Background and Context
Climate change is the 21st century crisis but "(I)t still preventable crisis--but only just". The world is now at or near the warmest level on record in the current interglacial period, which began in 12,000 years ago. There is strong evidence that the process is accelerating. The urgency of climate change was underscored by Faith Birol, the Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency: "without serious policy shifts we may be heading toward the double crisis or insecurity and climate change...". The macroeconomics are clear with prevention now costing a good deal less than adaptation late:1% of GDP if we act now and 5-20% if we wait...We must treat the earth as if we intended to stay...". The world has less than a decade to change its course.
Climate change threatens to erode human freedoms and limit choice and undermines global efforts to combat poverty. Today, an average one person out of 19 developing country will be hit by a climate disaster, compared to 1 out of 1,500 in an OECD country and climate change creates life time traps. Increased exposure to drought, to more intense storms, to floods and environmental stress is holding back the efforts of the world's poor to build a better life for themselves and their children. In short, climate change would stall and reverse progress in human development, including cutting down extreme poverty, health, education and nutrition.
Key mechanisms through which climate change could stall and then reverse human development:
1) Climate change will affect rainfall, temperature and water availability for agriculture in vulnerable areas-- for example drought affected areas in sub-Saharan Africa could expand by 60-90 million hectares, with dry land zones suffering losses of US 2 billion by 2060; other developing regions will experience losses in agricultural production; those affected by malnutrition could rise to 600 million;
2) Water stress and water insecurity--an additional 1.8 billion people could be living in water scarce environment by 2080; Central Asia, Northern China and the northern part of South Asia face immense vulnerabilities; seven of Asia's great river systems will experience an increase in flows over the short term;
3) Rising sea levels and exposure to climate change--over 70 million people in Bangladesh, 6 million in Lower Egypt and 22 million in Vietnam could be affected; small island states in the Caribbean and the Pacific could suffer catastrophic damage; with over 344 million people currently exposed to tropical cyclones, more intensive storms could have devastating consequences for a large group of companies;
4) Climate change is transforming ecological systems -- with 3 degrees centigrade of warming, 20-30 percent of land species could face extinction.
5) Human health - major killer diseases could expand their reach due to impacts of extreme summer and winter conditions and heat waves; for example, an additional 220-400 million people could be exposed to malaria which already claims 1 million lives annually.
Climate change is global but its effect is local. Hence, concerted actions must be undertaken at local and global levels.
Why Gender and Climate Change?
Differentiated impact of climate change on men and women-- Climate change is not a neutral process; first of all, women are, in general, more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, not just because they represent the majority of the world's poor but also because they are more than proportionally dependent on natural resources that are threatened. The technological change and instruments that are being proposed to mitigate carbon emissions, which are implicitly presented as gender-neutral, are in fact quite gender-biased and may negatively affect women or bypass them.
The negotiation process tends to be driven by a masculine view of the problem and its solutions. Women's participation in the whole process, at international, national and local levels, is very low, both in the South and in the North; skills and resources need to be developed to overcome this.
Gender, like poverty, is a cross cutting issue in climate change and needs to be recognized as such. In fact, gender and poverty are interrelated and create mutually reinforcing barriers to social change. There is a need to be strident to overcome the uninformed view of many involved in climate change that climate change is neutral, and real life examples are needed to make the alternative case clear and convincing." (Gender and Climate Change web site: http://www.genc.internconnection.org/about.htm).
For example, women comprised the majority of those killed and who were at least likely to recover in the 2005 Asian tsunami. In Aceh, more than 75 percent of those who died were women, resulting in a male-female ratio of 3:1 among the survivors. As so many mothers died, there have been major consequences with respect to infant mortality, early marriage of girls, neglect of girls' education, sexual assault, trafficking of women and prostitution. (in Gender Aspects of Climate Change, Gender and Disaster Network, 2005/REF).
If action on climate change is partly about reducing vulnerability and building resilience then it is important that vulnerable groups do not suffer disproportionately from its adverse effects. Women, figure among such vulnerable groups. (Point de Vue, Bulletin African Bioresources, Oct. 2001).
Lack of Women's Participation- Women and environment experts have raised concern over the absence of women in the discourse and debate on climate change, a global mainstream issue that is currently impacting on the entire world. "An overall assessment of the climate change debate to date shows women are patently absent in the decision-making process. Their contributions in environmental policies are largely ignored. Decision-making and policy formulation at environmental levels such as conservation, protection and rehabilitation and environmental management are predominantly male agenda. The climate change debate is an indicator of how gender issues tend to be omitted, leaving rooms for complex market-driven notions equated in terms of emission reductions, fungibility and flexible mechanisms. Nevertheless, in the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development reflected in Agenda 21, one notes the key role ascribed to women as principle actors in the management of natural resources and the development of sustainable and ecologically sound policies. Perhaps the fact that there are few trained women environment specialists tends to accentuate this gender deficit in environmental policy. Institutional weakness in women's organizations and under-representation in informal decision-making are factors that lend to swing the pendulum away from their oft-valuable input".
