robinson, mary

omen, particularly those in developing countries, are on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/worldwide-climate-change-is-worse-news-for-women-49668">frontlines of a changing climate</a>.

Extreme weather events, deforestation and loss of biodiversity threaten

their survival and that of their families. Yet, when confronted with

social and economic exclusion, women’s vulnerabilities remain hidden and

<a href="https://giwps.georgetown.edu/sites/giwps/files/Women%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf">their voices quiet</a>.Women

have been severely underrepresented at high levels of policymaking

around global environmental concerns as well. In the climate arena, the

need to improve women’s participation in negotiations was <a href="http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/cop7/13a04.pdf">explicitly recognized</a> by COP 7 in Marrakech in 2001 as the impact of gender balance on decision-making became more evident.Why is this a problem? Studies show that collective intelligence rises with the <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/330/6004/686.abstract">number of women in a group</a>. Engaging a critical mass of women is linked to more progressive and positive outcomes and to more <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v468/n7323/full/468502a.html">sustainability-focused decision-making across sectors</a>.Yet,

women have remained a notable minority in climate negotiations at both

the national and international level, in the global scientific body on

climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and

in media debates about climate.Women’s representation in bodies and boards in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ranges from <a href="http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/06.pdf">36% to 41%</a>. The numbers drop to <a href="http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/06.pdf">26%-33%</a> for female heads of national delegations. Only <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/activities/activities.shtml">one in five authors</a> of the 2014 IPCC fifth assessment report, and <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/organization/organization_structure.shtml#">eight of 34 IPCC chairs,</a>

cochairs, and vice-chairs are women. Importantly, even though media

coverage of climate change has increased significantly, only <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/04/21/report-eighty-five-percent-of-climate-change-gu/198955">15%</a> of those interviewed on climate have been women.The top 15 female climate championsWhen

it comes to the necessity of including women at all levels of climate

policy, there is no better argument than the stories and successes of

the dynamic women who are already making a difference. As an academic

and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the UN Secretary-General,

I have drafted a list of 15 women climate champions – from activists to

artists.The world’s top climate policymaker today is a fearless

Costa Rican woman, the daughter of José Figueres Ferrer, the president

elected to three nonconsecutive terms who abolished the standing army

and founded modern Costa Rican democracy. Referred to as “climate

revolutionary,” “bridge-builder,” “advocate and referee” and “UN’s

climate chief,” <a href="http://christianafigueres.com/">Christiana Figueres</a>, executive secretary of the UN climate change convention, is “<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Global-Warming/2014/0921/Climate-change-summitry-s-force-of-nature-Christiana-Figueres-video">climate change summitry’s force of nature</a>.” A relentless optimist, she reminds people that “Impossible is not a fact; it’s an attitude."<a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/about/people/vp-rachel-kyte">Rachel Kyte</a>,

the World Bank’s vice president and climate change envoy, emphasizes

that we are at a point of inflection because of the growing pressure and

motivation to create a more sustainable economy. Kyte has championed

groundbreaking global initiatives on <a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/climatechange/pricing-carbon-no-longer-question-if-when-growing-number-leaders">carbon pricing</a>

and performance standards for sustainable finance, catalyzing a race to

the top among global investors and shifting priorities in financing

institutions.Ceres president <a href="http://www.ceres.org/about-us/who-we-are/ceres-staff/mindy-s.-lubber-jd-mba">Mindy Lubber</a>

leads a group of 100 institutional investors managing nearly US$10

trillion in assets focused on the business risks and opportunities of

climate change. Through Ceres, she has changed the thinking around

climate change by alerting corporate leaders about the risks to finance

and business from climate change.A venture capital investor, <a href="http://www.dblinvestors.com/people/nancy-pfund/">Nancy Pfund</a>,

one of Fortune’s Top 25 Eco-Innovators, is leading the impact

investment movement, having invested in sustainable energy companies

such as SolarCity, BrightSource Energy, Primus Power, Powergenix and

Tesla Motors. With others, she has demonstrated that earning money by

investing in <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/a-track-record-for-making-money-and-making-a-difference/">socially beneficial enterprises can be profitable</a>.Social justiceAt the national policy level, women are also leading the way to the Paris COP. <a href="http://www.iddri.org/Iddri/Equipe/Laurence-Tubiana">Laurence Tubiana</a>

brings academic and policy experience into her position as French

special representative for COP 21 and ambassador for climate change.

