Campaign Update & Next Steps (Jan 2021)
Dear amazing SHE’s,
Welcome to 2021! We trust you are safe and ready to rally up for the next stages of this campaign!
A lot has happened since we launched one month ago. Let us bring you up to speed on where we are...
SHE Changes Climate aims for gender parity at the top levels of the UK COP26 negotiating team. Currently only 3/12 top positions are filled by women. We don’t feel this is good enough.
A true reflection should be 50% women in all their diversity.
Why?
Because the most successful teams and outcomes are those that have a rich, diverse array of perspectives and experiences. Without half the planet represented at the most upstream point – in the framing and the narrative of the COP26 agenda - any impact will be much less effective and impactful without it.
At a time when the UK is now stepping out on its own, where it has the possibility to showcase the expertise that Britain and its Commonwealth has to offer, it is vital that we include the rich experience and talent of women leaders in climate, negotiation and politics.
Our campaign comprised a pincer approach: gathering signatures from leading women in science, politics, activism, environment, business to sign an open letter to the government expressing their disappointment at this issue. At the same time, we tried to convince the UK government to make changes before we published the letter.
Behind the scenes a huge amount of effort was expended to convince those in and around COP26 that this issue was an urgent problem that needed fixing.
Mobilising radical collaboration, women spoke to other women and networked to shine a hot light on this issue.
1. Our Open Letter received well over 400 signatures from female environmental leaders, which drove our movement to snowball from the minute we launched.
2. The campaign received powerful coverage which highlighted this issue to a UK and global audience. SHE Changes Climate was featured in Financial Times, BBC Newsnight, BBC News, Woman's Hour, The Sun, Marie Claire, and more. Receiving TV and print coverage worldwide for our campaign launch was definitely a stake in the ground to show that women are not taking this sitting down.
3. We have more transparency: The COP26 website was updated to reflect current positions. It was woefully out of date and incomplete. Yet, it still scrolls mainly male headshots to a more mixed picture lower down. When we started there were no women at the top. Now we have a few – we still need more.
4. We now have dialogue: We've met with Alok Sharma, President of COP26, Anne Marie Trevelyan, UK International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience for COP26 and Peter Hill, CEO of COP26. We agreed to find creative and tangential ways to increase women’s perspectives in this process. Plus, we need women in all their diversity to play a visible role.
5. Changes that have taken place: Alok Sharma has stepped down from his role as UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to fully focus on being President of COP26 and the agenda that it brings - a move we very much welcomed.
Anne Marie Trevelyan has taken on the role of UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth, in addition to her COP26 role.
Two female directors were appointed: Ros Eales, as COO, and Caroline Holtum as Director of Communications. It has yet to be confirmed whether Cleo Watson has been appointed Chief of Staff of COP26, as published in a broadsheet last weekend.
We want to further see women brought into the leadership team, by either reshuffling existing positions - e.g., moving deputies into leadership roles, or creating new roles, e.g., Champions for the thematic areas of Nature, Energy and Transport. Ideally candidates should have expertise in the subject matter.
We have researched and gathered tangential creative solutions to bring more women to the top of the senior leadership team. We submitted these to COP26 to help bolster Alok Sharma’s stated commitment to the GAP and await their response.
We have compiled a list of women with experience in climate, negotiation and UK politics, who we think would be an asset to the UK COP team, which we will share with the Presidency. This is to shine a light on the huge pool of untapped talent.
We will continue to push for changes and would appreciate your help with the following:
1. Sign our campaign letter if you haven't already done so. We want to take this global; the more names supporting this campaign the greater the impact.
2. Share our newsletter with your contacts within women's and diversity groups and encourage them to subscribe via our website to help us grow our community. It is vital that we can bring as many groups along to make the pressure to make this change.
3. Download our Digital Toolkit and keep sharing our ready-made content to your social channels to start fanning the embers of this fire. We need flames to create enough heat for reaction. Don't forget to tag us using @SheClimate so we can see it!
4. Tweet members on the COP26 team to ask them when they will be doing something about this. Here are example tweets you can use:
Tweet 1
We need women in all their diversity to be in @COP26. @AlokSharma_RDG, will you improve gender parity of your UK leadership team? Together we can make this the most successful COP to date. #SHEChangesClimate #COP26 @SheClimate
Tweet 2
A 50/50 gender balance at the top level of @COP26 is vital for its success. #COP26 will affect women worldwide. Women impact climate. @AlokSharma_RDG let's include female climate leaders as part of the top of COP26. #SheChangesClimate @SheClimate
5.Based on our progress and changes we see, we will continue pressure in February and are exploring a SHECOP event for International Women's Day, 8th March, with women environmental leaders and their supporters, to highlight how the agenda, narrative and framing of the COP26 will impact women and how women impact climate. Please get in touch if you are interested in contributing and helping by emailing us at hello@shechangesclimate.org.
We’ll continue to share updates, our plan of action and ways you can support SHE Changes Climate via our newsletter and social channels (Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn & Facebook). Please encourage all the brilliant women you know to follow us and subscribe, so we can grow our community.
Lastly - and most importantly - the biggest thank you to each and every one of you for your support. Please take a moment to appreciate what YOU helped make happen.
Onwards!
The SHE Changes Climate team