Women’s Participation in the UNFCCC: 10 Years After Committing to a "Gradual, but Significant Increase" (Women’s Environment and Development Organization)

Women’s participation in decision-making is a human right. Their participation in the climate change negotiations is not only crucial (and has been proven) to create more robust, comprehensive outcomes, but must be inherent to the process precisely because this right exists. It’s now been ten years since the landmark Decision 23/CP.18 stated that gender balance in the UNFCCC must be achieved as a “gradual but significant increase”. However, progress has not been consistent or significant. We continue to see very few Party delegations with equal numbers of men and women, and the majority of delegations are dominated by men.   The unevenly slow improvement, at times even setbacks, demonstrates the lack of commitment to achieving gender balance in the UNFCCC. Parties are bringing thousands more delegates to participate in the negotiations, with COP27 nearly twice the size of COP25, but they are not prioritizing gender balance in their delegations. At the current rate, gender balance in party delegations will not be attained until 2042, while there is no forecastable future where COP Heads of Delegations will achieve gender parity. To accelerate this necessary progress, there is a necessity to remind parties of their commitments in the face of upcoming meetings, such as actively striving for gender balance. At this time when Party delegations continue to grow in size, there is a perfect opportunity to intentionally reflect on what that should mean for the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women in all aspects of the negotiations.