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Gender talks going nowhere

All eyes may be on finance at COP29, but negotiators are also fighting about an overlooked decision on gender that remains gridlocked after the first week of talks.

Established back at COP20, the Lima Work Programme is meant to provide guidelines for gender-responsive climate policies, which then informs a Gender Action Plan (GAP) every five years. The work programme is due to be renewed here in Baku, aiming to advance gender balance at the UN climate talks and integrate gender considerations more effectively into climate action.

But negotiations have been lengthy and difficult. The main sticking points are human rights language and finance for closing the gender gap in climate action. Observers say Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Vatican have been the main blockers.

UN action on gender and climate faces uphill climb as warming hurts women

Divisions are so bad that talks could collapse. Two negotiators told Climate Home that there’s a risk of reaching no agreement and pushing the decision to next year’s COP.

Negotiators told us they had hoped for more help from the presidency, but said Azerbaijan has not prioritised the issue. Earlier in the year, the COP presidency also came under fire for announcing a COP29 committee with 28 members and no women. They later included 12 women after getting backlash from observers.

This imbalance is not uncommon: at last year’s COP, only 15 of 133 world leaders present were women. This year, the number dropped further, representing just 8%.

Women are disproportionately affected by climate change, as they often work in vulnerable industries like small-scale farming and bear the burden of household responsibilities like collecting water, which becomes even heavier after disasters.

In brief…

The Trump effect: The upcoming change of government in the US, after the election of Donald Trump as president, could “delay” Colombia’s $40-billion plan for a just energy transition, as the country scouts for donors, environment minister Susana Muhamad told Climate Home News at COP29. Colombia is aiming to channel the funds for the plan through the Inter American Development Bank (IADB) and hopes “to leave it ready before we finish government”, she said.

COP31 stalemate: A meeting between the climate ministers of the two potential COP31 hosts, Turkiye and Australia, ended with neither backing down in their bid for the support of the “Western Europe and Others” regional group, whose turn it will be to organise the summit. After the meeting in Ankara, Turkiye’s environment minister Murat Kurum posted on X that he had “emphasised our country’s determination to host COP31”. A source with knowledge of negotiations told Climate Home a decision is now unlikely at COP29.

Dragged off over dogs: A video posted to social media purports to show Azeri animal rights activist Kamran Mammadli being violently detained in the COP29 Green Zone while protesting against the slaughter of stray dogs. While the Blue Zone is under United Nations control, the Green Zone is overseen by Azerbaijan’s authorities.

Billionaires tax at G20? Brazil has used its G20 presidency to push a global tax on billionaires to fund action against climate change, hunger and poverty. Brazil’s climate secretary Ana Toni told Climate Home today that Monday and Tuesday’s G20 leaders summit in Rio de Janeiro is likely to mention the tax. “Let us wait to see the leaders’ decision – to see how far they got it,” she said in Baku.

Economists’ “nonsense”: Climate Action Network International said today that Thursday’s UN-commissioned climate finance report by a group of economists was “nonsense” which “goes against the Paris Agreement” for saying that only 30% of the external climate finance needs of developing countries (except China) should be met through public finance. “The public finance is there by reining in fossil fuel subsidies, properly taxing the biggest polluters and wealthiest, and slimming down the extraordinary military budgets,” the environmental network of more than 1,800 of NGOs said in a statement.

The post COP29 Bulletin Day 6: Gender talks hit impasse, Turkiye v. Australia for COP31 appeared first on Climate Home News.

COP29 Bulletin Day 6: Climate march tamed and gender talks gridlocked