‘’No climate justice without climate finance’’: The power of women’s leadership in climate action

As the climate emergency grows, it’s estimated that an additional 132 million people may be pushed into poverty by 2030. This is especially critical for women and girls, who are disproportionately dependent on threatened natural resources and often have less say in decision-making than men and boys. However, women and girls on the frontline of the climate crisis also have the knowledge and power to adapt and respond to the climate crisis. Supporting their leadership in climate action is critical to ensuring decision-making is effective and leads to better outcomes - for women, girls, and people of all genders.

In the run-up to COP29, CARE International UK (CIUK) brought together speakers from across social movements, INGO, research and donor communities for a webinar to explore women’s leadership in climate action, chaired by CIUK CEO Helen McEachern. Speakers discussed what’s working, what we need more of, and critically, how donors such the UK government can better support women’s leadership through targeted, gender specific climate-funding.

For Ireen Twongirwe, Executive Director of the Women for Green Economy Movement, Uganda – which promotes women and girls’ participation in climate action – empowering marginalised women is key to more effective decision-making. She underscored the deep understanding that grassroots women activists have about challenges and solutions at a local level, and the need to bring them into the room at the national and international level to share this knowledge widely. But, as Ireen says, ‘’we all know there is no climate justice without climate finance’’. Specifically, Ireen called on the new UK government to prioritise bringing grassroots women to global spaces like COP, so they can share their stories, challenges and solutions with the world.

Cynthia McDougall, who is a Senior Research Fellow in Gender, Environment and Development at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), shared findings from a new CARE report featuring research carried out by SEI, “Beyond a seat at the table - Pathways for gender-equitable participation in climate adaptation decision-making" which explored the barriers and enabling factors to women's voice and leadership in climate decision-making.

Her key take-away: while we often focus on the visible representation of women in decision-making spaces, it’s also critical we address the underlying systems and norms to ensure real change around women’s participation. For instance, traditional, top-down and sometimes combative decision-making means climate spaces can be exclusionary for women. And when entrenched gender norms and stereotypes are still at play – like the idea of men as natural leaders and women as natural caregivers – the ability of women to meaningfully contribute to discussion and debate in these spaces becomes even more challenging. To combat this, Cynthia suggests ‘’changing things from the bottom up’’: strengthening the capabilities of leaders of all gender to be more inclusive in decision-making, redesigning climate decision making spaces to be more inclusive, and channelling climate finance directly towards gender-equal action through civil society. She also touched on the critical point of social protection systems:

Mona Sherpa, Country Director of CARE Nepal, echoed Cynthia’s thoughts, highlighting how women’s participation in climate decision-making is not just a question of having knowledge or capacity, but also about our - often patriarchal and capitalistic - systems and norms.

Mona shared how climate change is impacting Nepal, and how these impacts are felt more acutely by women and marginalised communities such as the Dalit because of these systemic factors. But she also shared the story of one of these women who, through working with CARE Nepal on the Rupantaran project, now participates in farmers groups and climate decision-making spaces, where she has used her knowledge to contribute to several government plans. Like Ireen, Mona had a message to the UK government: that to ensure UK-funded climate work in Nepal leads to the best possible outcomes for communities, gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) must be integrated into programme design from day one. Ensuring GESI is no longer an annex in programme design is a critical step to ensuring long-term resilience for communities the UK government works with.

David Bailey, Head of Global Climate Finance Department at FCDO, also joined the webinar to share his perspectives as part of the UK government. He underscored the new government’s focus on restoring the UK’s leadership on climate, its commitment to gender equality, and the interconnection between the two areas. There is an understanding that rhetoric and action need to be aligned and that in light of the commitments made in the Women and Girls strategy, there is a need to ensure that climate spending considers and champions the needs of women and girls.

Looking to the next year, David outlined the opportunities which exist to keep improving and doing better, with both COP29 and upcoming spending reviews offering opportunities for new ideas and action. Touching on Cynthia’s presentation, he discussed the deep structural issues which need to be addressed around how decisions are made locally, nationally and globally, and the range of factors which inhibit women from participating in climate action. He committed to continue working with CARE and others on the call on these issues to reach the ambition the government has set out, something which has been welcomed by CIUK CEO Helen McEachern:

“We know that women and girls are bearing the brunt of climate crises around the world. Yet their concerns are not being heard. Women-led organisations are striving to support their communities but are being held back by a lack of funding. This year, just ten out of 133 leaders who spoke at the UN General Assembly were women – even less than the 12% last year. In 2022, a tiny 0.2% of UK bilateral climate finance reached women’s rights organisations. The message from our speakers throughout the webinar was clear: unless we start prioritising and funding gender-equal climate action – and addressing the systemic issues holding women back from having their voices heard in decision-making – there will be no meaningful progress on climate issues. This is why at CIUK we have prioritised working in partnership with women on the frontline of the climate crisis, and I welcome the continued support from the UK government in doing so.’’

What is CARE International UK asking for?

The new Labour Government has stated their intention to be "proudly feminist" in its approach to foreign policy and international development, offering a unique opportunity to reverse the rollback of women's rights and pave the way for a feminist future. A feminist future means creating an environment where women are the active drivers of change, not the passive recipients. Our briefing ‘First Steps for a Feminist Future’ outlines the immediate action the new Government should take.

But what does this mean for the UK’s approach to the climate crisis? We are calling on the UK to establish a new flagship FCDO programme on gender and climate justice, providing support for women’s rights organisations to scale up solutions and increase women’s voices and leadership. We believe a dedicated climate programme that prioritises gender justice would accelerate the FCDO’s ambition to implement climate programming that is effective and while advancing progress on gender equality. The UK should also use key upcoming opportunities to prioritise gender justice within climate action, such as the new International Climate Finance strategy, new climate finance goal to be agreed at COP29, and its approach to the green transition.