The 1972 Stockholm Declaration, as innovative as it was at the time, made no explicit mention of women, girls, or gender. Nonetheless, the conference paved the way for the 1992 Rio Declaration, which was the first international environmental instrument to explicitly recognize women as especially vulnerable to environmental degradation and as agents of change.
Today, Stockholm+50 represents an opportunity to reflect over the past 50 years of global environmental governance and collectively chart a path towards a healthy planet for all. Gender equality and inclusion must not be left behind.
No just transition without gender equality
Despite numerous commitments, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement, the global gender gap persists, and gender equality outcomes within the green economy and sustainable transition policies and projects continues to be lacking or only aspirational.
The triple planetary crises of climate, biodiversity and pollution, together with COVID-19, have already erased hard-won progress on gender equality. It is well-known that the poorest and most disadvantaged people – who are often women – are disproportionately affected by climate change and disasters. To reach the objectives of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement, we must improve the participation and representation of currently excluded groups. Moreover, mainstreaming gender transformative actions into environmental policies can help achieve gender equality as well as climate adaptation and mitigation.
Gender-just transitions should consider women’s unpaid care work and women’s informal work, both of which subsidize economic systems, yet are financially undervalued. Moreover, climate change impacts will place a further burden on women. By reducing the time and energy spent on laborious tasks such as energy collection and agricultural activities, women would gain additional control over savings and time for new income generation. Furthermore, women are usually at the household nexus of water, food and energy, and they often know first-hand about challenges and potential opportunities in these areas, which also make them the most ardent advocates for the solutions they need.
Women and other marginalized groups are important agents of change and must be empowered to be actively part of the transition. It is clear that a failure to include the perspective of half of the world’s population would be detrimental to achieving a green economy and a sustainable society for all.
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Financing the gender-just transition
Women and vulnerable groups often lack access to finance, markets and land rights. This produces significant gaps and inequalities in how resources are mobilized and distributed. While transitions towards sustainable, green economies and green recovery measures offer potential for gender equality, these opportunities are largely missed. It has been noted that only 2.5% of measures in the OECD Green Recovery Database are considered gender relevant, whereas only 0.04 % of ODA funding for climate action had gender as a principal objective between 2018 and 2019.
However, the largest climate financiers have integrated gender and social inclusion into their governance frameworks. For instance, in 2011 the Global Environment Facility (GEF) adopted a gender policy, which led to an increase in gender-responsive projects in Latin America by 75%. At the same time, a review of the Green Climate Fund’s large climate finance portfolio confirms a common concern that the focus on gender in sustainable and climate finance is often “at entry” and treated as an “add on” rather than being fully integrated in the strategic goals and objectives of climate action. This is why these interventions often fail to have gender transformative impacts and may even reinforce pre-existing inequalities.
How to overcome these issues and finance a gender-just transition? To begin with, projects can embed gender equality considerations in how strategies and interventions are designed through metrics and reporting frameworks. They can also highlight climate-proofing components measuring how women are impacted in the long-term. Moreover, women-led businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) should receive guidance and contribute to training programmes that target sustainable financing, especially in the context of recovery and crisis management. Ultimately, to mainstream gender-transformative approaches, more women need to be positioned at decision-making levels. This requires a strengthening of finance and capacity underpinned by firm commitment across the entire value chain of international development and climate action.
The GGKP Gender Expert Group
To address the above issues, the GGKP Gender Expert Group was created in November 2021. It is a collaboration between leading green growth and green economy institutions influencing future interventions by identifying and responding to knowledge gaps for a gender-just green transition. The group provides research, capacity building and knowledge sharing to aid evidence-based policy development processes, specifically on integrating gender equality in green growth approaches.
To kick start the first phase of its work programme, a mapping of current gender-transformative practices of members and other institutions was carried out. It focused on what works, for whom, under what circumstances and how.
Following that, three knowledge products were prepared to provide a framework to: assess gender equality impacts of green growth and just transitions across sectors dominated by informal value chains and markets; unpack the scope for financing gender equality in just transitions; and identify entry points for powering a gender-just transition to net zero.
Opportunities for piloting this framework are currently being explored.
Women’s land rights – credits by IIED
Stockholm+50 Agenda for a healthy planet for all
A green and just transition reflects the need to look back at the practices that may have gone unquestioned. To what extent has global environmental governance taken into account gender equality, since 1972? How can we do better?
We have plenty of proof that environmental and climate action present opportunities to drive gender equality – hence gender transformative objectives must be mainstreamed in just transition projects and policies.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted significant vulnerabilities worldwide, indicating an urgency for inclusive and collective engagement. Gender-just transitions won’t happen by themself: they will require dedicated effort, focus and collaboration from many different political and economic actors. Changes in values, beliefs and decision-making will be needed as well. Stockholm+50 can be the place to harness our individual resources and provide pathways for placing gender equality at the centre of global environmental actions for the years to come.
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The GGKP Gender Expert Group will hold a side event at Stockholm+50 “Achieving a healthy planet for all through a gender just recovery”.
The GGKP Gender Expert Group is a consortium of organizations including the Green Growth Knowledge Partnership (GGKP), Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), UN Women, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Green Economy Coalition (GEC), Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition (GWNET), World Bank Group, Circle Economy and International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy (ENERGIA).