UN Women Climate and Environment Strategy

The world is facing a climate and environmental emergency, alongside a rollback of women’s and girls’ rights and pushback against gender equality. This strategy sets out UN Women’s integrated approach to advancing feminist climate and environmental justice so that women and girls in all their diversity can realize their rights on a peaceful, healthy, and sustainable planet, now and for future generations.

Grounded in a human rights-based approach, the strategy recognizes that climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation are interconnected and accelerating, with compounding consequences for the lives, livelihoods, health, and well-being of women and girls. Moving beyond a narrow focus on climate change, the strategy provides a clear framework to advance women’s rights, resilience, empowerment, and leadership in climate and environmental action at all levels.

Building on UN Women’s triple mandate, the strategy sets forth an institutional agenda covering key priority areas and a set of entry points and pathways:

• strengthening gender-responsive climate and environmental policies and frameworks
• supporting women’s voice, agency, leadership, and participation
• expanding access to climate and environmental finance
• promoting gender-responsive just transitions to sustainable, green, and blue economies with decent work and social protection at the center
• improving the availability and use of gender and environment data

Through partnerships and collective action, it provides a flexible roadmap for global, regional, and country-level work, contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals, advancing climate and environmental commitments, and promoting women’s human rights, including the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.