A Feminist Fossil Free Future

In 2009, at the Copenhagen Climate Summit, developed nations pledged $100 billion a year from public and private sources to nations in the developing stages to address climate change and implement explicit emission pledges from all the major countries of the world. The problems, according to the moderators from Heinrich Boell Stiftung North America & Partners leading the discussion on gender issues in climate finance action, are that these monies don't come into play until 2020, they simply are not enough to address the already fractured climate of the earth, that change needs to come much more quickly, and that women and gender do not occupy prominent positions in this accord and climate finance action discourse to begin with.

As part of the overall discourse on gender and women's empowerment at the 2016 UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the challenges in including these perspectives and positions continue to grow and, in many ways, remain unmet. One manner in which to address these shortfalls, they say, is to push against the existing structures and narratives in place, and specifically work toward climate change through finance from a social justice perspective. In addition, it is imperative to understand that gender in climate finance is a movement that must include funding to adapt to and mitigate existing climate change and enhance women's rights by channeling money into the local level if we are to re-industrialize society.

In essence, the drive toward climate finance continues its direction from economic engines such as the World Bank, and with that, may miss a vital, gender-just component of the process, in the long run impeding results which include the roles and needs of women in the global climate debate. If we are working toward a fossil free future, it will simply not be accomplished sans the feminist perspective and voices directly at the table and within the discourse.

Kickoff! The 2016 NGO CSW Consultation Day

A key event in support of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations is the NGO Consultation Day. Presented as a kind of kick-off to the upcoming two weeks of UN events examining the status of women throughout the world and acting as a kind of barometer for advancement on the front of women's empowerment, this daylong global interchange not only highlights the work being done by NGOs around the world, but highlights specific avenues being pursued to move the agenda forward.

The backdrop of these efforts is the 1995 Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action, which together deliver a blueprint agenda for women's empowerment and advancement through decisions and policy. The 2016 Consultation Day brought together the purpose, thoughts, needs and anticipated directions of numerous NGOs and the people who power them.

Chief on the agenda was the concept and framework of advocacy to stop violence against women worldwide. The idea that violence is experienced in myriad formats through such broad areas as migration; education and health; poverty and finance; and water and climate change became the basis for the breakout sessions centered around these topical areas. This look into challenges faced and barriers overcome stemmed from the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, most specifically SDG5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls  and SDG6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all.

With these central tenets as guideposts, the 2016 NGO CSW Consultation Day created the opportunity to re-engage the discussion, re-visit the path which brought the women's empowerment movement to this point and re-envision the journey to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030.