Reflections from COP 19, Tuesday 19th November

Iva Muharremi and Danielle Savietto, Youth Press Agency, Italy

Today we had a sweet welcome when arriving at the National Stadium. The Plant for the Planet Foundation distributed chocolates to everyone as a way of drawing attention to climate issues. Created in Germany, the ‘Chocolate for Change’ initiative plants a tree for every three chocolates sold. With sales of more than more than a million in its first eight months, it is already having a positive impact.

Aside from our passion for chocolate, today’s theme was Gender Day, involving a wide range of events and interventions on the importance of women’s participation in negotiations and decision-making on climate change.

The gender issue permeates all areas of society, sometimes obviously, but at others only implicitly in small things, and these, as well as being difficult to identify are also the most difficult to change. If you cannot identify the problem, how do you intervene? Nevertheless, the need for equity is more than urgent; we need space for all voices, all ages and both sexes.

Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, opened the day at an event on gender equality by stating that: ‘We are here today to create a dream. We are daughters, mothers, sisters, grandmothers, getting on with climate action.’

Ms Figueres asked the numerous guests two questions: what kind of world do we want? What is your dream? Some of the answers inspired me: Helen Clark, UN Development Program Administrator, said women have to be the power, because they face difficult situations; for instance in some parts of the world there are women who spend the whole day walking in search of water. Mary Robinson, president of the Mary Robinson Foundation, replied that women have to change the world for their children and firmly express their opinions, as Christiana Figueres showed in her speech at the Coal Summit.

Talking about gender is not ordinary, in fact the theme of gender equality is a current issue, and climate change could increase gender inequality. Many Conventions aim to contribute to addressing gender inequality, such as the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil in June 2012 and the UN Woman Strategic Plan in 2013.

Nevertheless, this may not be enough. 60 per cent of graduates in the EU are women and 50 per cent of the world population are women, yet their representation in the official delegations at the UNFCCC is very far off matching these proportions. Indeed, the world average of women in parliaments is increasing, but it is not enough, moving from 14 per cent in 2000 to 20 per cent in 2012.

According to studies, consumption patterns differ significantly between men and women. Compared to men, women have a more sustainable way of life, they are more willing to act in order to protect the environment and more likely to choose sustainable goods. Women’s impact on the environment is different from that of men and the way they react and adapt is compromised by discriminations in terms of salary, access to resources, political power, education, and responsibility for their families.

Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3 focuses the attention of the international community on the urgency to reinforce the idea and the practice of gender equality. With the goals due to expire in 2015, in the next couple of years it will be crucial to accelerate progress towards gender equality targets.

After these amazing gender teachings, it was time to go to Brazilian Delegation briefing with the Brazilian Minister of Environment, Izabella Teixeira. Over the course of the two hours, Ms Teixeira and the Brazilian negotiators repeatedly expressed their concerns about the apparent lack of definition or hope for this year’s negotiations. They also stated that if many important decisions are going to be pushed back until COP 20 in Lima next year, it will harm prospects for a strong and effective final post-2015 agreement. But, we still hope that some decisions can be made by Friday.

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