Gender and climate change: Assessing the evolution of gender mainstreaming tools

Framing any climate action needs to take stock of the social contract in a community. Given the diversity in risk, resilience, preparedness, and levels of development, different communities will likely be affected non-homogeneously (Denton, 2002). Intersecting social stressors like class, caste, age, and gender, will likely become starker against the onslaught of disturbances in the form of air pollution, floods, and droughts (Rao and Hans, 2018).

Mainstreaming gender considerations into climate change governance becomes critical as gender influences social organizations (Kronsell, 2013). From nominal representation to effective participation, gender as a tool to understand and address inequality has increasingly resonated with the climate policy space. This information brief will look at gender as an entry point into the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) decisions. Broadly, it will trace the treatment of gender in climate change governance. In particular, it will look at the Gender Action Plan (GAP) and its implications. The document finds that, while the progress on gender mandates has been piecemeal, increasing attention through GAP has spurred bottom-up efforts to mainstream gender into various climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts.

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