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The UK is deploying an all-male team to host a vital UN climate summit next year, flouting international norms and enraging activists and observers, who say the lack of gender balance jeopardizes progress on key issues. .
All the politicians who will host the UK Cop26 talks in Glasgow are men, from Business Secretary Alok Sharma, who will serve as summit chair, to his team of climate and energy ministers: Lord Callanan, Lord Goldsmith and Kwasi. Kwarteng, who has represented the UK in recent online meetings.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will also take prominent roles at the decisive conference, scheduled for November 2021 after it was postponed due to the Covid-19 crisis. At Cop26, countries must make strengthened commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if the goals of the landmark 2015 Paris agreement are to be met.
Mark Carney, a former Bank of England governor, leads financial affairs as a UN envoy, and Nigel Topping, the government’s high-level champion of climate action, is charged with engaging business.
Top negotiators and civil servants also form a lineup of men, including Talks Chairman Peter Hill, Chief Negotiator Archie Young and Envoy John Murton, and Foreign Office official Nick Bridge.
Women are represented at a lower level, working in some subsections of the negotiations, and among the dozens of UK ambassadors and climate change attachés in embassies tasked with liaising with foreign capital ahead of the talks in November. 2021. A government spokesperson said: “The UK is committed to upholding diversity and inclusion throughout our presidency of COP26, and our network of leaders, diplomatic representatives and expert voices reflects this in all its work.”
The UK team was to be led by Claire O’Neill, a former Conservative MP and energy minister, until she was abruptly fired in February, days before the formal launch of the UK Cop26 presidency.
The absence of women in the top team was harshly criticized by prominent figures and activists.
Carolyn Fairbairn, Managing Director of UK employers’ organization CBI, said: “If ever there was a time for real diversity in our leadership, this is it. So many communities are affected by [climate change]. We need a team of all talents and it must be diverse in all aspects ”.
Mary Robinson, former Irish President and two-time UN envoy on climate issues, said: “This lessens the impact [the UK will have]. Gender divisions in climate are very important. Having women in leadership is important to ensure these issues are addressed with enthusiasm. “
Women in developing countries are among the worst and most affected by climate collapse, as they have fewer resources and fewer formal rights. An IUCN report earlier this year found that the climate crisis was fueling violence against women around the world.
Muna Suleiman, a climate activist with Friends of the Earth, said: “Women and children are 14 times more likely than men to suffer direct impacts from natural disasters and climate collapse, but they are regularly excluded from decision-making that takes place. supposed to change things. . The UK has to figure this out as it will host the UN climate talks next year but is already treading on familiar ground as an older boys’ club where women are left off the head table. “
In the Cop26 talks, the only woman at the head table is likely to be UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa and the outgoing president of last year’s talks, Chile’s Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt. , plays a minor role. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s prime minister, will welcome world leaders to the talks, but has no formal position on the negotiations.
A Sturgeon spokesperson said: ‘Women and girls around the world are on the front lines of the fight for climate justice, and the UK government’s implicit failure to recognize that says a lot about their own attitudes, although perhaps It is not surprising coming from a government that has made clear its intention to circumvent diplomatic and legal norms and violate international law. “
Young activists from the Fridays for Future movement, sparked by Greta Thunberg’s school strikes, expressed their anger at the Guardian. “If women are not involved in planning and decision-making, how likely is it that their interests will be represented?” asked Pauline Owiti from Kenya. “Effective climate action must bring everyone to the table and recognize the value of their knowledge and their potential as agents of change.”
Mitzi Tan, a youth weather striker in the Philippines, said: “I’m disappointed, but I won’t say I’m surprised. Cop has never been a place to listen to people who are truly experiencing the impacts of the climate crisis. That is why we continue to shout and beat in the streets ”.
Aoife Mercedes Rodríguez-Uruchurtu, a 16-year-old British activist, added: “Once again, we are faced with the consequences of a society ruled by capitalist oligarchs and once again we are silenced, particularly women.”
The UK already faces an uphill fight in the talks, which were originally scheduled for November this year. No formal negotiations have yet taken place, as the coronavirus crisis has ended face-to-face meetings on the many pending issues. In the view of some observers, the UK’s status as host has been undermined by the government’s intention to violate international law in the dispute over the EU withdrawal agreement. Several prominent veterans of the talks told The Guardian that the UK’s decision to breach an international treaty would be exploited by countries in the climate talks that are hostile to the Paris agreement.
Past UN climate talks have been highlighted by the decisive role played by women. The top French official and architect of the Paris agreement, signed in 2015, was Laurence Tubiana, who was working with the then UN climate chief, Christiana Figueres. The 2009 Copenhagen summit was led by Denmark’s Environment Minister Connie Hedegaard, who went on to lead the EU in subsequent talks as climate change commissioner, including a dramatic confrontation in Durban in 2011 when three “lionesses” – Hedegaard , Figueres and South Africa The minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, kept alive the hopes of an international agreement against a determined opposition.
