COP 30 Presidency should place gender justice at the heart of negotiations

 

Dear COP30 President-Designate André Aranha Corrêa do Lago,

 On behalf of the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC), one of nine official observer constituencies representing civil society under the UNFCCC, we write to you today in your role as COP30 Presidency. At this decisive moment for global climate action, we bring forward clear, urgent, and feminist expectations. Gender justice must be placed at the heart of the COP30 negotiations. Importantly, we call on your leadership, as mandated, to lead an inclusive and transparent process towards the development and adoption of a transformative and ambitious Gender Action Plan (GAP) following the adoption of the 10-year Enhanced Lima Work Programme on gender at COP29. Now is the time to move beyond rhetoric and deliver real structural change and implement climate actions that center the human rights, agency, and leadership of women and girls in all their diversity. 

The climate crisis is fueled by entrenched systems of exploitation, extraction, and inequality that concentrate power and resources in the hands of a privileged few. Women, girls, and gender-diverse people, particularly those facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination in frontline communities, bear the disproportionate brunt of its impacts. Yet, they are systematically pushed to the margins of power, with the least access to and control over resource, decision-making spaces, and planning and implementation capacity, further deepening their vulnerability. 

The new GAP must confront gendered power relations at all levels and dismantle the structural barriers that have excluded, marginalized and discriminated against women in all diversity, particularly those from the Global South. This demands bold leadership, concrete commitments, the allocation of and direct access to dedicated resources, robust accountability and monitoring mechanisms, and the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women and gender-diverse people at all levels. It also requires the integration of gender-responsive approaches across all climate workstreams to ensure systemic, transformative change. The COP30 Gender Action Plan must be intersectional, inclusive, measurable, human-rights based, responding to communities’ needs and cohesive across all areas of climate action, and adequately funded. 

We take this opportunity to firmly remind the Presidency that promoting and protecting women’s human rights and gender equality is not an optional add-on to climate action, it is a fundamental prerequisite for achieving effective, just, and sustainable climate solutions and transitions. The persistent and systemic exclusion of women and gender-diverse people from climate decision-making has not only entrenched inequalities within and between countries but has also severely weakened our collective capacity to confront the climate crisis in ways that are equitable, just, transformative, and sustainable. 

The Women and Gender Constituency will judge the success of your Presidency not merely by the final outcomes of COP30, but by the ambition you demonstrate throughout the process - ambition that aligns with science, respects local and indigenous knowledge systems, and is rooted in gender justice and respect for human rights. This ambition must be evident in how you engage with Parties, Constituencies, and stakeholders during preparatory meetings, and throughout the negotiations themselves. Your leadership must place gender just climate action at the center - in your public communications, the design and structure of preparatory processes, the setup of the COP30 venue, the allocation of resources, and your response to any attempts to weaken or roll back gender equality commitments. 

As the COP30 Presidency, you carry both the power and the responsibility to ensure that gender just climate action is not simply acknowledged, but actively prioritized, resourced, and operationalized at every step. We, the undersigned organizations, stand ready to engage fully and constructively in this process, but we do not come as supplicants. We come as rights-holders, demanding that our aspirations, needs, voices, and leadership be centered and respected in the fight for climate justice.

 In solidarity and determination, 

The Women and Gender Constituency Signed by 197 organizations (as of 13 May 2025)

https://womengenderclimate.org/cop30-presidency-this-will-not-stand/