COP27: Second week opens with focus on water, women and other ‘loss and damage’ negotiations |

“Nothing about us, no us,” UNICEF lawyer Ayshka Najib said UN News on Monday as she was painting one of the colorful collaborative artworks on display in the conference’s dedicated youth pavilion depicting the role of women in climate action.

For the young climate activist, women and young girls with all their diversity have been leading the climate movement for centuries, so they shouldn’t be dismissed.

“They should be co-owners and agenda-setters of the climate process, but that is not the case today, the issue of gender is still debated in the discussion rooms,” she denounced. judge.

Ayshka Najib, UNICEF youth advocate, paints a collaborative artwork at the youth pavilion.

Indeed, women and girls face greater obstacles when trying to adapt to climate change, they experience greater economic impacts, they have to shoulder additional care and labor work. unpaid family work when disaster strikes, and above all, they are more vulnerable to violence. caused by the crisis.

But like UN women women are not victims, and evidence suggests that their representation in parliament can lead countries to adopt more stringent climate change policies.

“Women and girls are essential, effective and strong leaders to tackle the climate crisis. But most of them remain underappreciated and undervalued with limited access to the training and technology extension services needed to effectively adapt to the impacts of climate change,” Deputy United Nations Secretary-General Amina Mohammed speaks at a women-focused event in Africa.

“There is a very simple and effective solution – putting women and girls at the forefront,” she urged.

‘Strong as a dandelion’

Mary Robinson – first woman President of Ireland, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and founding member of ‘The Elders’, a group of prominent leaders working to address a number of issues the world’s toughest issue – also emphasizes that COP27 should recognize the leadership roles of women and girls.

“We understand the problems on the ground. We have more empathy for them, and more recognition of their truth, and how strongly the gender divide of those issues needs to be looked at,” she said. UN News.

Ms. Robinson explained that along with other female leaders, she started a movement calling for climate action with a feminist approach.

Their symbol is a dandelion.

“The dandelion is the only weed that grows on all seven continents. It’s so resilient, you can’t get rid of that damn thing. Poets write about it… So we wanted to spread the message of urgency. And we want governments in particular, to listen. A lot of progressive businesses are getting the same urgency as me,” she said.

The former High Commissioner is among the signatories of a new document backed by more than 200 of the world’s largest businesses and prominent civil society members calling on governments to align their climate plans with spending 1.5C set by the Ministry Paris Agreement.

“Governments themselves are not pushing. This is the COP of implementation, and they don’t do it,” she denounced.

Women are the center of negotiation

Meanwhile, Lucy Ntongal, a Kenyan climate and gender expert from the NGO Actionaid, told journalists that although she has always been fascinated by the resilience of her communities back home, they can no longer exist.

“Mothers’ priority is water and because their husbands have left home to find new pastures. They would take their daughter out of school to walk miles to get water. Finally, they have to undergo female genital mutilation in order to get married. This is because the family can’t feed any more,” she explained at a press conference.

A new NGO report highlights the growing losses and damage caused by climate impacts that are having devastating consequences for women and girls, including increased employment. risk of sexual and family violence.

“It is a forgotten crisis. But if we choose to ignore it, we are telling girls that world leaders don’t care about their futures anymore. Leaders need to keep the voices of girls and women from the Global South, living through the realities of the climate crisis, at the heart of the COP27 negotiations, as they are the best people to deliver. solutions,” she emphasized.

‘For water, now or never’

As Ms Ntongal said, women are now having to travel further and further to find water, touching on another top topic on Monday at COP27.

Human-caused climate change not only leads to dramatic changes in the global water cycle that make precious fluids more scarce due to droughts and rapid evaporation, but also increases the frequency of hurricanes. heavy rains as well as accelerate the melting of glaciers.

These effects are especially felt in developing countries. For example, in 2021 alone, there were a total of more than 100 disaster events in Asia, of which 80% were floods and storms, a new report released by the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) describe.

The agency has also drawn a worrying scenario for what the future might hold for the continent, with glaciers in the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau – the main source of fresh water for more than a billion people. people – are retreating rapidly.

“For water, it’s now or never. Water is the theme we find in energy, food security, health, economy and international cooperation… We really have to change our behaviours, attitudes, actions, governance and the way we organize around water,” said Henk Ovink, Special Envoy for Water, the Netherlands, one of the leading countries. United Nations Water Conference, set for March 2023.

To be part of the solution, the COP27 President kicked off Monday the Action Initiative on Water Adaptation and Resilience (Awareness) to promote investment in water and adaptation for the most vulnerable communities and ecosystems in Africa.

The program will work on reducing water loss, recommending and implementing policy approaches to adaptation and promoting cooperation.

About 40% of the world’s people are affected by water scarcity; 80% of wastewater is discharged into the environment untreated and more than 90% of disasters are related to water, as the United Nations Secretary-General noted earlier this year.

Update on the negotiations

As the second and final week of COP27 begins, Simon Stiell, United Nations Executive Secretary for Climate Change, reminds negotiators that people and the planet are counting on the process to make it happen. presently.

“Let’s use the time we have left in Egypt to build the bridges needed to make progress on May 1. [degrees Celsius]adaptation, financing and loss and damage,” he said.

In an informal update, COP27 President Sameh Shoukry, said that while negotiators had concluded work on a number of issues “there is still a lot of work ahead”.

“If we want to achieve tangible and meaningful results that we can be proud of, we must now redirect and supplement technical discussions with participate in higher-level politics”.

Mr. Shoukry added that the parties now “need more time” to discuss issues related to mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, gender and agriculture and that he had asked the co-executives. support them.

The COP President seems confident that a written outcome will be delivered on time.

“I expect very few issues to be open on Wednesday night, November 16, when the near-final text will be presented,” he said.

Later in the day, Ambassador Wael Aboulgmagd, COP27 Special Representative, reaffirmed that the President was confident that the negotiations would conclude by Friday.

Answering questions from journalists, Mr. Aboulgmagd welcomed the restart of climate dialogues between China and the United States, announced at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.

‘Stop diversionary tactics’, calling for civil society

Rachel Cleetus, from the Union of Concerned Scientists NGO, reiterated in a press conference that the establishment of the loss and damage funding base with the funds starting to flow no later than five 2024, should be included in the resulting document.

She also said that G7 Global Insurance Initiativelaunched at COP27 by members of this economic group to finance climate disaster-affected countries, strengthen social protection and climate risk insurance programs, there are several “utility factor” but is not a substitute for the financial basis of loss and damage.

She also said it was pushed as a “diversionary tactic”.

“It seems that many rich countries including the United States, think that hitting the agenda item here at COP27 is winning. It’s not a result not a win. And by the way, it is entirely thanks to the tireless efforts of climate vulnerable countries and climate justice advocates, not to mention the profound loss of lives and livelihoods across the globe. world that we have witnessed this year,” she argued.

Bangladesh, Pakistan and Ghana will be the first to receive funding from the ‘Global Shield’, Germany, the G7 President, announced on Monday at COP27.

“The scale is completely off. Countries are putting money on the scale of the millions, and the demand they admit is growing into the billions and trillions,” said the expert.

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