Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-04-20-Speech-5-012-000"
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"Mr President, on behalf of the Commission and, in particular, of my colleague, Connie Hedegaard, who unfortunately cannot be here today, I very much welcome the report on women and climate change. I would like to thank the rapporteur for her excellent work and also for her very convincing opening statement.
I would like to conclude on this positive note: I truly believe that climate action can contribute to development in the world’s poorest regions and improve the living conditions of many men and women in the developing world. The Commission will continue to mainstream gender issues into policy making, including the fight against climate change and adaptation to the adverse effects of climate change.
This is a good opportunity to discuss how the EU can help women put their stamp on future climate policy. Climate change is already a fact of life for many on our planet, especially in the developing world. As you know, climate change effects hit the most vulnerable the hardest. In the poorest and least-developed countries, women, children and the elderly are the first to suffer. As the report rightly says, even though climate change is gender-neutral, its effects are gender-differentiated. When addressing climate change, the EU looks at how consumption and lifestyle patterns have an impact on our environment. By supporting sustainable, green, low-emission development, we are helping to mitigate the effects of climate change and to stimulate economic development, which will make the poor and vulnerable – predominantly women and children – the principal beneficiaries.
The EU supports mitigation actions through the geographic and thematic programmes of this development cooperation. As an example, I would like to mention the Sustainable Energy for All summit this week in Brussels, where two panels were dedicated to access to sustainable energy for women. Better access to modern sustainable energy – to cooking stoves, for example – will reduce the use of traditional biomass, which will, in turn, reduce deforestation. It will also increase the available time women have, which would otherwise be spent on collecting wood and cooking on inefficient fires.
We have to ensure that we have more of such win-win programmes. The EU also aims to mainstream climate change adaptation into EU policies including those on migration and disaster risk reduction. It is all about being forward-looking in order to minimise the inevitable adverse impacts of climate change and gender inequality. Gender is already among the 11 forms of social impact which should be screened as part of any impact assessment carried out today by the Commission before it makes any kind of proposal.
As underlined in the report, gender-neutral policies start with gender-balanced representation in policy definition. Decision makers need to listen to women and make use of their knowledge in adaptation and mitigation strategies. However, while women constitute the majority of the world’s poor, women’s voices are often insufficiently heard. Women are under-represented in national decision making and in international climate negotiations. In the recent communication on a renewed EU-Pacific development partnership, it is stated clearly that gender inequalities may hamper countries’ capacity to address climate change impacts.
This is particularly relevant in a region like the Pacific, where women are under-represented in public decision making and levels of gender-based violence remain high. Pacific leaders acknowledge the need to take women’s experience, knowledge and priorities into account more effectively if they are to address the impact of climate change successfully and be able to achieve sustainable development.
In line with the goal of raising women’s representation to the 40% level advocated in this report, women have chaired the last three conferences of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Durban conference of the parties adopted decisions explicitly referring to the need to ensure gender balance in the adaptation committee and the standing committee on climate finance.
The EU needs to ensure gender balance among the members of these bodies as far as possible. The Danish Presidency decision to present the set of indicators on women and climate change to the Council illustrates the fact that this critical area is high on the agenda. This is an important step towards developing a comprehensive toolkit for evaluating the gender dimension of decision making and policies at all levels.
We will need funding and capacity-building to enhance women’s knowledge of climate change and how to adapt their daily lives. It is our responsibility to give the concerns of women and the most vulnerable a place in national and international climate policy. The report before us is a very useful contribution in advocating climate equity: I commend it and I applaud the rapporteur and the European Parliament for this initiative."@en1
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