10 Ministers present at WECF and UNEP’s event in Monaco
Environmental Ministers discussed gender criteria for climate change financial mechanisms at WECF event at UNEP Governing Council in Monaco
27.02.2008 |WECF
WECF was present in Monaco at the Governing Council 10th Special Session in February 2008 with a small delegation of members from Netherlands, Germany, France and Kyrgyzstan. Together with UNEP, the United Nations Environment Programme, WECF organised a side event on "Financing climate change from a gender and rights perspective", on Thursday February 21, 2008.
Ten Ministers of Environment and Development Cooperation took part in the side event, from Benin, Cap Verde, Irak, Iceland, Netherlands, Tanzania, Surinam, Sudan, South Africa, and Swasiland.
Six high-level representatives of government from Brazil, Indonesia, Finland, Germany and Togo & Tobago joined also in the discussion, and the director of the African Union.
The Ministers dialogued with civil society representatives on the gender aspects of three specific policy issues:
- should nuclear industry be kept out of climate change programmes?
- how can climate funds empower women and the poor?
- do we need criteria for bio-fuels to avoid negative social and gender effects?
Janet Macharia, Senior Gender Advisor of UNEP, co-organiser of the event, welcomed all ministers and other participants to the side event.
Sascha Gabizon, Executive Director of the NGO network of women and environment organisations “Women in Europe for a Common Future - WECF”, and co- organiser and facilitator of the event, introduced the programme and the panellists.
Minister of Environment of Iceland, Tórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir (left), Sascha Gabizon of WECF (middle) and Andjelka Mihailova of Environmental Ambassadors Serbia, at the WECF/UNEP side event
Gender and Climate change expert Ulrike Roehr, coordinator of the international network gendercc – women for climate justice opened the session by presenting how market based mechanisms are failing in addressing the needs of women, landless farmers, indigenous peoples. For example, many CDM projects depend on substantial land use change, which compounds the problems of local people, and may affect women more than men. Looking at the EU emissions trading scheme, it results in its first phase in huge profits for the biggest electricity companies: although the carbon emission allowances were given for free they passed the ‘virtual costs’ of these credits on to the consumers as if they had bought them. In the second phase it is allowed to auction 10% of the allowances, 90% are again given for free and will increase the profits. Women and environmental organisations are demanding for acutioning of 100% of the allowances, which could raise about 75 billion US$ annually. Money, which is urgently needed for adaption and mitgation. She also asked for the implementation of criteria to ensure that measures and projects funded by these money comply to sustainability and, in particular, are considering women’s needs and livelihoods. Roehr demanded the mandatory application of gender budgeting and gender audits in all funds, and called for addressing the root causes of climate change, like unsustainable lifestyles or injustice and inequalities in the world. She proposed that 20% of all climate change funds should be explicitly addressing women and designed and implemented by women / gender experts.
Also, she questioned why huge parts of research funding is going to the nuclear sector instead of looking for real innovations in renewable energy.
Tórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir, Minister of Environment, Iceland, started by sharing a dream, that through the cooperation of all women environmental ministers, we succeed in completing the Bali road map, via a dialogue which will bring a Copenhagen consensus where women’s voices will have been heard.
She moved to the topic of the first panel discussion, by explaining why the Iceland government is concerned about nuclear energy. Nuclear waste is piling up and there are nagging concerns for the safety of nuclear weapons. Radionuclides from the UK nuclear power plant Sellafield enter into the northern seas, and the UK government has not been able to stop this, sadly there continues to be accidents at Sellafield. For Iceland this is a matter of great economic concerns, as their economy is based on fishing, and it would be disastrous if the safety of their main export product would be damaged. Now many governments in industrialized nations are promoting nuclear energy as a solution to climate change. But this is a quick fix, as the problems of nuclear energy remain. We need to spend our money on truly sustainable energy options. She calls on all countries, if they have not solved their nuclear waste and security problems, not to invest in nuclear.
