Club For The Galacticly Stupid

Affirmative action can restore gender balance at UN climate talks – report

7 June 2013, By John Parnell

Quotas and targeted funding could be used to boost the participation of women at the UN climate talks, a new report by UN Women and the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice (MRFCJ) has recommended.  With only a third of delegates at the talks women and only one in five delegations headed by women, the MRFCJ calls for a series of actions to improve the situation.  At the UN talks in Doha last year, all governments agreed to start work on tackling the problem by: “Promoting gender balance and improving the participation of women in UNFCCC negotiations and in the representation of Parties in bodies established pursuant to Convention or the Kyoto Protocol.”  There has been little evidence of that sentiment in recent years with no significant increase in the percentage of women in delegations which has remained between 30 and 33% in the last five years.

Speaking at the launch in Bonn on Friday, UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said the issue should not only permeate the procedures at the talks, but also their output.  “We need to go beyond literature and really act on gender issues by implementing gender sensitive climate policies,” she said......