The members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) finalized the Gender Action Plan (GAP) during its annual conference in 2017. UNFCCC’s long-standing objective has been to comprehensively address climate change, and the GAP was enacted in order to highlight the role that women play in this battle. Specifically, the GAP acknowledges that while climate change particularly harms women, women are also a very suitable group to confront it. Since local women possess intimate knowledge of their environment and the climate, their input can only lead to more effective climate solutions. Moreover, their input is absolutely necessary at the local level and international level in order for policymakers to remain accountable to the people they impact. Thus, every effort needs to be made to increase female leadership, despite the tendency of governments to prioritize men’s perspectives. Photo credit: Pixabay