Minister of Surinam and government representatives of Indonesia and Brazil
Andjelka Mihajlov, President of the UNEP-accredited NGO Environmental Ambassadors, Serbia, pointed out that governments should – before taking a decision to invest in nuclear – to take in account “the true price” for nuclear, including assuring technical safety (few countries have solved their radioactive waste management problem), as well as stability (political, governing, economic) in the country. She stated that her concern is that in many countries in the world, like the Balkan countries where Environmental Ambassadors is operating primarily, or now also Kenya, the stability is very fragile, and social strive can easily flare up; in such a situation the nuclear industry is a thread to the safety of the people. She underlined that from an NGOs perspective sustainable energy has to assure environmental security, safety, stability and peace.
Minister of Environment of Iraq, Narmin Othman Hassan Barzingy, supported the previous statement, on the costs and safety concerns of nuclear facilities.
Tamara Malkova, presented that she lived in Kiev when the nuclear accident in Chernobyl occurred, that she fled with her small daughter to South Ukraine, but several days too late. That her son, who was born after Chernobyl has had strange health problems all his life. That she is extremely concerned about the projects of the Ukraine government to build more than 10 new nuclear power plants.
Sabine Bock, Energy and Climate coordinator of WECF, said that the women of the WECF network in 30 countries are very concerned about the renewed promotion of nuclear energy.
The speakers on the second panel discussed how to assure that funding for climate change would help to empower women and the poor.
Minister Tereza Siricio of Sudan, stated that she sees that women are at the lowest level of economic development. In her country, women are most affected by climate change, but how can the international community provide them efficiently with funding? Her country has no CDM project.
Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi of South-Africa stressed that we have to address the current injustice of our economic systems, and that it no longer should be the sufferer who pays, but the polluter. Funds should go to those who are most affected by climate change and least able to survive: the poor, and especially women, who are the poorest of the poor.
Janet Macharia, Senior Gender Advisor of UNEP and the minister of Sudan
Minister Batilda Burian of Tanzania, stated that they have one CDM project proposal for a waste to energy plant, but where she sees the biggest financing need is in small scale rural energy systems for households and communities.
Minister Bert Koenders of the Netherlands, stated that even though he is a man, he promotes gender equity, especially since he is a Minister for Development Cooperation, where he sees how important is the role of women in cooperation projects. He agreed fully with the Minister of South-Africa that the polluter pays principle should be applied, and that these funds should go to reach women, for example in mitigation projects. He sees that women are the “agents of change”: if we can empower women we can overcome poverty. He gave the example of a large biogas project in Nepal supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Cooperation, which is targeted at women: they have already built thousands of household biogas installations. The women no longer need to spend most of their time looking for firewood, freeing their time of economic added value activities.
Ms. Tina Jortikka Laitinen, Director, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland, stated that she is glad to come from a country where gender issues are well recognized, and where women voices are heard. Therefore Finland should make proposals to have gender criteria obtain a greater priority in international climate change funds.
The minister of Labour, Technical Development and Environment of Surinam, stated that she sees a great need to allow more women to take part in the labour market. Women and girls should have access to training to work in the sustainable energy sector. Too often women are not given these opportunities. She would like to see that Climate Change funding also go to support creating jobs and training for women to work in mitigation projects.
The facilitator asked the ministers what they think of this proposal, would 20% be too much or too little, should it not be 50%, as women make more than 50% of the population?
Minister Thandie Shongwe of Swasiland stated that she supports a set part of the funds for women.
Minister Bert Koenders of the Netherlands said that he does not believe that earmarking part of the funds for projects for and with women is the solution, but, instead, that gender should be mainstreamed in all climate programmes.
Yana Dordina, of NGO Raipon, representing the indigenous peoples of the Artic region, said that the artic peoples are already very much affected by climate change, both more extreme colds as more extreme heat, which has killed many of their reindeer and has disseminated fish populations, the basis of their economy. She sees little scope for adaptation, and calls on all to reduce their CO2 emissions as fast and as much as possible, as she fears that this will be the end of the Artic peoples.
Mildred Mkandla of the NGO Earth Care Africa, presented the case of her neighbour in Zimbabwe, a woman rural farmer, single mother, and ill with HIV/Aids. She lost most of her maize crop when torrential rains came at the unusual time after the planting season. She has no more income, and can not pay her HIV/medicines any longer. She stated that this is one example of millions, and that funds are badly needed, foremost for adaptation, for those who have no buffer to survive.
