Gender, Climate Change and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Citation:

Maguire, Rowena. 2019. "Gender, Climate Change and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change." In Research Handbook on Feminist Engagement with International Law, edited by Susan Harris Rimmer and Kate Ogg, 63-80. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Author: Rowena Maguire

Abstract:

This chapter explores gender representation within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and seeks to examine why greater focus has not been placed on gender within the modalities of the regime. It argues that there are three main reasons which have diverted attention away from the development of: gender targets, gender reporting and the development of gender tools for use at the national level. First, the conceptualisation of vulnerability within the regime has traditionally been based upon North/South classifications, meaning that the regime has focused on the vulnerability of nations as compared with assessing vulnerability of certain groups (including but not limited to women) to climate change. Secondly, the climate change regime has prioritised scientific knowledge over other types of knowledge, including knowledge of the lived experience of climate change. And thirdly, parties to the regime have been preoccupied with getting all major emitters to accept mitigation commitments, which has resulted in feminist issues, along with other stakeholders’ interests, being sidelined in the global interests of solving climate change.

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Gender, International Organizations

Year: 2019