WIIS Brussels was delighted to host the online event “Women and the Climate Crisis: COP26 and Beyond”, in collaboration with the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), as part of its Young Transatlantic Network of Future Leaders series. It was held on Monday, 22 November from 2 to 3 pm.

Climate change is one of the greatest global challenges of the twenty-first century. Yet, its impacts vary by gender. Women are increasingly viewed as more vulnerable, mainly as they represent the majority of the world’s poor and are proportionally more dependent on threatened resources. Differential roles and responsibilities and less access to land, credit, decisionmaking structures, training, and technology also curtail their capacity to adapt to climate actions.

Any meaningful international effort to address climate change needs to include women in decisionmaking structures, policy formulation, and implementation. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has acknowledged the differentiated impact and recognized the importance of gender balance in climate delegations and gender considerations in climate actions. However, COP26 continues to demonstrate a stark contrast between the young women leading the protests and those who run global talks. There remains a clear gap in gender, generation, and perception of the summit’s achievements.

We explored the COP26 conference, what was discussed, what was decided upon, what was left out, and how we move forward with a focus on gender issues.