COP26: how it failed..but failed women in particular

COP26 was a critical global event, described as a “last ditch” attempt to try and save the planet. Striking images were taken of world leaders working together to reach an agreement but was stood out to me was the lack of female representation at the summit. It’s ironic really because the face of the climate change movement, is Greta Thurenberg, a young woman. Yet the leaders making decisions were, unsurprisingly, white men. This is hardly an issue exclusive limited to COP26, yet the event highlighted once again the lack of female representation at the highest level.

It wasn’t just amongst the world leaders where there were issues with female representation, there was also a lack of diversity amongst the delegates. In fact, originally the list of delegates was going to be exclusively male so SHE Climate Change wrote an open letter to Alok Sharma, signed by over 400 climate change leaders and the likes of Emma Watson, asking for more female representation. Whilst the government did then add more women to the list of delegates, it is saddening that in a liberal country like the UK, there is still such a lack of understanding for the need to have women at the top tables, including those discussing climate change. It is then ironic, and almost comedic, to see the UK government talking about inclusivity and diversity at COP26 on their social media accounts and not implementing this in practice. It is particularly disappointing because studies have shown that women will be proportional more affected by climate change than men. However, studies have also shown that women will be essential to solving the issue of climate change. Here’s why:

COP26 is seen to be of the last opportunities for world leaders to come together to try and forge a plan to save the planet, before it is too late. Clearly, the status quo has not worked to try and mitigate the effects of climate change, so it seems perfectly logical to me that fresh ideas are needed. Pictures released of Biden falling asleep at the summit, only seem to strengthen the point that young new individuals, who don’t usually have a seat at the table are needed, to create real change, and hopefully not fall asleep in the process. In order to get fresh ideas, the top decision-making table therefore needs to be shaken up. An obvious way to start would be to bring more women, from diverse backgrounds in. COP26 has to some extent limited itself to the usual voices, and therefore lacked new inventive ideas and lateral thinking required to save the planet. For example, the COP26 agreement does not include anything about fashion and the issues surrounding fast fashion for example, something women might be more likely to touch on.

The recognisable women who were there, making decisions, were also hardly fresh, young and inspiring voices. Female world leaders there were limited to Angela Merkel and Nicola Sturgeon- whilst strong powerful women I am not sure they are fresh voices, having been in power for long periods of time.

Studies have also been done showing that women are much more effective at making quick democratic decisions – skills essential to getting the world to work together to solve the climate issue. We saw this during the pandemic, the countries led by women (New Zealand, Germany and the Nordic country) fared much better. Furthermore, COP26 shows that gender inequality and climate change are still being treated as exclusive issues. The opposite is true in reality; having more women in power actually has massively positive impacts on the climate, possibly because women are good at making quick democratic decisions. I would also go as far to argue that a lot of women, are far more empathetic, and are less ego driven than many of the men in power now. Mia Mattley, President of Barbados also highlighted this point in a speech at COP26 saying the over representation of white men was “stifling for the imagination and the implementation of transformative solutions”.

Claire Barnett, of UN women argues that more women at the top climate exchange table would bring about greater change because “women are often early adopters of many new agricultural techniques, first responders in crises, entrepreneurs of green energy and decision-makers at home, offering valuable insights and solutions into better managing the climate and its risks[… ]Women aren’t a problem – they are the solution”.

Hopefully, the need for women at all top tables, especially those discussing time critical issues like climate change, will be taken more seriously in the future. We also need women from all backgrounds being represented to truly solve global issues like climate change. This will not only solve issues of representation, but will also achieve a lot in terms of empowering more women to take on leading roles in society.