The Women's Environment Network Australia is an organisation that seeks to amplify women's voices for the environment.
Women are the most likely to respond to surveys as concerned about the environment and represent the majority of people who actively volunteer on environmental projects. Yet this interest is not reflected in formal decision making settings.
Our intention is to remedy this situation by supporting women to confidently have their say on our common future as well as supporting their voices and actions to make a difference for the health of the environment.
Statement by the Women and Gender Constituency for the AWG - KP Closing Plenary, Copenhagen 15th December 2009
Or you can read the text:
Mr Chairman, my name is Jo Tenner, I come from Australia which is among the world’s highest per capita emitter of greenhouse gas. I speak today on behalf of GenderCC, the Gender and Women’s Constituency and the Women’s Caucus.
Gender is about all of us, men and women, it is critical to understanding the social and economic context in which policies, programs and legislation are constructed. This is no less true in the case of a global climate change agreement.
The focus of my comments is the mitigation dimensions of climate change. As we know the vast majority of emissions have come from developed countries, when we examine the attitudes of their people we find that mitigation is gendered.
Significantly, in the countries that will have to undertake the greatest mitigation efforts, women express higher levels of concern about climate change as well as greater levels of willingness to take action in their own lives to mitigate climate change.
Unfortunately, this level of concern is not matched by women's representation in decision making on climate change, nor are women adequately enabled to take actions in our own lives to abate emissions.
Many women have undertaken activities to lessen their carbon footprint but in the absence of an effective international framework, these efforts are negated by the continued growth in emissions.
An acceptable outcome from these negotiations includes both: very ambitious, effective commitments from developed countries in the form of emission cuts and funding for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries, as well as strong language on gender. Only one of these two is not sufficient. Developed nations must resolve to do this, the women of your countries expect nothing less.
