“Action for the inclusion of a gender perspective is not just a tagline in the plan or indicator; it requires intentional change and must be gender-transformative.”
Towards COP30: placing gender equality at the forefront of climate action
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The world is at a turning point. Today, we face what has been called the triple planetary crisis: climate change, pollution and waste, and the accelerated loss of biodiversity. These three crises, although expressed in different ways, share a common root. This is a development model based on unlimited growth on a planet with finite resources, which prioritizes immediate economic gains at the expense of people’s well-being and the planet’s health.
The climate crisis is perhaps the most visible of all. Every year, the impacts become more extreme. Prolonged droughts, unprecedented heat waves, floods, and increasingly intense hurricanes. These changes not only transform landscapes and ecosystems but also directly affect the food security, health, and livelihoods of millions of people. The pollution and waste crisis is advancing silently, with oceans full of plastic, toxic air in cities, and dangerous chemicals accumulating in soils and human bodies. Alongside this, the loss of biodiversity is jeopardizing the planet’s very ability to sustain the web of life. Forests and wetlands are disappearing, species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate, and the natural bioregulators that ensure the proper functioning of ecosystems are being weakened.
Addressing the climate crisis solely from a technical or environmental perspective has proven insufficient. Climate change acts as a threat multiplier, deepening pre-existing social inequalities. When a hurricane hits a coastal region, for example, not all families have the same resources to weather it and recover. Some individuals have access to insurance, support networks, or social protection systems; others, however, lose their homes and livelihoods, with nowhere to turn, given little to no institutional support. In this unequal scenario, a pattern is constantly repeated: women and girls always represent half of those affected and face differentiated and more severe impacts. For example, in contexts of forced displacement, women and girls are exposed to greater risks of violence, trafficking, or loss of fundamental rights. Similarly, after a disaster, when decisions about reconstruction are made without ensuring their participation, dynamics of exclusion are perpetuated, leaving half the population out of the spaces where the future of their territories is defined. These examples show that climate action cannot be separated from gender justice.
As Nidya Pesántez, leader of the Regional Hub for Gender, Environment, and Climate Justice, pointed out:
To highlight these realities and promote a transformative approach to COP30, a webinar titled “Connecting agendas: gender equality at the heart of climate action and resilience on the road to COP30” was held on September 18, 2025, organized by UN Women in collaboration with UNDRR and IOM. This event, which brought together nearly 100 attendees, sparked a key debate on the urgency of prioritizing gender equality at the center of climate and resilience agendas through the contributions of various speakers and panelists.
Marleny Oliva, Gender Coordinator at Guatemala’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, emphasized that moving from the global to the local level means translating international commitments into concrete policies and actions. She noted that, as part of AILAC in climate negotiations, it is crucial that the gender perspective be integrated as a cross-cutting issue and that there be no setbacks, either in specific negotiations on the issue or in the overall climate agenda.
Complementing this vision, Lorena Terrazas, a representative of civil society through PAZINDE, emphasized that the climate crisis “does not discriminate or wait,” and that civil society participation is therefore crucial in generating inclusive and effective responses from the territories. She pointed out that disaggregated data and the recognition of women’s ancestral knowledge are essential tools for highlighting inequalities and guiding local prevention and education policies, many of which are also developed in indigenous languages. She also emphasized the need to reduce bureaucracy and open access to climate finance, linking international resources with concrete actions in the territories, and to move towards the integration of the three Rio conventions to ensure coherent and coordinated responses at the national and regional levels.
From academia, Yolanda Alfaro delved into the importance of producing knowledge with an intersectional gender approach, pointing out that the lack of this approach in studies on mobility due to climate change renders inequalities invisible, limits their impact on the public agenda, reduces the effectiveness of policies, and restricts access to financing and the building of state capacities. Alfaro added that the persistent representation of women solely as victims or caregivers perpetuates gaps and reinforces traditional roles, without recognizing their role as social and political agents. Finally, she emphasized that strengthening local agendas led by women not only allows for resilience in the face of climate change impacts but also challenges extractivist development models that erode life and territories, positioning women as protagonists of climate transformation.
The complementarity of these perspectives—from government, civil society, and academia—shows that addressing the climate crisis requires a comprehensive approach that integrates gender, local knowledge, and public policy. These contributions are essential to ensure that COP30 is not just a space for technical negotiations, but a turning point where gender equality is consolidated as a central pillar of global climate action.
👉 Access the full recording of the webinar here: Event recording