Five ways COP30 could advance gender and climate justice
COP30 marks ten years since the gavel went down on the Paris Agreement. 2015 was a high point for global ambition on climate and development, with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted two months before the UN climate negotiations in Paris.
I was hopeful heading into COP21. I’m nervous as I head to Belém.
The crux of what’s needed to tackle the climate crisis remains the same. But the politics have changed.
Why talk about gender and climate justice together?
The climate crisis disproportionately impacts women. Researchers like me write that a lot. But it’s important that we can all visualise how gender inequality and the climate crisis come together, and why.
The climate crisis is a threat multiplier. It intensifies existing social and economic inequalities, increasing the risk of conflict and instability.
What does that mean in practice? Today, 47.8 million more women face food insecurity and hunger than men. And the climate crisis exacerbates the fact that women and girls have less access to resources – primarily money and land – and decision-making power than men. Which is why, by 2050, climate change is predicted to push up to 158 million women and girls into poverty.
Let’s take an example. You may have heard the statistic, 'Women are 14 times more likely than men to die in climate disasters'. This statistic relates to a cyclone that hit Bangladesh in 1991. Then, cultural norms kept women at home where warnings didn’t reach them and far more women died because of the storm than men. By the time Cyclone Sidr hit in 2007, Bangladesh had invested in women as community educators and first responders. They had improved early warning systems and made shelters more accessible. And the storm’s death toll – and its gender gap – dropped dramatically.
Another example, from my home. Hurricane Katrina hit the United States in 2005. While the death toll had little gender difference, the storm’s aftermath saw a substantial increase in gender-based violence and post-traumatic stress disorder in women, especially African American women. Women were less likely than men to recover financially as they had lower rates of pre-disaster savings. After the storm, women-owned businesses were more likely to fail. And most key decisions related to recovery were made by men.
It's not that women are inherently more vulnerable to climate disasters. It’s that climate change furthers all the inequalities we already face.
What’s happening in other international forums?
Many multilateral agreements and discussions recognise this disproportionate impact. Our recent research analysed the pledges that bring together gender and climate across three international forums. We found that the G7, the G20 and the UN climate change negotiations all had language which:
- Reiterates that the climate crisis disproportionately impacts women and thus, that climate action needs a gendered lens.
- Agrees that the full, meaningful and equal participation of women in climate decision-making is vital.
- Recognises the benefits of gender-responsive climate policies, plans and strategies.
- In line with their common but differentiated responsibilities, recognises the need to make climate finance gender responsive.
But in 2025, we’re seeing a retreat from these essential building blocks.
As we wrote in July, the G7 Summit concluded without a Leaders' Communique. Until 2024, the G7 issued some of the strongest language on gender equality and climate action. Most of their gender and climate commitments considered women and girls in all their diversity, as well as LGBTQ+ persons. The G7 committed to equal pay, leadership and opportunities for women and to advance gender equality and diversity in the clean energy sector by 2030.
With President Trump in the room in 2025, no joint statement could be agreed. The Chair’s summary mentions climate only once and gender just twice - and only to say that the G7 Summit was informed by recommendations of the G7’s Gender Equality Advisory Council.
Set to commence as COP30 closes, the G20 Summit’s outlook for gender and climate is also bleak. In response to the South African Presidency’s theme of 'Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability', US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X, 'In other words: DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and climate change. My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.'
Will the UN climate talks do better?
There’s much that leaders and negotiators convening in Brazil could do to further both gender equality and climate action. I’ll be watching for five outcomes.
First, leaders must give a meaningful, collective response to the gap between the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the goals of the Paris Agreement.
NDCs are national plans outlining the efforts each country will take to: limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C; increase their ability to adapt; and ensure finance flows are consistent with low emissions pathways. Ten years after the Paris Agreement’s adoption, the NDCs submitted thus far will mean well over 2°C of warming by 2100. Women and girls will suffer the most severe impacts of this hothouse world. Leaders at COP30 must stress the need for bolder targets and more participatory processes for formulating NDCs to ensure national climate plans are inclusive, effective and sufficient.
Second, COP30 needs to take a decision on just transition pathways that meaningfully incorporates gender- and human rights-based approaches.
In 2023, negotiators at COP28 in Dubai reiterated pledges to triple renewable energy, double energy efficiency, and transition away from fossil fuels. But transforming our economies will create losers as well as winners, and it is all too likely that the costs will fall on those who already face discrimination and disadvantage. Delegates should build on the COP28 gender-responsive just transitions and climate action partnership, signed by 82 countries.
Third, COP30 must adopt gender-responsive indicators for measuring progress toward achieving the Global Goal on Adaptation.
Negotiators are threshing out a long list of metrics to measure whether countries and communities are becoming more resilient. They must resist moves to strip away indicators disaggregated by social categories. Without comprehensive, disaggregated metrics it will be impossible to fully understand efforts to enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability.
Fourth, women should be prioritised and given access to climate finance and technology.
The Baku to Belem Roadmap to mobilising $1.3 trillion annually will do little to redress the disproportionate impacts women face if the finance is not accessible to them. Similarly, negotiations of the Technology Implementation Programme will not redress the continued challenges of implementing clean technology priorities, if women’s access and involvement is not meaningfully considered.
Forthcoming research from ODI Global seems to indicate that most developed countries address gender considerations systematically in their climate finance contributions – watch this space!
Finally, COP30 needs to adopt a new, sufficiently ambitious Gender Action Plan (GAP).
In 2024, leaders agreed to extend an enhanced Lima work programme on gender for a further 10 years. The new programme depends on designing and implementing a GAP that empowers and finances entities to collect gender-disaggregated data, track gender participation, and monitor implementation. A robust GAP with broad-based support will meaningfully integrate gender-responsive approaches throughout the work of the UNFCCC.
Strong political headwinds face delegates at COP30, but progress which ignores inequality is an illusion. The only climate justice possible is one that also addresses gender justice.