PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS ROUND TABLE ON CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON WOMEN

Saying that women’s voices were missing in current climate change discussions at the global level, participants in an upcoming round table at United Nations Headquarters, “Examining How a Changing Climate Impacts Women”, briefed journalists at a press conference this morning.

Giving the briefing were Ulla Ström, Deputy Permanent Representative of Sweden; Irene Dankelman, Vice Deputy of Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO); Lorena Aguilar, Board member of WEDO; and Rebecca Pearl, Sustainable Development Program Coordinator of WEDO, who spoke on behalf of June Zeitlin, WEDO’s Executive Director.

The round table, organized by WEDO, the Council of Women World Leaders and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, would be moderated by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway and United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Change, would deliver the keynote address.  She would be joined by Han Seung-soo, her fellow Special Envoy for Climate Change; Lena Sommestad, the former Minister of Environment of Sweden; and David Mwiraria, the Minister of Environment of Kenya.

The purpose of the round table was to ensure that the Secretary-General’s high-level event on climate change would reflect how climate change impacts women and what role they could play in curbing it.  As part of that effort, the round table’s organizers had developed a set of policy recommendations for the United Nations and the upcoming United Nations climate change conference in Bali in December.

Noting that all disasters, including the Asian tsunami, hurricanes in South America, cyclones in Bangladesh, Hurricane Katrina, droughts in Africa and the European heat wave often affected women disproportionately, Ms. Pearl said that the round table would open a door to gender concerns in climate change.  “The UN has yet to catalyse a global response to the fact that there are existing gender inequalities in climate change,” she said.  Current United Nations frameworks and meetings on climate change had not prioritized a gender perspective or women’s participation, focusing instead on emissions reductions.

According to Ms. Aguilar, the round table would try to add a human face to climate change discussions.  Women’s participation was essential, but had so far been missing in most of the United Nations discussions on climate change.  “That’s a debate that’s just starting at the level of the climate change convention,” she said. The round table would be part of an effort to help women regain their voices and ensure they had access to natural resources and to the decision makers on climate change.  In addition, she noted that climate change could not be considered an environmental issue only, but also a development issue -- especially for countries and people in the South.  “Men and women are not suffering equally from the impact of climate change,” she added.

Ms. Dankelman stressed that women’s voices might be part of local and State-level climate change initiatives, but they had not been part of the global discussion in the same way.  The round table’s message was not that gender should become a separate issue in the climate change discussion, but simply that it be included.  “Our concern at WEDO is that this human face be added to our deliberations, which often get so technical,” she said.

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For information media • not an official record