From Dubai to Belém: Gender and Climate at the Triarchy of COP

COP28, Closing Plenary in Dubai on December 14th, 2023, United Arab Emirates. Photo Credit: COP28 | Anthony Fleyhan

By Carmen Roberta Taboada, Research Director at EmpoderaClima

This week, the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, first established in 1992, began. What does this mean? Between November 11th and 22nd, 2024, leaders and heads of state from 192 countries will be meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, to debate global policies and actions against climate change, seeking to achieve the objectives defined in the Paris Agreement in 2015. Within this wide discussion, there will also be several other related themes being debated at the same time, such as Loss and Damage, Mitigation and Adaptation, Finances, Just Transition and, of course, the essential subject for EmpoderaClima, Gender.

The international community has already turned its focus towards COP30, which will be occurring in Brazil and will be the 10 years milestone of the Paris Agreement, with the delivery of new or revised NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) by all signatory countries. Although most of the attention is focused on 2025, for next year's Conference to achieve the expected objectives and results, it's essential that negotiations in Baku are successful, especially since COP29 will be the "Financing COP", with it's main purpose being the adoption of a new global climate finance target. EmpoderaClima is present to keep up with the COP29 negotiations, especially in regards to the Gender theme and the Gender Action Plan.

To follow COP29 in a productive way, it's always worth remembering the results and presence of EmpoderaClima at the grand COP28, which took place last year, between November 30th and December 13th in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and about which we will be discussing a little more throughout this article.

Considering the final decisions made at COP27, there were high expectations for COP28 (to learn more, read our article “From Sharm el-Sheikh to Dubai: Learnings and Expectations from the Climate Conferences”). Based on these expectations for the conference in 2023, especially in relation to gender issues, EmpoderaClima was present at the largest global forum on climate change, being represented by seven young Latin American women: Cândida Schaedler, Communications Advisor; Carmen Roberta Taboada, Research Director; Daniela Cruz, Project Manager; Maria José Palomeque, Advocacy Lead; Renata Koch Alvarenga, Founder and Executive Director; Victória Rampazzo, Advocacy Lead; and Vittoria Horch, Director of Project Management.

Photo Credit: EmpoderaClima

What did we do at COP28?

The delegation followed various activities at the conference, such as organizing and participating as a speaker at various events on gender and climate, going through interviews and meetings, participating as a listener at workshops, participating in protests, and, of course, carrying out a lot of networking and advocacy with other activists, institutions, government and private sector representatives. EmpoderaClima's work was intense and, with the Party Overflow credential (given to parties, who despite not being diplomats or official negotiators of the event, are still part the delegations of their respectives countries of origin), we had access to one of the most restricted spaces when it comes to international conferences: Negotiation Rooms, the place where official debates are held by diplomats, government representatives and other stakeholders. Negotiations here revolve around the formulation of policies and actions that will guide global strategies to combat climate change.

The points discussed are reflected, at the end of the conference, in official documents, such as the Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement. This was the first COP decision that explicitly mentions society's move away from fossil fuels - although terminologies of a more ambitious and operational nature are still scarce, the text is seen as a landmark for international climate discussions. This year, for COP29, the final text will focus on the topic of climate finance and major advances are expected in the availability of global resources, especially for the Global South.

Illustrative image with the purpose of showing the various types of UNFCCC credentials. Image Credits: Agência Jovem de Notícias

The main issue followed by EmpoderaClima at COP28 was gender.

For that purpose, in addition to participating in different events (official and parallel) on the topic, we were present as listeners in some of the negotiations of the Gender Working Group, where we followed the discussions and positions of the countries regarding the topic, observed sub-agendas of the gender theme that are on the rise on the international scene and learned how negotiations take place at an international conference.

Moderation, informal-informal session, veto, endorsing a speech… There's many jargons. But what does a negotiation look like in practice?

