Gotelind Alber GenderCC-Women for Climate Justice Climate for Change. How research should incorporate gender dimensions to inform climate change policy-makers

2 Evidence on gender differentials related to climate change and climate policy  Politial power and influence on decision-making (high evidence, high agreement)  Carbon footprints (drivers) & vulnerability (impacts) (low to robust evidence, low to high agreement)  Attitudes and preferences (limited evidence, low agreement)  Access to climate relevant resources and services, capacities to respond to climate change (limited evidence, medium agreement)  Socio-economic impacts of policies (limited evidence, low agreement)

Underlying factors Gender power relations Segregation in education Income and assets Care economy, livelihoods Unpaid labour, informal economy Cultural constraints Legal discrimination

Gender balance in the UNFCCC Process Gender bias in power & decision-making

Gendered causes of climate change: different carbon footprints Räty and Carlsson- Kanyama 2010

Gendered impacts of climate change Vulnerability to the impacts of climate change is depending on exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity “Climate change is likely to magnify existing patterns of gender disadvantage” (UNDP Human Development Report, 2007)

Attitudes and preferences  Concerns about climate change  Expectations towards policy-makers  Acceptance of risky technologies such as nuclear, CCS, geo-engeneering  Preferences in terms of strategies (technological approach versus lifestyle changes)  Willingness to change own lifestyles

Example: Gender aspects of mobility and transport  Trip patterns  Safety requirements  Customary/cultural constraints for women  Available and preferred modes  Attitudes to cars  Scarcity of urban space - road infrastructure competing with other land use purposes

Example: Some gender aspects of energy  Extremely low representation of women  Exposure to indoor air pollution  Different responsibilities in terms of household energy  Decision-making at household level?  Risk of energy poverty  Different chances to invest in energy efficiency and renewables

The case for social aspects and climate justice to be taken into consideration IPCC AR4: Four main criteria that should be used to evaluate mitigation instruments and policies  Environmental effectiveness  Cost effectiveness  Distributional and equity effects  Institutional feasibility

A Topography of gender & climate change topics Low/middle/high income contries Urban - rural

12 Gender in the recent IPCC AR5 reports – results of a word count Word frequency ofgenderwomenmen WG I --- (Physical Science Basis) WG II (Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability) WG III (Mitigation of Climate Change)

Existing research on climate change Mainstream climate change research  Science & technology plus economy  Male dominated, gender blind, often blind for social dimension in general  Focus on technical solutions and one-fits-all- mechanisms Gender aware research  Social sciences & humanities  Often very theoretical  Focus on impacts, vulnerability and resilience building  Concentration on case studies, only anecdotal evidence

Some newer findings  Relevance of gender for transition to low carbon economies (Kronsell 2013: Gender and Transition in Climate Governance)  High level of awareness of the gendered aspects of climate change likely to lead to improved policies (Dyme, Andersson and Langlais 2015 for local level)  Gender balance alone not sufficient to ensure gender sensitive policy-making, as masculine norms deeply institutionalized in climate institutions (Magnusdottir & Kronsell 2015)

Questions for Gender Advocacy  How to address gendered carbon footprints, needs, and preferences in terms of policy options?  How to take lifestyles, structures and infrastructures into consideration?  How to respond to gender roles in practice without reinforcing them  How to deal with simplifications and gender myths versus diversity and intersectionality?  Low carbon development as a multi-dimensional and multi-level transformative process towards low-carbon, low-risk, climate-resilient, equitable, gender-just and inclusive societies?

From Gender Balance to Gender Justice  Gender balance / equal representation and participation  Recognise and address gender roles, e.g. equitable and fair distributional effects of benefits and burdens  Challenge power relations and institutionalised norms: Transformational effects Consequences: Priorities and strategies might change, individual policies and measure might need to be modified

Research Needs - Principles  Transdisciplinary, participatory and people-centred  Gender awareness and gender competence of reearchers plus involvement of specific gender experts  Intersectional approach as integral part of research  Gender disaggregated data plus further disaggregation (see e.g. Eurobarometer) and examination of underlying causes  Value and address care economy  Methodologies & tools to detect and address gender differentials, e.g. in vulnerability assessments, GIA  Address root causes: Androcentrism, segregation of care

Suggestions for Specific Research Questions  Gender effects of carbon market and mechanisms  Care and informal economy and climate change  GIA for mitigaton policies & measures  How to deal with MRV, e.g. given the continuum from resilience building to development in general  Loss & damage: how to compensate for losses in the informal economy?  Applicability of Gender Budgeting for the Monitoring of International Climate Finance

GenderCC - Women for Climate Justice Global network of women NGOs and gender experts working for gender and climate justice comm.gendercc.net