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The e-Newsletter of the Gender Network April 2014 | Vol. 8, No.1

Momentum for change? Gender and Climate Change Finance by Natalie Harms1

“I thought you work on climate change, what have women got to do with it?” I cannot

suppress a trace of frustration as the young embassy employee looks at me in

bewilderment.

Anybody who is committed to making climate change measures more socially inclusive and

sustainable has been confronted with similar situations. Some days this task seems like an

overzealous attempt at uniting two fundamentally different worlds where people do not

speak the same language: To many gender specialists and actors from women’s

organizations, climate finance in a complete enigma and to climate change professionals,

concepts such as gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment are equally illusive.

Trying to build a bridge between these two complex issue areas can be extremely hard work

– but it is equally important and exciting.

So I take a deep breath and delve into a well-rehearsed explanation: Why wouldn’t women

have everything to do with it? If we are going to take the fight against climate change

seriously, we need to look beyond large-scale centralized technology projects that pump

millions into building dams and reducing emissions from cement production. Climate change

affects people and we need a more people-centered approach.

There is huge mitigation potential that lies dormant in the reduction of emissions from

household energy use and smallholder agriculture. And some of the most important actors

on the local level who are at the forefront of both mitigation and adaptation are women. It

is plain inefficient not to acknowledge the role women can play in reducing emissions in

their households and communities by giving them access to cleaner cook stoves and bio

digesters that convert livestock waste into useful energy. Giving women access to efficient

small-scale technologies not only reduces emissions significantly with minimal effort; it also

contributes to achieving long-term sustainable development goals. Women who spend less

time collecting biomass for fuel can engage in income generating activities that can improve

their families’ livelihoods and reduce gender inequalities. Women who are often dependent

on natural resources and agriculture to provide food security for their families, have a

unique knowledge of resource management that is key to community-based ecosystem

conservation, adaptation, mitigation and biodiversity.

The importance of empowering women to contribute to reducing emissions and sustainable

development is slowly being recognized on the international climate stage. In recent years,

civil society organizations such as the Global Gender and Climate Alliance (GGCA)2 have put

the gender-climate-nexus on the agenda at international climate negotiations and are

pushing for inclusive climate finance.

1 ADB Consultant, Gender and Climate Finance 2 For more information concerning GGCA’s work and for reading material on gender and climate change, visit: http://www.gender-climate.org/

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The train has left the station, but there is still a long way to go. The increasing awareness of

policy makers and practitioners was noticeable in a recent web chat on gender and climate

finance hosted by the ADB3. The chat revealed many open questions regarding the future of

climate finance and highlighted the urgent need for ambitious and systematic gender

auditing of finance flows and climate measures. It is hard to demonstrate to donors and

policy makers that gender responsive climate projects are more efficient, effective and

equitable, if inclusive approaches remain invisible.

Another fundamental challenge that is inherent to the climate finance landscape is the

aforementioned bias toward large-scale technology projects. Climate finance is an

immensely complex and volatile creature that lacks any mechanisms for direct access to

funds for communities or local actors such as women. These players at the base of the

pyramid rarely benefit from the ‘trickle down’ of multilateral or bilateral funds. But there is

hope on the horizon…

On the international level, the new Green Climate Fund (GCF)4 may become the first climate

finance instrument mandated to take a gender sensitive approach to mitigation and

adaptation finance. It remains to be seen whether the GCF’s results management

framework and investment criteria will live up to this mandate and ensure that gender

equality becomes an essential consideration for project approval.

On the ground, bilateral and multilateral development institutions can play their part by

supporting country readiness to access climate finance and design inclusive mitigation

measures. The ADB’s regional technical assistance project5, for instance, demonstrates how

a partnership approach can bring representatives from environmental ministries and

women’s organizations to the decision making table.

The road to inclusive mitigation action is long and rocky, but after all, rising to a challenge

was never meant to be easy.

---------------------------------- The views expressed in this paper are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian Development

Bank (ADB), or its Board of Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this

paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. The countries listed in this paper do not imply any view on ADB's part as

to sovereignty or independent status or necessarily conform to ADB's terminology.

3 Read the web chat transcript online at: http://blogs.adb.org/chats/supporting-womens-contribution-fight-against-climate-change 4 Liane Schalatek from the Heinrich Boell Foundation who joined the ADB web chat is actively engaged in the process of operationalizing a gender sensitive approach in the GCF. For more information on the challenges and opportunities of implementing the gender sensitive mandate, see her various publications at: http://www.boell.org/web/140.html 5 For more information on RETA 7914 ‘Harnessing Climate Change Mitigation Initiatives to Benefit Women’ visit: http://www.adb.org/projects/45039-001/main