REPORT CARD: Where is Gender Equality in National Climate Plans?

Advocacy

This updated report in partnership with CARE and CAN International reviews NDC’s with an expectation to promote gender inclusion in climate action. This report card is an updated version of the one first released in December 2020.

The Paris Agreement on Climate Change requires Parties to submit new or updated national climate action plans, the so-called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) every five years. Five years after its adoption, many countries are now in the process of revising or updating their NDCs which should have been delivered in 2020.

While climate change threatens livelihoods and human security across the board, women and girls, particularly those who are living in poverty, often face higher risks and greater burdens from climate change. Women are agents of change, yet they are frequently viewed as passive victims that are ‘vulnerable’ to climate change.

The NDCs aim to become a pathway towards enhanced greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction ambition and climate resilience with more equitable and better outcomes. The process of revising NDCs provided a key opportunity for governments to build in a gender-responsive approach, including through consultations and working with different stakeholders.

Climate action that is gender-responsive is needed to mitigate against the impacts of climate change on women and girls, in particular the most marginalized. It is also more effective. Women’s meaningful and equal participation at different levels, from climate policy making to implementing community adaptation initiatives, is shown to yield more effective results for climate and for poverty and inequality reduction.

This report card is part of CARE’s #SheLeadsInCrisis global campaign which demands gender-just humanitarian and climate action that elevates and funds women-led crisis-response to today’s defining global humanitarian crises: conflict, climate, and COVID-19.

This edition is an updated version of the one first released in December 2020, following the same analytical approach but adding the analyses of many more NDCs that have been released since then, complemented by a few new case studies of civil society engagement from developing countries.

This update is jointly prepared by CARE and Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA) as part of a project on participatory NDCs.