In focus

In focus: Women’s leadership at the COP 28 climate conference

Women in the village of Fadiga, in the Kédougou region of Senegal, have worked for many years in agriculture.
Women in the village of Fadiga, in the Kédougou region of Senegal, have worked for many years in agriculture. Photo: UN Women/Alioune Ndiaye.

At this year’s UN Climate Change Conference, COP 28, UN Women will ensure that women and girls’ rights, abilities, and needs are taken into account in climate debates and incorporated into government policies.

Women and girls have been at the forefront of climate activism and can offer unique knowledge and expertise—including among Indigenous, rural, and young populations—that can support effective climate action.

As extreme weather events increase in intensity and frequency, women and girls around the world are also exposed to disproportionate hardships, including food insecurity and risks of poverty and violence.  

UN Women has prepared key knowledge products for the conference, held in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December 2023, which provide analysis and policy recommendations on gender and climate change. 

The UN Women delegation to COP 28 is led by UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous. UN will release its Feminist Climate Justice report at a press conference at COP, and will also engage in events calling for gender-responsive policies on 4 December, the conference’s Gender Day.

Key publications

  • Feminist climate justice: A framework for action

    Feminist climate justice: A framework for action

    This paper describes how to achieve feminist climate justice through four interlinked dimensions (recognition, redistribution, representation, and reparation) and the principles of interdependence and intersectionality.

    Read here
  • Working paper: The climate–care nexus: Addressing the linkages between climate change and women’s and girls’ unpaid care, domestic, and communal work

    The climate–care nexus: Addressing the linkages between climate change and women’s and girls’ unpaid care, domestic, and communal work

    This paper discusses the ways in which climate change and environmental degradation disrupt the care economy and increase and intensify women’s and girls’ unpaid care, domestic, and communal work.

    Read here
  • Policy brief: A gender-responsive just transition for people and planet

    A gender-responsive just transition for people and planet

    This policy brief discusses robust pathways to overcome the prevailing challenges to just transitions with gender equality. It calls for governments and other stakeholders to make commitments to a gender-responsive just transition and be held accountable for their commitments and actions.

    Read here
  • Spotlight on SDG 6: From commodity to common good: A feminist agenda to tackle the world’s water crisis

    Spotlight on SDG 6: From commodity to common good: A feminist agenda to tackle the world’s water crisis

    This paper aims to review the state of gender equality in Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) and showcases how a gender perspective can inform and strengthen the discourse around SDG 6 acceleration. 

    Read here
  • Data-driven insights: The effects of climate change on gender and development

    Data-driven insights: The effects of climate change on gender and development

    This brief synthesizes research and data analysis from UN Women’s gender and climate data work.

    Read here
  • climate technical brief

    Gendered analysis of the impact of climate change on poverty, productivity and food insecurity

    This report seeks to model the gendered effects of climate change on poverty, productivity, and food insecurity with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region and six priority countries.

    Read here under Additional Documents

Ahead of COP 28, UN Women and partners—including the Offices of the President of COP 28, the UN Climate Change High Level Champion, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, International Union for Conservation of Nature, and Women's Environment and Development Organization—will convene a conference to highlight the importance of gender-specific environment data and to ensure that leaders at COP 28 forge policies that take women and girls into account.

COP 28 will launch the Global Stocktake to assess progress towards the achievement of the goals of the Paris Agreement, aimed at limiting global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C. The stocktake will also be critical in evaluating how existing policies have impacted women and girls, and will provide a foundation for future policy changes.

As countries look to transition their economies away from fossil fuel extraction and other harmful environmental practices, it will be essential to ensure that the benefits of these changes are fairly distributed, ensuring gender-responsive transitions that prioritize the rights of women.

At COP 28 and throughout its programming, UN Women works to integrate gender equality perspectives into the design, funding, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies and programmes on climate change mitigation, adaptation, loss, and damage.

Read more about women and the climate

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Key events

28 and 29 November 3 December 4 December 9 December

  • Gender and Environment Data Conference co-organized with UAE COP28 Presidency, UNFCCC, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

    • UN Women Corporate Side Event on Gender-Responsive Climate Action: Building Evidence for Change and launch of the Feminist Climate Justice paper. Register here.
    • A Message to World Leaders from Women of the World Event co-organized with the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, the CEDAW Committee, UAE COP 28 Presidency, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the UAE.
    • Protecting People and Planet Through a Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Lens, co-organized with the Government of France and UNODC.
    • Gender & Climate Security: Exploring the Links between Climate Change, Gender Inequality, Conflict, and Forced Displacement co-organised with the Government of Finland.
    • Launch of Feminist Climate Justice publication. Media advisory here.
    • Inclusive climate-compatible infrastructure for gender equality, featuring opening remarks by UNOPS Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva
    • Climate change and violence against women: Zero degrees of separation, a Spotlight Initiative.
    • Water for life: Achieving gender equality in the context of the water crisis. Register to attend online or in person here.

  • Global Gender Stocktake co-organised with the UNFCCC, UAE COP 28 Presidency, and the Women and Gender Constituency.

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