Poor women will be central to fighting Climate Change



COP16 - United Nations Climate Change Conference © AP GraphicsBank
By Emily Nevins, Head of Amnesty International’s Delegation to COP16“We owe it to our daughters and grand-daughters” – Patricia Espinoza, President of COP16Monday marked the start of week two of the COP16 climate change negotiations, which are taking place in Cancun, Mexico. Although these negotiations have not received the same amount of media attention as those in Copenhagen, Denmark last year, the outcomes of this round of negotiations are no less important to millions of people around the world – half of whom are women.In an event chaired on Monday by Mary Robinson, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and ex-President of Ireland, Patricia Espinoza, the Foreign Minister of Mexico and President of COP16, Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and others, discussed the impacts of climate change on women and the role of women in addressing climate change.They spoke about how women are affected by climate change, for example water and food scarcity pushing rural women deeper into poverty and vulnerability. Christiana Figueres argued that the fact that 50 percent of women continue to cook with open fires – a contributor to carbon emissions – speaks both to the experiences of women in many parts of the world and for the need to involve women in finding global solutions that work locally.Several panellists said that the strength of women living in poverty as agents of change on climate cannot be overlooked or underestimated, in particular because of their role in educating young people, in agriculture, and in their connective roles between people in local society. Continue reading ‘Poor women will be central to fighting Climate Change’