Women’s Leadership on Climate Justice

Convened by The Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice and Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, on Friday 17th September, Roosevelt House, Hunter College, New York City, this meeting was an important step.

Convened by The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice and Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, Friday 17th September, Roosevelt House, Hunter College, New York City.

The meeting established an informal network on Women’s Leadership on Climate Justice and was attended by representatives of:

State Permanent Missions to the UN including Finland, Ireland, Republic of Maldives and the Pacific Small Islands Developing States.
Relevant UN organizations including UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Women – represented by UN-INSTRAW and UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) – and Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict.
Various Civil Society organizations including International Indigenous Women’s Forum (IIWF/FIMI), Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), CIVICUS, Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA), Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) and African Gender and Climate Change Network.
Funders including Global Fund for Women, The Rockefeller Foundation and Buffin Foundation.
Special Interest groups including Climate Wise Women, Nobel Women’s Initiative, UN Foundation and business leaders.

Download full meeting report
A round-table format was chosen to facilitate maximum interaction and so the numbers were confined to a maximum of 35 participants; in the event there was an excellent level of contributions to what many described as a stimulating and productive discussion.

All the participants agreed to sharing their email addresses to facilitate direct communications including sharing information and materials, and possibilities for collaboration with the network, particularly as all participants focus on strategic opportunities in the lead-up to COP16 in Cancun.

The agenda for the meeting was divided into three sessions:

Mary Robinson welcomed all participants, acknowledging the considerable experience of many in the room; everyone briefly introduced themselves. Mary then set the scene explaining the concept of climate justice and outlining the key issues for ensuring women’s leadership.
The substantive part of the meeting was divided into two sub-sessions – each with short presentations on key topics followed by discussion. The sub-sessions were:
– Climate Justice: with presentations and remarks on Climate Finance, National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) and REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries).
– Gender: with presentations on Gender Dimensions of Climate Change, Appropriate and Green Technology for Women and Current Impacts of Climate Change on Women in Developing Countries
– During the final session, the focus was on the identification of areas of strategic focus – for individuals and their organizations.

An informal network has now been established that includes all participants, as well as a group of individuals and organisations who could not join the meeting on 17th September but who are enthusiastic to be involved.