Institutional strengthening: turning commitments into action
Towards COP30, UN Women has supported countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in strengthening institutional capacities and ensuring that the gender perspective is a central component of multilateral decision-making processes on climate change. This support has focused on ensuring that government representatives leading gender and climate change agendas in the region play an active, visible, and strategically coordinated role in negotiations. Ensuring their effective participation not only broadens the diversity of perspectives but also strengthens the legitimacy and effectiveness of the climate commitments adopted. This work has been carried out in partnership with the AILAC negotiating group—which includes Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Peru—as well as with Uruguay and the Dominican Republic, in close collaboration with the Global Gender Alliance. These efforts have already yielded concrete and structural results. Last year, during COP29, the extension of the Lima Work Programme on Gender was secured for an additional 10 years, consolidating the most relevant framework for integrating a gender approach into international climate action. This milestone lays the foundation for the new structure of the Gender Action Plan (GAP), expected to be adopted this year, to raise ambition and improve its implementation effectiveness.
Civil society: the collective force driving change
Preparations for COP30 have been marked by unprecedented momentum to strengthen the voice of civil society, especially that of women who defend life and their territories. UN Women has accompanied this process from multiple fronts, facilitating spaces where women from across Latin America and the Caribbean not only participate but also influence, build alliances, and project a feminist vision of regional climate action.
One of the most significant milestones was the First Regional Assembly of the Women’s Major Group to UNEP, held in Lima with the support of UN Women and UNEP. Over 20 women attended in person (and another 30 virtually) from different countries in the region—leaders, activists, academics, and representatives of national and regional organizations—who developed a joint position later presented at the Regional Consultative Meeting on Environment (RCR).
Their proposals resonated strongly among nearly 100 participants from the nine Major Groups to UNEP—women, scientific communities, NGOs, Indigenous peoples, youth, local authorities, workers, and trade unions—directly influencing the recommendations that will guide environmental policies in the region.
The impact was tangible: many of the demands raised by women were reflected in the Lima Ministerial Declaration, where governments from Latin America and the Caribbean acknowledged the need to close gender gaps and recognize women’s contributions to environmental and climate action. This was a clear demonstration that advocacy from civil society can translate into concrete political commitments.
At the local level, action has also gained strength. In the framework of the First International Climate Conference and its “Latin American Commitment,” promoted by the Global Covenant of Mayors, UN Women supported an awareness-raising effort that brought together over six thousand in-person participants. This space connected community leaders, local authorities, and environmental organizations, fostering exchange and collaboration so that gender equality is integrated into climate policies from the municipal level to national frameworks.
What were once isolated efforts are now consolidated into cooperation and learning networks that strengthen women’s leadership at all levels of decision-making.
Looking ahead, the Foresight Dialogues on Gender and Climate Change, organized within the Beijing+30 framework, have opened a space to imagine what does not yet exist. Beyond the items established in climate negotiations, these dialogues invite participants to envision new horizons: a just and feminist transition where energy, mobility, and innovation are conceived through equality, and where climate policies respond to the aspirations, knowledge, and experiences of women in all their diversity. These are exercises in political imagination that sow today the visions that could transform tomorrow’s agreements.
Knowledge and evidence: the foundation for transformative policies
Knowledge generation has been a cornerstone of this collective preparation. Within the framework of the regional project on gender and environment, financed by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, UN Women Mexico, in collaboration with El Colegio de México (COLMEX), developed a regional list of gender and environment indicators, adapted to the realities, capacities, and priorities of Latin America and the Caribbean.
This instrument, the result of a collaborative process with ministries of environment, national women’s mechanisms, and national statistical offices, represents a key step toward harmonizing and improving the comparability of data on gender and the environment across the region.
In parallel, UN Women has developed the Gender Equality Scorecard for Climate Policies, with special attention to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)—one of the central themes of COP30, where many countries will present their updated versions. Although it is a global tool, the UN Women Country Office in Chile, together with the Ministry of Environment, and in collaboration with FLACSO, is leading its contextualized application, adapting the analysis to the sectors prioritized in its NDCs.
These initiatives strengthen countries’ ability to measure progress, identify gaps, and ensure accountability for their climate and gender equality commitments.
Having robust and comparable evidence is essential to guide public policies and climate finance mechanisms with a gender perspective, ensuring that transitions toward green and resilient economies do not reproduce inequalities but transform them.
Additionally, UN Women has supported civil society efforts to strengthen their advocacy and participation capacities through the “Guide for Women’s Participation from Latin America and the Caribbean in International Climate Negotiations.”
Inter-agency coordination: a joint effort towards a just and feminist transition
None of this would be possible without inter-agency coordination. Through the Interagency Coordination Mechanism (IBC) on Climate Change, UN Women has promoted technical and political articulation spaces with other UN agencies. Within this framework, a regional webinar ahead of COP30 was organized together with UNDRR and IOM, bringing together governments, civil society, and academia.
This space led to the development of a key messages document, designed to provide UN Resident Coordinators in Latin America and the Caribbean with shared information on gender equality within the climate change agenda, thereby strengthening their capacity to advise governments and support inclusive and effective climate policies.
Looking ahead to Belém
The road to COP30 is, in essence, a process of building the future—one in which the voices of women from Latin America and the Caribbean do not arrive merely to be added, but to redefine the rules of the game.
The region prepares to arrive in Belém with solid positions, shared knowledge, and a common conviction: climate justice will only be possible if it is also gender justice.