Women and Climate Change in Cochabamba

How were gender issues represented at the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth? The event took place between 20 and 22 April 2010 in Cochabamba, Bolivia. This short article points out that whilst the People’s Agreement that emerged from the conference does not explicitly discuss gender issues, several of the texts that developed from working groups used the language of gender. And when the presentations that were made in working groups are analysed, along with the discussions that took place in these groups, it becomes clear that climate change from a gender perspective was visible and debated. Groups that actively participated in sessions included the Feminist Working Group from Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), which presented the conclusions of tribunals on gender and climate change held in seven countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Latin American Network of Women Transforming the Economy (Red Latinoamericana de Mujeres Transformando la Economía - REMTE) discussed the Living Well (Buen Vivir) proposal, in which practices of ancestral, feminist and ecological economy come together. Women for Climate Justice, the Latin American representatives of Gender CC, highlighted the impact on women of false solutions to climate change, and the Latin American Feminist Community group made public a pronouncement rejecting patriarchy and capitalism and focusing on the concept of Mother Earth (Pachamama), community, reciprocity, autonomy and climate change.