Integrating Women into Climate Decision-Making

26 April 2023

In February 2023, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) convened to develop policies promoting greater gender representation within political and diplomatic bodies. On this occasion, the RAJA-Danièle Marcovici Foundation, in collaboration with feminist geographer Angela Martina Caretta, independent political ecology researcher and gender specialist Carine Pionetti, and the association SOL, submitted a contribution to CEDAW advocating for equal gender participation in climate-related decision-making processes. This contribution was supported by the associations CARE France and WECF International.

The Need to Promote Gender Equality in Climate Governance

Climate change is an aggravating factor of structural gender inequalities.

• Women constitute the primary group dependent on natural resources and are therefore the first affected by climate change.
• They are 14 times more likely than men to die during natural disasters.
• Together with children, they represent 80% of climate refugees.
• Women activists are disproportionately subject to harassment compared to their male counterparts.

Women, however, are powerful agents of change. Their initiatives and innovations play a key role in mitigating the irreversible impacts of climate disruption.

• They adopt more sustainable and innovative agricultural practices, such as floating vegetable gardens and the recycling of organic waste into fertilizer.
• Their participation is associated with agricultural yields that are, on average, 20 to 30% higher than those of their male counterparts.
• They demonstrate better governance of water and forest resources.
• Environmental policies developed by institutions including women in decision-making tend to be stricter and more transparent.

Lack of Gender Equality in Climate Decision-Making

Women remain widely underrepresented in political and diplomatic decision-making spaces:

• They account for only 26.3% of parliamentarians worldwide.
• Only 22 of 119 countries are led by a woman.
• Merely 1% of official development assistance for economic and productive sectors includes a gender-sensitive approach.

This lack of inclusive leadership is particularly evident in climate-related decision-making:

• Although women represent 40% of the agricultural workforce and are responsible for 60–80% of food production, they own only about 10% of agricultural land.
• In scientific research, women account for just 28% of researchers.
• At COP21, only 8 out of 150 heads of state or government were women.
• At COP27, of the 110 leaders gathered in Sharm El-Sheikh, only 7 were women.

Proposals to Strengthen Gender Equality in Climate Governance

Equal participation must be ensured in all high-level decision-making areas. To achieve this, political and legislative climate adaptation measures should:

• Establish national gender equality coordinators.
• Integrate gender perspectives into environmental and climate risk reduction policies and programs.
• Encourage companies to incorporate Sustainable Development Goal 5 into their corporate social responsibility strategies.
• Support the creation of a United Nations Special Rapporteur on Climate Justice, mandated in part to assess gender parity in decision-making bodies addressing climate change.

These inclusive measures must be monitored from their design through their implementation, including through enforceable laws and sanctions, and coupled with public awareness initiatives.

Finally, a gender-responsive climate financing system should be established to ensure that 100% of climate-related funds systematically take gender issues into account.