Resolution on gender and climate change adopted at CSW

March 2011 - The Philippine Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York reported that the 55^th Session of the United Nations' Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) adopted by consensus a Philippine-initiated ground-breaking resolution on gender and climate change last March 4. 
 

The Philippine resolution entitled, "Mainstreaming Gender Equality and Promoting Empowerment of Women in Climate Policies and Strategies", stressed the need to ensure women's full enjoyment of all human rights and their effective participation in environmental decision-making at all levels.

It also highlights the need to integrate women concerns and gender equality perspectives in sustainable development policies and programs.  The resolution calls for all nations to facilitate and ensure women's effective participation in the crafting and implementation of climate change policies, strategies and programs.

In formally introducing the Philippine resolution to the CSW, Philippine Permanent Representative Libran N. Cabactulan pointed out that "the effects of climate change will be felt most acutely by those segments of the population that are already vulnerable owing to geography, gender, age, indigenous or minority status and disability."

"As an archipelagic state with a largely agricultural and rural population, and as a country beset by numerous natural disasters, the Philippines knows this first hand," Permanent Representative Cabactulan stated.

He said that women are among the most vulnerable to climate change, emphasizing that "in many countries, they make up a larger share of the agricultural workforce and they tend to have less access to income-earning opportunities than men. Women manage households and care for family members, which often limits their mobility and increases their vulnerability to sudden weather-related natural disasters."

Permanent Representative told the CSW that the Philippines has implemented policies that seek to bring economic growth and development to all sectors of our society, but that "climate change is a challenge that urgently calls for greater global cooperation."

The Philippine resolution contains 12-action points, among which is a call on states to integrate a gender perspective into their environmental and climate change policies, and to strengthen mechanisms and provide adequate resources to ensure women's full and equal participation in decision-making at all levels on environmental issues, in particular on strategies related to the impact of climate change on the lives of women and girls.

Fifty-three states co-sponsored the Philippine resolution, namely: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, the Central African Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, the Gambia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mali, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, the Netherlands, the Niger, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Togo, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.