The NGOs subcommittee of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) based in New York issued a statement on women and climate change. This Statement comes in response to the ECOSOC High Level Segment open call for oral and written statements.

It is an acknowledged fact that when climate change strikes, people living in poverty, 70% of whom are women, are in the frontlines. Indeed, climate change exacerbates the feminization of poverty and, reciprocally, women living in poverty, in their attempts to ensure the survival of their families, inadvertently contribute to climate change.

In the case of rural women and girls, insecure livelihoods, due to reduced crop yields, increase the burden of household chores (collecting water, food, fuel) and reduce the time available for education and income generation. This results in unsustainable coping strategies (deforestation, migration) which damage Earth’s life support systems, leading to environmental instabilities (droughts, floods) that threaten livelihoods. Thus, the cycle of violence continues, violating the rights of both women and Mother Earth.

However, women need not be victims of climate change, nor need they remain caught in the cycle of violence. They are powerful forces for change: problem solvers and leaders responsible for the basic security and well being of their families and communities; policy advocates capable of influencing effective, gender responsive legislation in their local governments. This should be acknowledged and women’s knowledge and skills drawn upon in developing and implementing policy for the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, including the financing of such efforts.

To this end and to ensure that the financing of climate change be gender responsive and equitable, we recommend the following:

LEGAL FRAMEWORKS

In determining the allocation of climate change funding, attention should be paid to whether potential recipients have in place legal frameworks which incorporate gender concerns and ensure that the rights of women are taken into account.

WOMEN IN DECISIONMAKING

Women leaders should participate at the top level of decision making regarding varied aspects of climate change finance, for example:

• In identifying recipients to whom funds should be allocated, advisors responsible for climate change finance should be guided by women familiar with community needs.

• In the development of a ‘green economy’, women should be considered for leadership roles.

• To ensure the incorporation of women into planning for technologically related projects, funding for the education of women and girls should ensure that they receive training in science, math and finance.

SHARING THE BENEFITS OF CLIMATE CHANGE FINANCE In allocating funds for climate change projects, special consideration should be given to:
• mitigation and adaptation geared to benefit and protect women and girls

• small scale programs, generally managed by women and which aim for social and ecological benefits over the long term

• social sectors, such as those that ensure food security and health, where climate change is threatening human security

• regional groups of grassroots women who have developed resilient responses to climate change in their communities and who have been shown to seek wider collaboration in dealing with these needs Finally, to ensure the incorporation of gender in climate change finance, we propose the establishment of a monitoring mechanism so that recommendations, such as those listed here, be adequately addressed.