Gender-Responsive Climate Action: The Path to COP30

Gender equity is crucial to effective climate and energy solutions

The discussions at CO29 in Baku highlighted both advancements and setbacks in tackling the interconnected issues of gender, energy access, and climate change. So, how can we make the next COP different? How can discussions and commitments at COP30 underscore the fact that gender equity is crucial to effective climate and energy solutions?

Globally, 675 million people lack access to electricity, and 2.1 billion lack access to clean cooking. Women and girls, particularly in developing countries, bear a disproportionate burden of energy poverty, as they are often responsible for household energy-related tasks such as cooking, water collection, and heating. The reliance on inefficient, polluting fuels like wood or charcoal harms health, limits educational opportunities, and hinders economic empowerment.

The absence of electricity also impacts women’s safety, security, and time management, as tasks that could be done more efficiently with modern energy sources instead consume valuable hours.

The gender-energy nexus highlights that increased access to energy benefits women and girls by promoting gender equality and driving progress in poverty reduction, food security, healthcare, education, and employment. Access to electricity and clean cooking reduces the time women spend on household chores, improves health, and creates more opportunities for education and work. For instance, a study in Nature Sustainability estimated that clean cooking technologies could prevent 463,000 deaths annually and reduce healthcare costs by USD 66 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa. Electrification also boosts female workforce participation and helps reduce gender inequalities, such as enabling girls to study after dark.

The Lima Work Programme on Gender and the Gender Action Plan

At COP29, advocates pushed to keep gender central in climate discussions, calling it the ‘finance and gender COP.’ The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) reaffirmed its commitment to gender-responsive climate policies, including the Lima Work Programme on Gender (LWPG).

COP29 extended the LWPG for ten years to integrate gender into climate action. Alongside the Gender Action Plan (GAP), the LWPG aims to ensure gender balance in decision-making and empower women in climate policy implementation. Since its adoption at COP20, gender references in UNFCCC communications have risen, with 85% of Parties including gender in their latest reports. However, only 36 of 106 countries supported by the Climate Promise have incorporated gender considerations into energy sector mitigation measures in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The updated NDCs (popularly referred to as NDC 3.0 are due to be submitted this coming month (February 2025) outlining countries' climate commitments and present key opportunities to integrate gender equality in climate action.

COP30 can be the moment when we interrogate the commitments coming from different countries to see if gender considerations will have been adequately incorporated.

Intersectionality and Gender Equality: Key Negotiation Challenges

Gender equality remains a key challenge in climate negotiations. For example, the negotiations for the Enhanced LWPG faced significant challenges amid global pushback against women’s rights. The final text (Version 22/11/2024 15:20) saw key terms on diversity and intersectionality from the draft text (Version 13/6/2024 18:00) removed, and protections for women environmental defenders excluded. Participants at COP criticized the negotiations for undermining efforts to combat systemic discrimination, calling the lack of intersectionality a ‘backsliding’ on women’s rights.

Furthermore, a recent analysis by the Women’s Environment and Development Organization found that women’s participation at COP28 was only 34%, a modest increase of just 3 percentage points from COP14 in 2008. While participation fluctuates each year, achieving gender parity is not expected until 2043.

At COP29, for example, only 8 out of 77 opening speakers were women. This persistent underrepresentation reinforces a male-dominated decision-making process that often does not adequately represent women's lived experiences; this must change from COP30 onwards, more voices of women and especially those from the Global South must be heard.                 

Gender- and Age-Disaggregated Data

Gender- and age-disaggregated data is crucial for evidence-based climate and energy decision-making, guiding planning, de-risking finance, and targeting interventions. While the COP29 text called for enhanced disaggregated data collection (Operational Paragraph (OP) 17) and integration into biennial transparency reports (OP18bis), the final version only “encourages” cooperation between United Nations entities and Parties to mainstream such data into existing policies (OP8).

Activists have acknowledged a win with the inclusion of gender- and age-disaggregated data into the final text, but, as highlighted by SEforALL and UN Women, without standardized methodologies, clear targets, and monitoring mechanisms, tracking the impacts of climate actions on women and girls remains inadequate. The gender data gap is particularly concerning for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, which remains one of six SDGs lacking gender-specific indicators. While the Enhanced LWPG brings attention to this issue, stronger commitments and actionable frameworks are urgently needed to close the data gap, and this is an area that will need particular attention at COP30.

Young Women in the Enhanced LWPG: A Missed Opportunity

The Enhanced LWPG largely omitted youth perspectives. While the COP29 draft text (OP10) referenced youth empowerment and the vulnerability of girls in climate-related crises, calling for Parties to address risks to their education and safety (OP23), these provisions were removed entirely from the final text.

This exclusion undermines efforts to address the specific challenges young women face, such as increased gender-based violence, educational disruptions, and the disproportionate impacts of climate change and energy poverty.

At COP30, there is need to have more platforms and stronger commitments to empower young women through targeted policies while integrating their voices into climate action; this way we can effectively advance gender equality, build resilience, and ensure that youth can lead a just energy transition.

Finance and Gender-Responsive Climate Action

At COP29, the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) set an annual climate finance target of USD 300 billion, aiming for USD 1.3 trillion by 2035. The NCQG acknowledged the importance of financing that benefits women and marginalized groups, highlighting the need for “human rights-based and gender-responsive" climate finance.

While a step forward, experts caution that the financial commitment remains insufficient to support developing countries in reducing emissions and protecting vulnerable populations from climate impacts. The agreement lacks concrete mechanisms for accountability and equitable distribution, raising concerns about its effectiveness without targeted efforts to ensure women’s needs are addressed.

At COP30 and beyond, targeted efforts will be essential to ensure that climate finance meaningfully addresses the needs of women, girls, and marginalized groups, with robust accountability mechanisms to track and measure impact. Without these measures, the transformative potential of gender-responsive climate finance may remain unrealized.

Looking Ahead

COP30 presents the opportunity to build on COP29's wins, address gaps, and advance gender-responsive, youth-inclusive climate solutions. The ten-year extension of the Enhanced LWPG and the upcoming GAP redevelopment at COP30 provide an opportunity to set clear targets and elevate ambition.

The SEforALL Global Forum in March 2025 will be a crucial platform on the road to COP30 for stakeholders to address these gaps, focusing on integrating gender-responsive data into policies, setting measurable targets for gender-equitable energy access, ensuring inclusive representation in climate decision-making, and empowering youth to lead in a just energy transition. These efforts are crucial for overcoming setbacks in gender equality and setting the stage for transformative progress at COP30.

Join us at the SEforALL Global Forum in Bridgetown, Barbados (12 and 13 March 2025) and at the SDG7 Pavilion at COP30 in Belem, Brazil (10 to 21 November 2025), to continue this work!