COP 25
The twenty-fifth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was held from 2 to 13 December 2019 in Madrid, Spain. The key outcome from a gender perspective was the adoption of the enhanced five-year Lima work programme on gender and an updated gender action plan (GAP 2.0). These will guide Parties and other stakeholders in implementing gender-related decisions under the Convention and the Paris Agreement.
GAP 2.0 benefited from inputs from Parties and other stakeholders, including UN Women. Together with the governments of Costa Rica and the Netherlands, UN Women organized a workshop at the preparatory COP held in Costa Rica in October, which fed into the Parties’ negotiations at COP 25.
Major topics for discussion at COP 25 included efforts to reach a conclusion on the effective and transparent implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement; reporting requirements to monitor and report on greenhouse gas emissions and progress tracking of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs); and “common timeframes” for NDCs. These discussions did not reach conclusions and were advanced to COP 26, to be held in Glasgow, UK, in November 2021.
UN Women participated in COP 25 to highlight gender-responsive climate action. UN Women provided technical support in the finalization of the five-year updated gender action plan (GAP 2.0). Together with the UN system, UN Women contributed evidence of and best practices for the gender-responsive implementation of the Convention and the Paris Agreement, presenting examples of its programmatic work in a number of countries. The extended duration and new actions included in the GAP 2.0 ensure that the gender dimensions of climate change will be taken into consideration in the implementation of decisions under the Convention and the Paris Agreement.
The GAP 2.0 also included actions from the gender equality initiative which emanated from the Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit of 23 September 2019. UN Women was the lead technical entity in developing the gender equality initiative. These actions call for gender-responsive national planning, the promotion of women’s knowledge platforms, and women’s participation in research and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
UN Women also drew attention to the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (“Beijing+25”) and opportunities for synergies among work streams. The Entity worked with France to highlight the Generation Equality Forum to be convened by UN Women and co-hosted by Mexico and France in 2021. The role of youth, and of young women, in gender-responsive climate action was at the core of this event.