Post-COP26 Press Release
COP26 failed women and humanity: SHE Changes Climate demands equal inclusion of women at the top level of all leadership, to accelerate climate action
Despite women making up half of the world’s population, only 10 of 140 (7%) world leaders attending COP26, 34% of COP26 committees and 39% (1) of those leading delegations were women. Global campaign group, SHE Changes Climate, is calling on business leaders to add their influence to governments to ensure 50% representation of women, in all their diversity, in leadership for all future climate negotiations and Conferences of the Parties (COPs).
Business leaders can play a crucial role in achieving a balanced gender representation by assessing if their work places, projects and boards of directors include equal numbers of women and, if not, to actively recruit women to join. McKinsey has estimated that advancing gender equality could add $12 trillion to the global economy. Women also suffer the most from the climate crisis – a UN report found that 80% of those displaced because of climate change are women.
Already, senior representatives from businesses, such as NatWest, Ernst & Young and Triodos Bank have joined Greenpeace, Women in Business and Finance, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Women in Sustainability Network, Women’s Earth Alliance, B Team and UN Women to support SHE Changes Climate’s #50:50Vision campaign calling for 50:50 representation of women in all future climate negotiations and decision-making.
The Oliver Wyman Forum and 30% Club revealed in The Climate Action Gender Gap report that although diversity and climate are top priorities for CEOs and boards of directors, almost none have considered how linking these two could accelerate their transition to net zero emissions. The report also showed that women are the most likely change-makers for climate in economic areas, from corporate leadership to product development, i.e. female investors are almost twice as likely as male counterparts to say it is important for the companies they invest in to integrate environmental and social factors into their policies and decisions.
The inaugural SHE Changes Climate Day at COP26 showcased how women are accelerators of climate action and are already enacting solutions to the climate crisis.
Female climate leaders from around the world presented solutions on topics ranging from food and finance to biodiversity and boardrooms, addressing the challenges of creating a healthy environment, and fair and sustainable societies.
The day included Emma Howard Boyd CBE, HRH Princess Esmeralda of Belgium, Arizona Muse, Judy Ling Wong CBE, Veronica Inmunda, Sam Lee and Brian Eno as speakers. Former US Poet Youth Laureate Meera Dasgupta and representatives from Estée Lauder, Reckitt Benckiser, The Sustainable Food Trust, British Society of Soil Science, WWF, Women in Business and Finance (WIBF), Women in Sustainability Network and Music Declares Emergency.
Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Chair of the UK Environment Agency:
“If you are someone who wants to take climate action, you would want to learn from those who are already delivering results. But women have to shout louder than men to be heard. Women have held just 28 percent of the share of voice in news articles about climate change. Given the roll call of brilliant women working on the biggest story of our lifetimes, I find this extraordinary. And, in an emergency this is a game-changing mistake.”
Pavan Sukhdev, Founder, GIST Impact:
“There are many good arguments for relying more on women to deliver collaborative, equitable, lasting solutions to humanity’s greatest challenge today: Climate Breakdown. None however are as compelling as the simple argument that this avoidable problem is the result of male-dominated decision-making. We should acknowledge that with humility and grace, and let women in. #SheChangesClimate”
Judy Ling Wong CBE, poet painter & environmentalist. Ambassador Women’s Environmental Network, Honorary President of the Black Environment Network:
“In its deepest heart, climate change is a social and spiritual failure, rooted in a dysfunctional and inadequate relationship to people and planet. We urgently need the full transformative force of the vast missing contribution of women. We demand people-centered environmental policy, set within an empowering cooperative culture of caring, embodied in women. The principle is that those most affected can lead most effectively to create an integrated social, cultural, environmental and economic framework that will lift humanity out of our present crises. The next Climate Champion must be a woman. It is an essential, fundamental and smart move. “
Bevis Watts, CEO of Triodos Bank UK, linked the benefits of diversity in business to solving climate challenges:
“As a business leader, I know that for success you need the most talented people who bring rich, diverse ideas to the fore. This should encompass a broad range of lived experiences across gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age, or any other form of categorisation. We cannot solve our greatest challenges at COP without better balance and I believe we will only succeed when we have more diverse input. So, I support the 50/50 vision as an important step to true representation. After all, a lack of diversity of thinking and representation at all levels has led us to the greatest crisis we have ever faced.”
SHE Changes Climate will continue their #5050Vision campaign with the new call for balanced gender representation in all future COPs. This means equal numbers of women, as well as men, in all their diversity, so that all members of the global population have their voice heard at the decision-making table.
NOTES TO EDITORS
For more information:
Bianca Pitt, Co-founder SHE Changes Climate, +44 7493 557 823
Antoinette Vermilye, Co-Founder SHE Changes Climate, +41 78 756 40 75
Alex Robinson, Head of Communications, +44 7703 566 917
Email: hello@shechangesclimate.org
About SHE Changes Climate
https://www.shechangesclimate.org/
@sheclimate on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook
SHE Changes Climate was founded in late 2020 by Antoinette Vermilye, Bianca Pitt and Elise Buckle, with the aim to bring diversity and inclusiveness, transparency and accountability to the COP negotiations on Climate Change. It is doing this through its campaign, #5050Vision.
Today it is an independent global campaign group with thousands of supporters from across the worlds of business, politics, the media and social activism. Its mission is to ensure all delegations, for all climate negotiations, have a balanced representation of women, in all their diversity, at their top levels, now and in the future.
The Steering Committee for SHE Changes Climate consists of Nicole de Paula, Cindy Forde, Esmeralda de Rethy, Jessica Sweidan, Rachel McClelland, Karla Morales-Lee, Georgia Elliott-Smith and Malini Mehra.
Members of the public are invited to support the campaign on social media using #SHEChangesClimate and to follow the campaign at www.shechangesclimate.org and @sheclimate on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
1. Action Alert | COP26 Fails on Gender Mainstreaming — GenderAvenger
