Help us make sure that women lead the way toward a better future. Together
we CAN make a world of difference!
UN Climate Change Conference 2009 (COP15)
New York, December 22–The lives
of millions of people are at stake, entire nations are expected to disappear
under the ocean, and yet world leaders in Copenhagen failed to commit to
necessary measures for an equitable, just and legally binding post-Kyoto
agreement to tackle climate change.
The
women’s organizations comprising the Women and Gender Constituency under the
UNFCCC– including WECF, GenderCC, WEDO, LIFE and others– are dismayed by the
lack of progress. Women are among the most urgently affected by climate change
and, at the same time, key agents of change - and we see that there is no time
to lose.
As
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer puts it, the Copenhagen summit was “a
rollercoaster ride”. Far from a comprehensive agreement to tackle the
world’s most comprehensive problem, the outcome of the Copenhagen Conference of
Parties was a mere “Copenhagen Accord”, negotiated by a small group of the key
countries, and “noting” the necessity to contain global warming to the 2 degree
C limit. The Accord calls for commitments by industrialized countries and
engagement of developing countries, but does little to specify how this will
occur. Even more concerning, not all countries even agreed to acknowledge this
step due to the dominance of world superpowers in drafting the Accord.
With
current promises on the table, global warming will reach well beyond the 2
degree limit; scientists on site urged that this type of inaction will actually
result in a 3.5 degree increase this century. With even the most
optimistic outlook, the outcome of Copenhagen suggests the inevitable: small
islands will disappear, global economies and states’ security will be in jeopardy,
and those populations in already fragile positions will be further entrenched
in poverty, the world over.
While
gender-sensitive text remained in the negotiating documents until the end,
these texts mean nothing without an overall outcome which will protect the
lives and livelihoods of everyone on Earth. As the AWG-LCA process is now
mandated to continue until COP-16 in Mexico, the strategies for ensuring gender
responsive texts be maintained and strengthened must go hand-in-hand with the
message that every country must step up and commit to action.
The Women and Gender
Constituency further expresses grave concern over the issue of transparency and
access at the Copenhagen COP. The failure to ensure conference accessibility to
the thousands of accredited civil society representatives was a dire indication
of the inability to tackle climate change in a comprehensive, equitable,
transparent and just way. Many partners came well prepared with presentations,
research materials, documentation and personal testimony – all ready to
contribute to a real outcome of the COP. Many of these partners were
never granted access to the Bella Center, limiting the options for finding a
solution to climate change, silencing their voices, tossing millions of dollars
into a place ill-equipped to receive its visitors. An evaluation of this
process must be conducted immediately in order to ensure that these mistakes
will not be repeated in the future.
Is
there still hope? There must be. To give up on the process would be to give up
on millions of people whose lives depend on a strong, legally binding
agreement. There must be individual action, committing to change and making a
difference at the household, community, regional and national levels; there
must be renewed commitment by our world leaders to look beyond mitigation as a
burden on GDP. Women are ready; we are committed to this process and
remain optimistic that tackling climate change offers an unprecedented
opportunity to transform towards sustainable, low-carbon, transparent,
equitable and just economies.
At the global and national
levels, we therefore call for
-
increasing
the number of women chairs in the UNFCCC
-
meaningful
participation of women and men from all sectors in national and global climate
policies
-
strengthening
a commitment to prioritize the most vulnerable, and strengthening
gender-sensitive approaches in the draft Mexico agreement
-
increasing
access for women to existing mitigation and adaptation funds
At the individual level -
in every aspect of our daily lives – we call upon women and men to secure the
future of our children and our grandchildren as consumers, educators, advocates
and leaders
-
to
make use of our power as consumers, and to support services and products which
are healthy for the climate and the planet
Without a binding
agreement, the only real success of Copenhagen can become a broader movement of
citizens and consumers, fueled by the behavior of each to switch to a
sustainable way of life, and can become the base for a global, ambitious,
equitable, legally binding agreement for climate protection in Mexico next
year. It is not too late yet; we must not lose hope.
Contact:
GenderCC: Gotelind Alber, g.alber@gendercc.net, mobile +49.151.15240802
LIFE e.V.: Ulrike
Roehr, roehr@life-online.de, mobile +49.179.2031511
WECF:
Sabine
Bock, sabine.bock@wecf.eu,
mobile + 49 176 22 82 74 65 and
Sascha
Gabizon, sascha.gabizon@wecf.eu,
mobile + +49 172 8637586
WEDO:
Cate Owren, cate@wedo.org
and
Monique Essed-Fernandes, mjessed@aol.com
