is women. In large parts of the world, women and girls are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. Women are often the primary providers of food, water and fuel for their families. These roles mean they are disproportionately impacted by droughts, flooding and other climatic events. In Bangladesh, one study found that women are 14 times more likely than men to die in the event of extreme weather (Peterson, 2007). One of the knock-on effects of this is that children, predominantly girls, are often kept out of education to help with the increasingly arduous domestic tasks. Several studies have even confirmed a correlation between child marriages and droughts across Southern Africa (see Corno, 2020 for one example). This is thought to be because when a family’s income from farming plummets due to drought, parents may opt to marry off their girls early so there is one less mouth to feed.

Since women and girls are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis, they must play an integral, leading part in designing and advocating for policies and action to address the crisis. In 2012, during COP 18 in Qatar, parties agreed to a goal of gender balance in bodies under the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as annual reporting on progress towards achieving the goal. Based on the most recent gender report only 5 out of 15 decision making and technical bodies under UN Climate Change had female representation exceeding 38%. This lack of representation makes it difficult for women to influence climate policy.

Unfortunately, the picture is not much better for NDCs. In December 2020 an analysis by CARE International found that of the 18 updated NDC’s at the time, only 8 made any clear reference to women and gender. In fact, with the exception of Norway, no OECD country made any reference to women at all. When women were mentioned, they were most often designated as a ‘vulnerable group’. This grouping fails to acknowledge the very active role that women play in adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change both within their households and the community at large. Solar Sisters, a women-led enterprise that works across Africa to eradicate energy poverty and create economic opportunities for women provides just one example of the way in which women can be drivers of change. However not every country has been so gender-blind in its NDCs. Taking the lead on gender-responsive NDCs is the Marshall Islands who have incorporated women at every stage of governance including NDC planning and implementation. Through this consultative approach, more effective and just climate solutions can be sought.

All NDC’s need to portray women as the powerful agents of change that they are capable of being. Climate change is not gender-neutral and our climate policy needs to take this into account. Climate justice and gender justice must go hand-in-hand and NDC’s play an important role in this endeavour. We cannot continue to let climate change be a driver of gender injustice. This will not be an easy road but the result will be a more equal and resilient society that sees women not just as ‘vulnerable’ but as leaders of transformative action.

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