Regional Meeting on Climate Change and Gender Equality

The Regional Meeting on Climate Change and Gender Equality will be held virtually through various sessions throughout the month of September 2021. These sessions will showcase experiences, good practices, challenges and opportunities for integrating gender equality into climate action in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and the roadmap of the Gender Action Plan ¹ (GAP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The event is organized by the government of Chile, in its capacity as COP25 Presidency through its Ministries of Environment, Foreign Affairs, Women and Gender Equality, and is developed thanks to the support of the European Union, through its EUROCLIMA+ Program and the technical support of ECLAC as key strategic partners in climate action and to connect the dots between the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. The project also has the collaboration of the EUROSOCIAL+ Program, United Nations System in Chile, and the financial contribution of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

The meeting geared to national, regional and global decisionmakers, academia, the media and civil society.

The reason for a meeting on gender equality and climate change

The effects of climate change continue to worsen, accelerate and affect the sustainability of life, requiring rapid and unprecedented collective action. Thus, countries must now resolutely direct their efforts towards the implementation of the commitments made in the Paris Agreement, limiting the temperature increase to 1.5ºC and increasing adaptive capacity and climate resilience. Moreover, considering the context of green recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic, such responses will need to be implemented in light of national circumstances in a way that achieves real effectiveness, sustainability and climate justice.

Within this framework, understanding the differentiated impacts of climate change on men and women is key to guiding, with a gender perspective, the planning and execution of policies, plans, projects and actions aimed at addressing climate change, considering and making visible, on the one hand, the cultural, social and economic differences currently present between men and women in relation to access to and control of resources, institutional structures and participation in decision-making processes, among other aspects. On the other hand, it is particularly important to recognize and value the role played by women in the search for solutions and responses to this phenomenon.

However, even though this approach has been recognized by the countries under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and in the agreements of the different Conferences of the Parties (COP) that commit the States to include the gender approach in environmental management and in the response to climate change, especially COP 23, held in Bonn, which approved the Gender Action Plan (GAP), its integration is still marginal and the disparities between men and women continue to reproduce and increase with the effects of climate change.

LAC countries are called upon to consider precisely these particularities when designing and implementing their mitigation and adaptation policies and actions from a gender perspective and, therefore, this forum is an opportunity to promote networking to address these issues within the framework of the Paris Agreement.

Expected outcomes of the meeting

3 September, 2021

At opening of Regional Meeting on Climate Change and Gender Equality: Experts agree that gender equality is key to effective climate action in Latin America

Santiago, 2 September 2021. With the message that only with gender equality and a more active and equitable participation of women in decision-making will truly effective climate action be possible in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Regional Meeting on Climate Change and Gender Equality organized by COP25, the European Union through its EUROCLIMA+ and […]

24 August, 2021

COP25, European Union and ECLAC will hold the Regional Meeting on Climate Change and Gender for Latin America and the Caribbean

August 23, 2021, Santiago, Chile. While Latin America and the Caribbean accounts for less than 10% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the region is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. These are exacerbated by social and gender inequality, which increases fragility and decreases resilience. In September 2021, the Government of Chile, as […]

30 July, 2021

Summary Presidency COP25: Gender and Climate Change

Undoubtedly, the climate crisis increases the inequalities and it is especially harmful for the most vulnerable population, such as women. The gender perspective plays a fundamental role in the understanding of the disproportionate impact on women of climate change and biodiversity loss, due to the underlying structural existing inequalities; and to reduce the gaps. Women […]