Climate Finance Fundamentals 10: Gender and Climate Finance

Women form the majority of the world’s more than 1.8 billion population who live in poverty and of the close to 700 million in extreme poverty, of the 760 million without access to electricity and the 2.6 billion still cooking with traditional biomass, with the numbers expected to further rise in 2021 due to the continuing Covid-19 pandemic. They are often disproportionally affected by climate change impacts which aggravate existing gender inequalities as a result of persisting gender norms and discriminations. Women and men also contribute to climate change responses in different ways. The Cancun Agreements acknowledge that gender equality and the effective participation of women are important for all aspects of any response to climate change (UNFCCC, 2011). While the majority of efforts have focused on adaptation so far, more emphasis on increasing women’s participation and decision-making in mitigation actions is required, including by ensuring gender equity in a just transition to low-carbon economies and increasing access to green jobs (UNIDO, 2021; ILO, 2015). Gender-responsive climate financing instruments and funding allocations are needed. This is a matter of using scarce public funding in an equitable, efficient and effective way. It also acknowledges that climate finance decisions are not made within a normative vacuum but must be guided by the acknowledgement of women’s rights as unalienable human rights. Many climate funds started out largely gender-blind, but over the past decade have made significant efforts to integrate gender considerations more systematically by updating and improving relevant fund structures and policies. While important advances in existing climate funds have been made, new best practices for gender-responsiveness in funding climate actions are needed that address not only how, but also what, they will fund.