The European Parliament adopted by 485 votes to 117 with 20 abstentions, a resolution on women, gender equality and climate justice.
Parliament noted that women are particularly vulnerable to climate change and experience its effects disproportionately because of their social roles, such as providing water, food and combustible materials to the family and caring for others. Women are responsible for more than 70 % of water chores and management worldwide.
In regions most affected by climate change, 70 % of all women work in the agricultural sector, yet seldom participate in developing climate policies. Women and children are 14 times more likely than men to die during natural disasters.
Gender equality as a prerequisite for managing climate issues: Members insisted that women are not just victims, but also effective agents of change who, on the basis of full participation, can formulate and execute efficient climate strategies and/or solutions in relation to adaptation and mitigation and can build climate resilience as a product of their diverse areas of experience and practical knowledge across sectors ranging from agriculture, forestry and fisheries to energy infrastructures and sustainable cities.
In this regard, the Commission was specifically called on to:
- integrate climate change into all development programmes at all levels; calls were made for the increased participation of rural and indigenous women in decision-making processes, planning and implementation, and in the formulation of policies and development programmes concerning climate change;
- take account of the empowerment of women in rural areas as regards access to land, credits and sustainable farming methods for building climate resilience;
- consider the social and environmental impacts of its trade and foreign development policies, including the impact of its actions regarding women;
- develop indicators and collect gender-disaggregated data when planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating climate change policies, programmes and projects;
- target the relevant programmes on the areas affected by disasters, to step up efforts to deliver aid to those regions, and to act to resolve the problems induced by disasters there, paying particular attention to the situation of women and children;
- facilitate and support the networking of women’s organisations and civil society activities as regards the development and implementation of climate change policies;
- ensure that women are equal participants in, and beneficiaries of, all climate change consultations, programmes and funding organised with EU support at national and local levels;
- take the initiative to produce a comprehensive communication with the title ‘Gender equality and climate change – building resilience and promoting climate justice in mitigation and adaptation strategies’.
The Commission and the Member States should lead by example and adopt targets and timelines for achieving the goal of gender balance in delegations to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Funding: Parliament called for both climate change adaptation and mitigation funding to take into account gender issues. It welcomed recent progress on gender equality issues in the area of multilateral financial mechanisms, but noted that, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), only 0.01 % of all funding worldwide supports projects that address both climate change and women’s rights.
Members considered that the three financial mechanisms under the UNFCCC – the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Adaptation Fund (AF) – should unlock additional finance for more gender-responsive climate investment policy.
They welcomed the Commission’s call for proposals on women and sustainable energy, making EUR 20 million available for the implementation of activities promoting women’s entrepreneurship in the sustainable energy sector in developing countries, and encouraged the Commission to increase this amount in future.
Climate migration: Parliament has called for climate-related population displacement to be taken seriously. It is open to a debate on establishing a provision on ‘climate migration’ and called for the establishment of a group of experts to discuss the issue at the international level. It also urged for international cooperation in order to ensure climate resilience.
The Commission has been invited to work with civil society and human rights organisations to ensure that the human rights of refugees and displaced persons in reception centres are upheld, particularly in respect of vulnerable women and girls.