The Gender Agenda at COP30

This article is part of the essay series: Expectations from COP30

A decade after the Paris Agreement, the global climate regime faces a credibility test. Climate impacts are accelerating, widening existing social and economic divides, particularly across the Global South. Within these divides, gender remains a defining but often overlooked dimension. Women constitute the largest share of those affected by climate variability, given their roles in food production, resource management, and care work.

The Paris Agreement recognises gender equality as core to effective climate action. Article 7 on adaptation makes the strongest reference to gender-responsive approaches, while the preamble and Articles 11 and 12 on capacity-building and education position gender as a cross-cutting priority. This approach was further advanced through the Lima Work Programme on Gender (LWPG) and the Gender Action Plan (GAP), which institutionalised gender integration within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process.

However, negotiations at COP29 on renewing these frameworks stalled amid differences over language on gender diversity, intersectionality, and finance, leaving the future of gender-responsive climate policy unresolved. At the COP30 in Belém, these frameworks return to the centre of negotiations, offering a critical opportunity to evaluate progress and define the next phase of gender integration in climate governance.

Institutional Evolution and Emerging Limits in Mainstreaming Gender in Climate Action

Since its adoption at COP20 in Lima in 2014, the LWPG has embedded gender equality within the UNFCCC framework, recognising that climate impacts differ by gender and demand tailored responses. The first GAP, adopted at COP23 in 2017, translated this commitment into five priorities: capacity-building, women’s leadership and participation, institutional coherence, means of implementation, and monitoring and reporting. To address persistent gaps, an enhanced LWPG and updated GAP were adopted at COP25 to strengthen delivery and accountability. While COP29 extended the framework for another decade, key decisions on its implementation now rest with Belém.

Women’s representation in climate governance has long been a global goal. The last COP was the most gender-balanced so far, with women comprising 40 percent of delegates. However, while overall representation seems to have improved, regional disparities remain, with participation lowest in Africa and the Asia-Pacific at around 31 percent and 28 percent, respectively. At COP20, only 8 of the 78 world leaders who spoke at the opening session were women. At the same time, women are also less likely to speak in discussions related to finance and technology as opposed to education and empowerment, indicating that real influence still remains elusive.

Figure 1. Women’s Representation in Party Delegations at COPs Over the Last Decade (COP14–COP29)

Source: Author’s own, using data from Carbon Brief, 2024­­

There has been some progress: as of 2024, 85 percent of UNFCCC Parties referenced gender in their communications and reports, which includes 100 percent of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). At the national level, the 2025 UNFCCC Synthesis Report, which provides a snapshot of countries’ climate commitments through their NDCs, shows that 89 percent of Parties mention gender and 80 percent commit to applying it in implementation. However, the depth of these commitments remains uneven, as 61 percent refer to gender-responsive action, but only 30 percent link it to key sectors such as agriculture, energy, and health.

Figure 2. Reference to Gender in the NDCs

Source: UNFCCC Synthesis Report 2025

Over the last decade, gender-targeted climate finance has grown from US$4.8 billion in 2010–11 to US$37.2 billion in 2022–23. Most of this funding is classified as significant, meaning gender is an important objective but not the primary focus, while principal-focused projects, where gender is central, remain far smaller, increasing only from US$0.49 billion to US$2.06 billion. This distinction highlights that while gender is increasingly considered, far fewer projects place it at the core. This could be problematic in key sectors like agriculture, energy, and health, where principal-focused investment can be transformative in addressing structural barriers and enabling meaningful outcomes.

Figure 3. Volumes and Shares of ODA with Gender Equality Objectives by Rio Marker (USD billion)

Source: Author’s own, using data from OECD, 2025

The current GAP lacks mandatory, measurable targets, as the UNFCCC guidance only encourages Parties to collect sex-disaggregated data. While the growing visibility of gender in NDCs signals progress, it remains unclear whether this translates into real outcomes. This absence of mandatory monitoring and inconsistent financing risks making these efforts more symbolic than transformative.