Women can contribute to the solution- The involvement of women in areas of environmental management and governance should not be perceived as an afterthought. Women's roles are of considerable importance in the promotion of environmental ethics. Their efforts in waste management through recycling are re-use of resources are an indication of the extent of their significant input to community development. Women in rural areas, due to their daily contact with the natural habitat for the provision of food, fodder and wood, tend to have sound ecological knowledge that could be useful in environmental planning and governance.
Women are most vulnerable to the bad effects of climate change and yet women are absent in the decision-making process, the discourse and the debate on climate change, a global mainstream issue that is affecting the entire world. Changing and influencing the course of climate change and preparedness thru disaster risk reduction are the two main strategies which women must understand and engage in.
Women must understand and engage in mainstream issues. And gender must be taken up as part and parcel of these mainstream issues. Women must understand these mainstream issues and how they are affected by it as well as how they can become part of the solution. It is in this spirit that the Third World Congress of Women in Politics and Governance is organized this year, focusing on gender and climate change.
The current imperative is for women to understand the phenomenon of climate change and its impacts and implications at individual, household, community and national levels.
Objectives of the Congress
Overall Purpose
To provide a forum for leaders and decision-makers at all levels in formulating a gender responsive legislation and programs related to gender in climate change and disaster risk reduction.
Specific Objectives:
1) To understand the phenomenon of climate change, its impacts and its implications and study the appropriate risk reduction strategy;
2) To review and examine the gender aspects in climate change and disaster risk reduction and formulate appropriate actions to address these aspects;
3) To define the roles women can play in addressing the impacts of climate change and disaster risk reduction programs and policies at the global, national and sub-national levels; and
4) To identify and define the action agenda for parliamentarians, policy advocates and women leaders to support global and national actions to adapt gender responsive legislation and programs related to gender in climate change and disaster risk reduction.
The Congress Program
The Congress program has been designed to generate discussions on climate change in the community of practitioners, including legislators/parliamentarians and senior executives, who could translate the "global talk" into "local walk" in their respective countries of origin. Legislative action to support adaptive national responses to climate change is a strategic intervention to address the challenge of the century. The emphasis of the Congress is adaptation to climate change and endeavors to define and elaborate actions toward adaptation, risk reduction and preparedness.
Adaptation entails actions that moderate harm or exploit benefits, of climate change. Mitigation entails actions that minimizes or cushions the adverse impacts of climate change. Preparedness and disaster risk reduction is about building individual and community capacities to position themselves and their communities so that the likelihood of climate change-induced disasters is reduced; the intensity or adverse impacts of disasters are cushioned and that inhabitants are able to respond promptly, expeditiously and effectively.
And in all these actions, special attention will be given to defining how women and gender could be mainstreamed. In other words, the Congress should define how women can be given the social space to participate, influence and benefit from the global and local responses to climate change.
Discussions on gender and climate change adaptation and risk reduction are organized in three (3) major plenary sessions on the first two days of the Congress. The discussions are intended to shed light on key issues, such as the following:
Gender in Climate Change Adaptation: Development Perspectives, Issues and Challenges
Gender in Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction
Women in Politics and Governance in the Era of Climate Change
Conference Mechanics
Opening Ceremonies: The Congress will open with welcome remarks from CAPWIP and short messages from its partners and co-organizers. Officials from the Philippine Senate and the House of Representatives will have brief welcome remarks as well. Keynote address will be delivered by the heads of the United Nations International Society for Disaster Risk Reduction (UN-ISDR), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). There will be video tape messages from the United Nations Environment Program and the Founder of the Greenbelt Movement of Kenya.
CAPWIP has designated Facilitators to ensure the smooth flow of the sessions. All sessions will be documented and tape recorded. Participants to parallel sessions will designate a chair, rapporteur/presentor from among them. Staffs from CAPWIP Secretariat have been designated to assist each of the parallel sessions in the recording of their proceedings. Discussion guides will be provided for the parallel sessions and will be circulated accordingly. As well, the Facilitator will provide instructions and guides for the small group presentations to the Plenary Session. The results of the various discussion groups will be synthesized and presented in the final Plenary Session.
Results of the Congress
A CALL TO ACTION and a legislative agenda are expected to emerge out of the discussions during the Congress. These two (2) outputs will be used to guide future action and programming in response to climate change and will be handed by Congress organizers to the UN System through its various partners. The results will serve as a tool for advocacy at the national and global levels to urge national authorities to take action for climate change adaptation and risk reduction. Their attention will be called to pay attention to gender aspects of impacts and national responses.
Post Congress Actions
Papers will be compiled, edited and eventually published into a resource book. The proceedings of the Congress will be prepared and disseminated to all participants.
Congress Organizers and Partners
United Nations International Strategies for Disaster Risk Reduction (UN-ISDR)
Coordinating Committee on Women Parliamentarians of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU/CCWP)
Congress Schedule
The Congress is scheduled on October 19-22, 2008. Venue is at the Dusit Thani Hotel, Makati City, Philippines.
CONGRESS PAPERS FOR DOWNLOAD
The Global Gender and Climate Alliance, Rebecca Pearl, Global Gender and Climate Alliance (GGCA)
Is There A Connection Between Gender and Climate Change, Lorena Aguilar, Senior Gender Adviser, IUCN
Welcome Remarks of Senator Loren B. Legarda, Philippine Senate
Updated: October 20, 2008