News

Gender Equality Makes Strides at Climate Change Talks in Poland

Date: 19 December 2008

New York — Language endorsing the need for gender parity in climate change decision-making processes and adequate responses to gender-dimensions of global warming was successfully introduced at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznań, Poland, on 1-12 December.

The language - included under the “Shared vision on long-term cooperative action on climate change” - was tabled by the Government of Iceland and is a solid step in ensuring that the agreement under design to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, will be gender sensitive. This “Shared vision” is an overarching component of the ensuing climate talks and is meant to guide the overall global effort to address climate change.

Worth noting, the Governments of Liberia and Sierra Leone expressed support of a clear gender strategy within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat.

Full negotiating mode between Parties on the new agreement begins in 2009. Gender advocates who actively called for a gender-sensitive agreement in Poznań aim to attend the major intermediary sessions in Bonn, Germany, in March–April and June 2009 to ensure that the language and intentions of the final agreement, expected to be concluded in Copenhagen at the year’s end, is indeed responsive to the needs of women and provides equal opportunity for their contributions.