Women’s vital role in climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts as well as in the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity is highlighted in various international conventions and intergovernmental processes including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the 2030 Agenda.

Currently, gender inequalities, along with other societal inequalities, intensify the negative impacts of climate change and environmental degradation and vice versa. Women’s greater dependence on and unequal access to natural resources, public services and infrastructure coupled with gender imbalances in household responsibilities mean that they are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation and climate change. Experience further shows that as communities are plunged into recurrent crisis, tensions within families and between partners rise and gender-based violence escalates.

Mainstreaming gender in climate-centred interventions is fundamental for the realization of women’s rights and to ensure that no one is left behind. Only when women and girls equally benefit from climate resilient resources and technologies, there is more time available for education, paid work, or public participation. It is of special importance to support women and girls in all their diversity in active roles for designing and developing strategic responses to climate change.

The Austrian Development Cooperation is committed to link efforts in achieving gender equality and the preservation of the environment, the protection of natural resources and fighting climate change and its consequences.

Our efforts towards gender-transformative climate action include interventions that recognize the gendered impacts of disasters, ensuring gender-sensitive planning and addressing “secondary impacts” such as increased levels of gender-based violence. Other interventions focus on strengthening women’s and men’s adaptive capacities and promote participatory, locally led adaption that supports communities to survive and thrive in a changing climate. Including women in decision-making spaces and harnessing the opportunities offered by the green transformation and the digital transformation are key elements to an inclusive green transition.

On a policy level, the Austrian Development Cooperation promotes the integration of gender equality in all strategies and agreements on climate mitigation, adaptation, disaster risk reduction (DRR) and sustainable management of natural resources and biodiversity at national, regional, and international levels.