By: Oforiwa Darko
A number of key ministerial and side meetings around current climate change efforts have begun to help push the agenda of climate financing, especially the big issue on “loss and damage”, inclusion and renewable and safe energy for all.
These meetings are also being held for stakeholders to collectively make progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, and also make recommendations to help ensure the full implementation of the Paris Agreement.
On the issue of Gender and Climate Change, African women and gender advocates within the official United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC Observer groups, have added their voices to the call for actively engaging women and girls in community action toM mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Through structured support and micro-grants, the advocates said that young women who are within climate-affected communities will be financially empowered and also help implement grassroots projects to help tackle climate change in their respective communities.
Priscilla Achakpa, a Nigerian Advocate who is the Global Lead for Women Environmental Program, in an interview with GBC News noted that girls and young women should be better equipped to enter and occupy positions of leadership where their perspectives on climate change will be heard and respected.
“We need to address the injustices against women and girls when climate change issues are put on the negotiating table. We are tired of the promises every year and we demand action now. Without finance there is no way we can implement any agenda and also address climate change issues in the vulnerable communities in Africa”.
As we stand in solidarity with all vulnerable groups, over 150 women organizations came to COP 27 with the voices of women and children who have been displaced as a result of extreme flood events due to climate change, women whose farms have been inundated by floods, and all women and girls who are bearing the brunt of climate change across the African Region. Priscilla Achakpa, further noted.
The Women and Gender Constituency, WGC, is one of the nine stakeholder groups of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCC.
Established in 2009, the WGC now consists of 33 women’s and environmental civil society organizations, who are working to ensure that women’s voices and their rights are embedded in all processes and results of the UNFCCC framework. This is to facilitate the agenda for a sustainable and just future, so that gender equality and women’s human rights are central to the ongoing discussions.