In the third panel the ministers debated with civil society representatives on gender impacts of biofuels, and the need for criteria.
Minister of Environment, Jacqueline Cramer, of the Netherlands, presented the proposal for bio-fuel criteria, which she has developed and presented at the UNFCCC conference in Bali. She has insisted that social criteria are included.
The representative of the NGO Third World Network, Philippines, gave the example of peat forest being burned down for palm oil plantations producing bio-fuels. And that this was causing great damage to the climate. Such deforestation had to be taken into account when evaluating the impacts of bio-fuels. Many of the small farmers who are displaced by coconut plantations are women. She stated that she believes that Cramer criteria developed entirely by scientist, without the involvement of the affected populations, can never address fully the social and gender consequences.
Mr. Marcelo Furtado, of the NGO Greenpeace Brazil, stated that biofuels have positive and negative effects. He gave the example of corn not being as efficient as sugar cane. On the remark of the facilitator that, seen the labour conditions in Brazilian sugar can plantations, this could hardly be a solution, except with strong criteria in place, he continued that criteria are alright, but not enough, legally binding instruments are needed, also to support a just transition in the labour market. If now, under pressure of the Netherlands criteria catalogue, the sugar cane industry was going to mechanize, and lots of poor agricultural labourers would lose their livelihoods, he is sure their would be an social uproar against these criteria from the Netherlands.
The representative of the Government of Brazil, stated that the Government of Brazil, has a program to assure sustainable production of biofuels, which takes gender issues into account.
The Minister of Cap Verde, explained that she is concerned, as prices for food products, which her country needs to import, have tripled in price. There should not be competition between food crops and biofuel crops. She states that local production and use of biofuels would be interesting for her country.
Minister Jacqueline Cramer of the Netherlands responded that, she has hope in new generation biofuels, which do not compete with food, and would like to see regional production and use of biofuels, but can not understand some NGOs who are asking for a moratorium on all BioFuel imports from Developing Countries, including Greenpeace international.
Marcelo Furtado of Greenpeace protested against this, stating that Greenpeace worldwide has the same position on BioFuels, but that it is a very complex issue. He requested for more time to explain the issue, which unfortunately was not available.
The facilitator suggested that criteria is probably a first step, but that legally binding measures should be taken by all countries, especially the biofuel producing countries, to assure that not great injustice comes from the global rising demand for biofuels.
The civil society facilitating committee at the UNEP 10th special session elected for a 2 year term
Other activities at the UNEP 10th Special Session in Monaco
WECF gave an intervention on behalf of the women’s major group at the opening session of the conference, stating that:
We wish, that these 3 days here in Monaco, where the delegates will take wise decisions on financing climate change action, that these decisions will not only focus on financing large maize fields in developing countries to fuel the Yachts and Bentleys of the 1% affluent people in this world, but, that you will focus on financial mechanism which will - unlike the CDM - benefit the poor, those who are losing their livelihoods from draughts and floods. We also ask you not to focus your investments in export taxes and investments benefits for nuclear industry, which is not a sustainable energy solution, but an industry which causes great health damage for the poor communities living near the uranium mines, whose human rights are often not respected. We women, are very concerned about this, as UN statistics show that women make up to 70% of the poor, and are doubly affected as they often have to care also of the ill and deprived. We see that there are more and more environmental refugees, and again, the majority are women and children. I am glad to hear that Monaco is working hard on reducing its carbon emissions, but we need to do more, and that is to support those who are most effected. We call on your sense of responsibility, to make Climate Justice a priority issue in your decisions these days.
Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF)
WECF is a network of 100 organizations in Western and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia working on sustainable development, health and environment and poverty reduction. WECF strives for a Healthy Environment for All.
For more information and pictures please contact:
Sascha Gabizon, Executive Director WECF, +49-172 86 37 586
Chantal van den Bossche, NL press officer, +31-6 2812 9992, chantal.vandenbossche(at)wecf.eu
Johanna Hausmann, DE press officer, + 49 89 232393819, Johanna.hausmann(at)wecf.eu
Women in Europe, +31 30 2310300, wecf@wecf.eu, www.wecf.eu, www.womenineurope.eu
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