International Women's Day on March 8th is an opportunity to recognise the role and position of women and girls in all aspects of our lives. Cultural and social norms, practices, and policies have the potential to directly and indirectly impact people differently depending on their gender and position in society. Without deliberate awareness to this risk, even well-meaning efforts can adversely impact some more than others.
Women and girls are known to be more adversely impacted by climate change – through greater health and safety risks as water and sanitation systems become compromised, their increased domestic and care work with scarce resources, and their critical role as a labor force in food systems, working as farmers, harvesters and collectors, seed keepers, fisherfolks, wage earners and entrepreneurs, among other areas. The incorporation of a gender lens in climate transparency ensures that countries better understand women’s critical role in climate action and their unique vulnerabilities.
As all Parties to the Paris Agreement on climate change develop their climate change commitments, policies, and transparency systems, now is the moment to also ensure communities are not adversely impacted because of their gender. To support this effort the Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency – Global Support Programme (CBIT-GSP) and its supporting partners are developing a Toolkit for Gender Responsive Biennial Transparency Reports.
The toolkit is a part of efforts to help Parties integrate gender considerations into their reporting by documenting how climate policies, programmes, and financing address gender disparities. Reporting teams can use this guide to enhance the quality and consistency of gender-related information in BTRs, ensuring that climate action is both inclusive and effective in addressing the needs of all people. While the toolkit focuses on gender, many of the same considerations may also be applied to vulnerable groups such as Indigenous Peoples and marginalised communities.
As a new area of implementation for gender awareness, the tool uses 15 different case studies from around the world to illustrate the ways gender considerations can be enhanced in climate action through the reporting and transparency processes. The case studies include – Uruguay’s use of sex disaggregated data on informal settlements to identify women’s greater risk to coastal flooding and erosion; Lebanon’s integration of gender into monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems; and Zimbabwe’s work to increase women’s representation in national inventory technical working groups.
In Uruguay, authorities interrogated data and maps on coastal flooding risks to ascertain that in the informal settlements at most risk, there is a greater concentration of women than men, with women confined in traditional homebased childcare and elderly care roles. Uruguay is sharing this data and information with all citizens via an open access online platform, and is now better able to design gender-sensitive flood risk mitigation projects.
In Lebanon, authorities have bolstered the gender-responsiveness of their MRV framework for climate transparency and accountability. This includes appointing eight sectoral task forces with diverse stakeholder representation which are responsible for collecting and validating gender-disaggregated data within their respective sectors; developing gender-sensitive indicators that track the participation, impacts, and benefits of climate actions for both men and women, and conducting training sessions for task force members in gender-disaggregated data collection, analysis and reporting.
In Zimbabwe, as a result of the legal framework for climate action including a dedicated gender technical working group, resources have been dedicated to train 25 women in at least two of several key technical areas of the national inventory process. The team – formerly comprised only of men – reported that women’s participation in the team has significantly improved the data gathering processes, the quality and structure of reports, and the timely delivery of assignments.
Not only do the toolkit’s case studies illustrate the different layers of gender mainstreaming across climate policy making and transparency reporting, the toolkit also outlines the importance of mainstreaming gender at all levels of technical personnel, starting with leadership.
One of the most recent developments in recognition of this need is the COP29 encouragement of all Parties “to appoint and provide support for a National UNFCCC Gender and Climate Change Focal Point (GCCFP) for climate negotiations, implementation and monitoring”. There are currently140 UNFCCC GCCFPs in 110 countries with varied remits, budgets and advocacy capacities, and are appointed to help leaders advocate for gender mainstreaming across all entities which contribute to Biennial Transparency Reports (BTR).
The toolkit also introduces the importance of Climate Change Gender Action Plans (GAPs) – which help countries address specific priorities or target gender-related barriers that hamper the effectiveness of climate policies and measures. For example, GAPs may support increasing women’s ownership of/control over land and resources for improved food security; or address harmful sociocultural norms that inhibit agency and perpetuate gender inequalities.
The Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency - Global Support Programme (CBIT-GSP), in collaboration with UNDP, UNFCCC, the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT), and The Commonwealth will host a webinar to raise awareness of gender mainstreaming in climate transparency and introduce the upcoming the BTR toolkit in support of the International Women’s Day 2025.
The webinar will reaffirm the significance of integrating gender considerations into climate transparency efforts – particularly through countries’ Biennial Transparency Reports – and highlight the necessity for policies that empower women in climate governance. The webinar will also present insights from countries who have established gender-responsive national transparency and climate policy framework.
About
The Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency - Global Support Programme (CBIT-GSP) is a global climate transparency project supporting developing countries in the transition to the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) of the Paris Agreement. The project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through CBIT, implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and executed by the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre (UNEP-CCC).
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) works in 170 countries and territories to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. We help countries develop policies, leadership skills, partnerships and institutional capabilities to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Under the Climate Promise, UNDP delivers the UN system’s largest portfolio of support on climate action in more than 140 countries and territories. This portfolio is worth over US$2 billion in grant financing and also builds on UNDP’s expertise on gender equality and inclusion, energy, poverty, health, climate security, nature and biodiversity, among others.
The UNFCCC secretariat (UN Climate Change) is the United Nations entity tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change. There are specific work streams and constituted bodies focusing on gender and transparency.
#Together4Transparency is a UN Climate Change collaborative initiative that unites several groups of stakeholders committed to joining forces in providing transparent data on climate action and support through the implementation of the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF), recognizing that all actors can play a role in ensuring the success of the Paris Agreement. For more information, visit the website and join the LinkedIn professional communities for transparency and gender.
The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) provides countries with tailored support and practical tools and methodologies to build the robust transparency frameworks needed for effective climate action in sync with national development priorities. The Initiative works with over 50 developing countries ranging from large countries, like Nigeria, to small islands, such as Antigua & Barbuda. ICAT was established in 2015 at the COP that adopted the Paris Agreement, to support implementation of the Agreement’s Enhanced Transparency Framework.