Missing in Action: The Lack of Women’s Representation at COP27

Despite being at the forefront of the global climate crisis and the driving force behind the most progressive climate legislation, women and girls are largely absent from climate decision-making roles.

In November 2023, I attended the 27th United Nations Conference of Parties (COP27) in Sharm-El Sheikh, Egypt as a member of the Trinidad and Tobago National Delegation. COP is the annual UN climate conference where UN member states, negotiators, civil society representatives, activists, youth, and other stakeholders convene to tackle climate change.

My goal at COP27 was to explore the intersections of gender and climate, understand the work being done by eco-feminists, and observe the extent to which gender was accounted for in the COP27 outcomes. This was integral because the explicit mention of gender within the COP27 outcomes would signify the necessity of a more gender-inclusive approach to climate mitigation, adaptation, and financing measures.

Unfortunately, similar to previous years, women though present at COP, were mostly occupying the sidelines of discourse instead of center stage. It was immediately evident that there were once again significant issues regarding women’s equal representation at this global conference.

The Lack of Women’s Representation at COP 27

This deficit of female representatives was unfortunately and painfully vivid at critical discussions on climate finance, green energy, and carbon sequestration, where both panels and audiences were male-dominated. The irony in this observation is that women and youth, two of the largest stakeholders of these initiatives, were consistently the least represented.

Additionally, spaces at COP specifically catering to the rights of women and exploring the intersections of gender and climate were often poorly attended and difficult to find on an already overwhelming agenda. Especially when the main focus at COP27 was on reshaping climate finance mechanisms and a “will they won’t they” stalemate on the implementation of the loss and damage fund.

It’s not to say that the women weren’t present, but their contributions as civil society leaders, grassroots organizers, and youth activists seemed to be largely overshadowed by the agendas of powerful states and multinational organizations.

At COP27, women represented a mere 37% of all delegates in attendance, and out of 110 world leaders at COP, only 7 were women. These statistics become particularly concerning when we recognize that women are among the most vulnerable to climate change.

Impacts of climate change such as increased natural disasters, higher temperatures, and water scarcity have exacerbated pre-existing societal inequalities. This has led to greater levels of income inequality, and increased incidences of gender-based violence amongst other issues.

Barriers to Women’s Participation

For many women and girls, it wasn’t possible to attend COP this year due to familial and financial obligations. The role of caregiver at times prevents women from being able to fully participate in legislative processes. Another issue is the lack of opportunities afforded to women in the climate space and finally, there is the issue of delegate safety which was an issue at COP last year. Several women reported instances of harassment and assault that took place during the conference. These unfortunate events presented an extra barrier to women’s full participation while at COP27 and, unfortunately, have the potential of deterring women from attending and impacting future COP events.

The necessity of women’s equal representation

The full and meaningful participation of women is critical to solving the climate crisis. Not only because women make up the majority of the population that is most vulnerable to its impacts but also because it has been scientifically proven that when women occupy key decision-making roles, governments adopt more ambitious and firm climate change legislation.

Mia Nielsen, a young feminist activist and speaker at the Daily Feminist Caucus emphasized this point by stating, “Women are just as much agents of change as they are vulnerable to the climate crisis.”

A brilliant case for women’s presence during such fora is Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados whose sobering remarks at COP26 in Glasgow, demanding accountability from wealthy nations and funding for small island developing states resonated with all in attendance. Since then, she, alongside her government, has championed support for the Loss and Damage Fund amongst other funding strategies for small island developing states. Most notably, Mottley’s Bridgetown Initiative aims to reframe the way richer nations approach funding so that poorer nations can now prevent significant debt accumulation.

Where do we go from here?

In order to effectively address climate change, it is paramount that we meaningfully include women and girls at all levels of decision-making.

This means moving women from the sidelines of the COP negotiations, placing them in the rooms with key stakeholders, and ensuring that they have a voice and a platform to guarantee that gender stays on the agenda. It also means creating intersectional and gender-inclusive climate policies that outline specific accommodations for persons across the lines of gender, race, and class.

Other measures include promoting gender-balanced delegations representing member states at COP, providing additional support for mothers engaged in COP proceedings, and increasing funding for women-led organizations and eco-feminist activists to participate at COP. Another key solution is to increase women’s climate literacy, meaning their understanding of climate change and the ways in which it uniquely impacts them.

Closing Notes

The climate crisis is not gender-neutral, therefore our approach to adaptation and mitigation cannot be gender-blind. Furthermore, our leadership must genuinely reflect gender inclusivity at every stage of the decision-making and implementation process.

About the Author

Sapphire Alexander (she/her) is an intersectional Caribbean feminist and the founder of Caribbean Feminist. In addition to her work at Caribbean Feminist, she serves as an advisor for FRIDA, a Queen's Commonwealth Trust Network member as well as a member of the young feminist coalition, Transform Education. Sapphire is passionate about women's rights, intersectional feminism and social justice.