Yannick Glemarec attends “Climate, women are committed!” conference
Date:
On 16 October, Yannick Glemarec, UN Women Deputy Executive Director spoke at the Conference “Climate, women are committed!” at the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Development in Paris. Underlining women’s role as actors in the fight against climate change and highlighting the potential of Sustainable Development for women, the event was organized a few weeks before the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21), which aims for a legally binding universal agreement on climate change in Paris in December.
Speaking on the first panel, entitled “Women, active and committed to the climate”, together with Pascale Boistard, French Secretary of State for Women’s Rights, Mr. Glemarec underlined that “one of the big levers of climate change is women’s participation in public policies on energy and agriculture.” The key challenge today, he said, is to systematically incorporate gender equality and women’s empowerment into our operational responses to climate change at the local, national, and international levels. This will require a paradigm shift that puts women at the centre of our adaptation, mitigation, and disaster risk-management efforts.
During the closing ceremony, an appeal, dubbed “Supporting women in addressing climate change: Why we are committed”, was presented to France, which holds the COP21 Presidency. Laurent Fabius, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development, said he would convey the appeal and underlined that “the fight against climate change must take gender equality into consideration.”
This appeal was signed by the conference’s participants, including UN Women, and more than 100 prominent stakeholders. It calls on COP21 to integrate concrete commitments in favour of gender equality and women’s empowerment in the upcoming Paris agreement and more generally in future strategies and financing on climate change.