Knowing that the COP negotiating room is a restricted and very distant space for many - and, somewhat obscure, especially for civil society -, we will tell you a little about our delegation's experience. The arrangement of tables and chairs in the room may vary, but in the session in which we participated, the format of the meeting was plenary, with several tables in horizontal rows facing a small stage where the secretariat and the debate moderation table where located. On screens next to the stage, the written document that was being discussed, negotiated and edited was projected - this document would later become the final decision of the gender working group. 

Each country was represented by one or more diplomats, who had signs with the name of their respective countries, which where used not only for identification, but also to demonstrate interest in having a say in the discussion, raising it when necessary. The session we attended was in the format of an informal consultation, but there are several other types that vary according to the group's objective and needs, as well as the interests of the parties involved.

Photo Credit: EmpoderaClima

And what about the debate?

Now that we understand how the negotiation logistics work, let's talk about what we all want to know. What about the debate, how was it? In the negotiation session in which we participated, each country's speeches consisted in defending their positions regarding the terminology of certain concepts, such as gender and indigenous communities. That is, it was being discussed not only whether these words should be present in the text and how they should be used (in the preamble or in the operative part of the text, for example), but also their meaning. You may be asking yourself “why have such an attachment to these kind of detail?”. And that's because each and every single word matters, has its weight and value, which can differ between people and this difference impacts the final text which, therefore, impacts the policies and actions that will be carried out at a global, regional and local level. Thus, it is possible to say that each negotiator defended their country's position, defended every word, expression and punctuation that he considered relevant. In other words, it's all a massive game of power and words. It is essential that we understand the importance of words in negotiated texts and in the climate plans that governments develop, especially in the NDCs that will be delivered in 2025 at COP30.

To better understand this "game", we spoke to someone who followed the gender agenda at COP28 very closely: Helena Branco, Young Ambassador for Climate at Operation COP (The Climate Reality Project Brazil and The Climate Reality Project Latin America) and Public Politics student at the Federal University of ABC, who received training on negotiations from Itamaraty, the brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and had the opportunity of accompanying brazilian diplomat Bruna Veríssimo in her work as a negotiator for Brazil at the conference and as the brazilian focal point for Gender in UNFCCC.

According to Helena, the gender negotiations only took place in the first week of the conference, between the 1st and 5th of December (with the exception of the 4th), as this would be the deadline for delivering the group's resolution. This resulted in a total of 15 hours of negotiations, with each session normally lasting around an hour and, in general, having it's standard format as informal consultation. It was in the informal-informal sessions however that negotiations could trully advance, as observers were not allowed to enter the room and, thus, negotiators had much more freedom to talk and, well, negotiate - especially the more sensitive topics.

Following the logic of the "game" of negotiations, each participant on the board has its own objectives, agendas and strategies. In this sense, the Russian Federation, alongside Mauritania and Saudi Arabia, led the group of countries with an anti-gender agenda, whose strategy consisted in hindering debate and, therefore, consensus, denying the use of certain words, such as disaggregated data by sex and gender, marginalized groups, local communities and indigenous communities.

Game score… Was it a win-win case? Or was it more of a lose-lose situation?

Despite attempts at negotiation and coordination between the groups of opposing countries on the gender issue, the text gradually faded away. Basic concepts, such as human rights, were removed altogether from the final text, resulting in a document spanning at a measly two pages. The sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), that took place in Bonn, in June this year, were fundamental for advancing the discussion of the agenda and for articulating the next Gender Action Plan (GAP).

It's worth highlighting the workshop held at the SBI, in which progress, challenges, gaps and priorities in the implementation of the Gender Action Plan and future work to be carried out on gender and climate change were discussed. Despite the discussion held, much remains to be resolved at COP29, and EmpoderaClima will continue to follow the agenda in Azerbaijan and in Belém next year.

With this, we realize the need for us to continue our work in the area of ​​gender and climate, as we are yet to go through all the basics of the discussion, such as the concept of the word "gender" itself, to be able to think about solutions related to, for example, adaptation and mitigation of climate change with a gender perspective or climate financing for young people and women, among many other possibilities.

Follow EmpoderaClima’s social networks to see our full coverage of COP29!