While the effects of the climate crisis disproportionately affect women, references to gender issues have been removed from the future work program under negotiation.
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It’s a revealing shot: on November 12, the day after the opening of the 29th Conference of the Parties for Climate Change (COP29), only eight of the 78 heads of state and government in the traditional official photo are women. At COP28 in Dubai in 2023, women made up just 19% of delegation heads and 34% of national delegations – the same figure from a decade ago. This under-representation is striking, given that women are disproportionately affected by climate disruption, but are also key in offering effective solutions to combat global warming.
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, Egypt and the Vatican have opposed various references to this issue. In the latest draft negotiating text, which could be adopted by the countries as it stands, they succeeded in removing references to women in all their diversity and intersectionality – the recognition that gender interacts with other elements of identity, such as ethnicity, to aggravate discrimination. References to human rights, fighting violence against women and supporting women human rights activists have also disappeared.
“These countries want to see a simple distinction between men and women, boys and girls,” lamented Mwanahamisi Singano of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization. According to various sources, the fear is that these expressions include transgender women.
