At COP 21, Yannick Glemarec engages with broad range of partners
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On 9 December, UN Women Deputy Executive Director Yannick Glemarec visited COP’s Climate Generations areas, where international and civil society organizations emphasize among the general public the commitment of all generations to local and global solutions to climate change.
The Deputy Executive Director introduced the event “Exploring Synergies in the Rio Conventions to support achievement of the SDGs” at the Rio Conventions Secretariat Pavilion, where he emphasized the ambitious and universal agenda of the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He said we cannot addressed each of the SDG targets in isolation: “The only way that we will be able to achieve the SDGs will be through breaking the silos; through identifying a number of integrated initiatives that enable us to deal with a number of SDGs in a synergetic manner.”
“UN Women believes that when you take a gender equality and women’s empowerment lens, you can instantly identify a series of integrated solutions. For example, if we can address the gender gap in agriculture in terms of women farmers’ accessibility to land, finance, technology and markets we could increase their productivity, addressing at least half of the SDG targets,” added Mr. Glemarec.
Later in the day, the Deputy Executive Director and Rebecca Tavares, UN Women Representative in India, participated in the side event “Strengthening Intergenerational Dialogue and Partnership on Gender Equality and Climate Change”, organized by Global Youth Advocate, Saket Mani.
Using integrated assessment models, Mr. Glemarec explained to youth different approaches to generate useful information for policymaking and reinforced the need to remove barriers to achieving sustainable development in the 21st century.
Sharing stories from women such as Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya in India and Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Wangari Maathai, Kenyan founder of the Green Belt Movement, Ms. Tavares’ presentation focused on the importance of targeting young women as agents of change to ensure sustainable responses to climate change. Recognizing the important contribution of women—especially women farmers, their collectives and coalitions to institutionalize greenery strategies—she said: “the innovation, energy and success of women and youth movements is the reason why UN Women strongly advocates for women farmers and young leaders to be at the forefront of all climate change negotiations and decision-making.”
The event, which included a performance by Indian youth musician Kundan Saun, galvanized a new generation of gender equality activists as they engaged with UN Women representatives, civil society leaders, grassroots climate activists and other stakeholders, in a youth-inclusive platform for dialogue.
Read more news from COP 21.