Gender and Climate Change: Networking for Gender Equality in International Climate Change Negotiations - UNFCCC COP13/CMP3

How did gendercc - women for climate justice - prepare for the 13th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP13), held in Bali in 2007? To ensure that the first ever significant presence of a worldwide network of women within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process would be successful, the organisation focused their preparation on three main activities. They provided funding opportunities for women from developing countries to be included in their delegation, and selected seven women were selected, representing a wide range of organisations and countries. Each member of the delegation helped to provide gender-focused input into conference debates; lobby governments, constituencies and networks to include gender in the negotiations; and distribute position papers. In consultation with its networks, GenderCC also drafted position papers on issues to be addressed during the negotiations including: the Future Climate Regime, Reducing emissions by avoided deforestation and degradation (REDD) and financing mitigation and adaptation. Conference side events were organised, one on REDD and one which aimed to present and discuss the position papers to heads of delegations. The exhibition booth focussed on messages to politicians to raise their awareness of women's voices for a strong and equitable climate policy. Additionally, the gender cc network planned daily women's meetings and a capacity building workshop for women. Recommendations from conference participants included gender cc should work on mitigation issues in preparation for the next COP, and that the organisation's position papers should try to deal with more controversial issues on which it is harder to achieve consensus.