The Gender Imperative in Climate Governance

It is estimated that by 2050, 158 million more women and girls could fall into poverty, while 236 million could face food insecurity. Climate change acts as a threat multiplier, and its impacts are experienced differently by gender, shaped by existing socio-economic structures. For instance, women’s labour is concentrated in climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture and fisheries. They make up about 40 percent of the global agricultural workforce; however, only about 15 percent own land. This limits their ability to access credit or insurance and reduces their capacity to cope with climate impacts. A 2024 study shows that heat lowers the annual income of female-headed households by 8 percent, while floods cut another 3 percent, costing women around US$53 billion each year.

Women’s labour is concentrated in climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture and fisheries. They make up about 40 percent of the global agricultural workforce; however, only about 15 percent own land. This limits their ability to access credit or insurance and reduces their capacity to cope with climate impacts.

Beyond paid work, women bear a disproportionate burden of unpaid labour shaped by gender norms, including water and fuel collection and caregiving. Climate change exacerbates these pressures by threatening natural resources, increasing the time and effort required for daily tasks. For instance, where women spend over 20 minutes daily fetching water, the time spent is expected to rise by nearly 30 percent by 2050.

Climate change also interacts with biological and reproductive vulnerabilities in ways that are often invisible in policy design. In India, for example, pregnant women exposed to extreme heat are more likely to face adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, reproductive health considerations remain absent from national Heat Action Plans.

Despite these vulnerabilities, women are also frontline agents of change. Their daily engagement with natural resources, household provisioning, and community well-being often allows them to detect shifts in climate, informing adaptive practices that sustain both livelihoods and ecosystems. These realities underline the imperative for just climate governance, where policies and finance must address gendered vulnerabilities while recognising and investing in women’s essential role in building resilience.

Policies and finance must address gendered vulnerabilities while recognising and investing in women’s essential role in building resilience.

Recommendations for COP30

COP30 will recognise gender as a cross-cutting theme rather than holding a dedicated gender day. Given the current gaps in implementation, the following recommendations can strengthen gender integration across climate policy and action.

• Women’s participation in climate decision-making should move beyond representation to influence. The updated LWPG can mandate Parties to appoint gender focal points to integrate gender perspectives into planning, budgeting, and evaluation.
• Mandatory monitoring and outcome-based metrics, including sex-disaggregated data, must be included in this version of the LWPG to shift accountability from intent to measurable impact.
• Gender-responsive finance should prioritise projects where gender is a principal objective, particularly in sectors such as agriculture, energy, and water. Such investments can address systemic barriers, including women’s access to land, credit, and technology, and deliver stronger social and economic outcomes.
• COP30 is recognising Indigenous women’s leadership and traditional knowledge as central to adaptation and resilience, particularly through forums like the ‘Circle of Peoples’ and inclusion in NDC planning. To strengthen this, governments should ensure dedicated funding, capacity-building, and formal integration of Indigenous women’s knowledge into national adaptation strategies, enabling their contributions to drive both climate resilience and equitable development outcomes.
• Women’s health must be integrated into climate adaptation by strengthening coordination between health and environment, in line with LWPG priorities. Measures could include climate-resilient healthcare infrastructure, mobile clinics, and early-warning systems, ensuring that gender considerations are central to adaptation planning and implementation.
• While unpaid care work is increasingly recognised in COP30 gender and Just Transition discussions, its integration into policy and financing frameworks must be strengthened to ensure tangible reductions in time poverty and support for women’s participation.

Bridging structural, financial, and policy gaps is essential to translate climate governance from intent to impact. Although gender is gaining visibility in NDCs and global frameworks, progress remains uneven, with many countries still lacking the systems, resources, and accountability mechanisms needed to act. COP30, positioning itself as the Implementation COP, offers a critical opportunity to embed gender across institutions, align it with national climate commitments, and ensure policies are both equitable and effective.

Sharon Sarah Thawaney is the Executive Assistant to the Director of ORF Kolkata and CNED, Nilanjan Ghosh.

• Gender
• Climate Change
• India
• climate adaptation
• climate finance
• COP30
• Gender Action Plan
• gender equality
• gender-responsive climate governance
• UNFCCC
• women’s participation

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