COP27: Lack of women at negotiations raises concern
Karen Toro / Climate Visuals Countdown
"COP27: Lack of women at negotiations raises concern", 16 November 2022
Too few women are participating in COP27 climate negotiations, charities, activists and politicians have warned.
BBC analysis has found that women make up less than 34% of country negotiating teams at the UN summit in Egypt.
This is despite evidence that females bear a disproportionate burden from climate change.
Government officials and campaigners say that without greater representation climate change can't be tackled and women's lives will worsen as a result.
Shirley Djukurna Krenak, an indigenous woman of the Krenak people of Minas Gerais, Brazil, told the BBC that women have always been "fighters" for the planet...
Shirley told the BBC that indigenous women in particular have always fought for environmental protection and "need to be respected and people need to listen to us"...
This is one of the lowest concentrations of women seen at these UN climate summits - known as COPs, according to the Women's Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO), which tracks female participation at such events.
The male skew among leaders reflected a broader trend across the delegation teams that countries have sent. Analysis by the BBC of the participant list found that less than 34% of country negotiation staff were female. Some teams were more than 90% male...
In 2011 countries pledged to increase female participation at these talks, but the share this year has fallen since a peak of 40% in 2018, according to WEDO...
On Monday, a new report by charity ActionAid revealed that women and girls are facing increased and specific risks as the climate crisis worsens... The UN has estimated that 80% of people displaced by climate change are women...
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