COP26 warns climate crisis could not be solved without women's empowerment

As the global battle to preserve the earth from overheating is one of the major agendas at the COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, the summit questioned who pays for the consequences of climate change. According to the leaders and campaigners present at the climate conference, the world created by men has destroyed many things, as per The Guardian report. The UN report says that the female population across the world suffers the most due to climate breakdown, as they are not very well financially, less educated and more dependent on subsistence farming. Also, the report stated that 80% of those displaced by the climate emergency are women.

The leaders at COP26 further warned that the climate problem could not be solved without women's empowerment. On Tuesday, 9 November, indigenous women and politicians, including Scotland's first ministerNicola Sturgeon, and speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi demanded additional funds to focus on gender equality. 

"The world as built by men has destroyed many things," Angelica Ponce, executive director of Bolivia's Plurinational Authority for Mother Earth, said. The rest of the world should start thinking like women. It would put a stop to violence against women and children if it was created by a woman, she added as per The Guardian.

Women empowerment can avoid climate crisis

Alok Sharma, the UK Minister and President of CoP26, said that climate-related issues will prevent at least 4 million girls in low-income countries from finishing their education in 2021, citing a Malala Fund report. According to the report, the climate problem will result in at least 12.5 million girls not finishing their education each year if current trends continue. Sharma called it a "complete farce" and a "serious situation." He added that education empowers and equips girls to deal with the effects of climate change and to take climate action, in addition to being a fundamental good in and of itself. He said that the UK would contribute £165 million to combat climate change while also tackling gender disparities.

According to Per Olsson Fridh, Sweden's minister for international development cooperation, women are not the world's polluters, but they bear the brunt of climate change's impacts. Without a gender perspective, the world is missing out on crucial information for a long-term green transformation. The only logical course of action is to take a feminist attitude, he added. Several other countries including Canada and Germany also admitted that gender justice has to become a "guiding principle" for their International Climate Initiative. UK minister Sharma also urged every single country to implement the UN climate convention’s Gender Action Plan, which was agreed back in 2019, to achieve climate targets. 

Image: Unsplash/AP