Working closely with governments and stakeholders, she has created an

agenda that connects immediate day-to-day economic concerns such as

growth, employment and quality of life with climate change and

environmental protection. An effective agreement on climate change, <a href="http://www.ambafrance-in.org/Laurence-Tubiana-France-s-Special">she argues</a>, must frame the issue in ways politicians will understand and relate to.In lower-income countries, female negotiators have stood up for justice in remarkable ways. <a href="http://environment.gov.ng/index.php/about-moe/permanent-secretary">Fatima Nana Mede</a>, permanent secretary of the Nigerian environment ministry, discovered and exposed a <a href="http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/182964-how-crooked-bankers-businessman-stole-n1-billion-from-environment-ministry.html">corruption scheme</a>

that had siphoned over one billion Nigerian dollars (about US$5

million). Her bold and fearless leadership make her someone to watch in

Paris and beyond.Most of the least developed, or poorest, countries have been empowered to negotiate by <a href="http://www.iied.org/users/achala-c-abeysinghe">Achala Abeysinghe</a>,

the legal and technical adviser to the chair of the least developed

countries in the UN. A Sri Lanka national employed by the policy group

International Institute for Environment and Development, she has made it

her mission to augment the capacity of national delegations to

understand the issues, stand up, and defend their rights.She

leads the European Capacity Building Initiative, which trains UNFCCC

negotiators from vulnerable developing countries in legal matters, helps

coordinate their negotiating positions, bolsters communication among

them, and brings implementation evidence to the negotiations. Since

2005, the program has convened <a href="http://www.iied.org/workshops-build-climate-negotiators-capacity-european-capacity-building-initiative-training-support">76 events and engaged 1,626</a> negotiators, policymakers and policy implementers.At

the intersection of climate and women’s rights, a former Ugandan

aeronautical engineer and current director of Oxfam International, <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/winnie-byanyima-oxfam-international-executive-director">Winnie Byanyima</a>,

cofounded the Global Gender and Climate Alliance. The Alliance

integrates gender concerns into the climate change negotiation process,

monitors progress and promotes financial mechanisms and training

opportunities <a href="http://gender-climate.org/what-we-do/">equal for men and women</a>.As

cochair of the World Economic Forum in 2015, Winnie Byanyima pushed for

action on climate, for closing the wealth gap and eliminating tax

loopholes, and even for creating a global tax organization. “We have

international organizations for health, trade and football, even for

coffee, but not tax. Why not?” she exclaimed in an <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/careers-leadership/oxfam-internationals-winnie-byanyima-puts-social-justice-first/article25805392/">interview</a> with The Globe and Mail.Climate

justice lies also at the core of the work of the Mary Robinson

Foundation-Climate Justice. The former president of Ireland created a

center for thought leadership, education and advocacy for those

vulnerable to climate change impacts. <a href="http://www.mrfcj.org/">Mary Robinson</a>

works to strengthen women’s leadership at the local level to facilitate

more gender-responsive action at all levels and to secure gender

balance in multilateral and intergovernmental climate processes. She has

made the threat of climate change more tangible and easier to

communicate by relating it to human stories and human rights. She has

connected high-level women leaders with grassroots women leaders to “<a href="https://giwps.georgetown.edu/sites/giwps/files/Women%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf">ensure that women are enabled to participate in the design and implementation of climate actions</a>.”Arts and academiaAcademics

working on climate change now include an increasing number of women who

actively seek new ways to communicate and engage.<figure class="align-right "><figcaption /></figure><a href="http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/people/julia-slingo">Julia Slingo</a>,

chief scientist at the United Kingdom’s weather service and the first

woman president of the Royal Meteorological Society, has called for a

radical overhaul of the way climate scientists relay their message. In

order to compel the necessary action, scientists need to communicate in a

“<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/unleash-metrics-on-the-climate-change-sceptics-met-office-chief-wants-scientists-to-turn-to-poetry-9509756.html">more humanist way</a>,” she argues, “through art, through music, through poetry, and storytelling.” <a href="http://katharinehayhoe.com/">Katharine Hayhoe</a>, evangelical Christian climate scientist, embraces the idea of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-popes-encyclical-on-climate-change-will-evangelicals-care-43315">engaging religion and science</a> in understanding and resolving climate change.As

scientists reach out to poetry and art for communicating their message

to the public, poets and artists are reaching out to the United Nations.Poet and activist <a href="https://jkijiner.wordpress.com/">Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner</a> of the Marshall Islands brought governments in the UN General Assembly hall to their feet with a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7apxuGSqIB0">powerful poem and plea for action</a>.

“We deserve to more than just survive; we deserve to thrive,” she

exclaimed at the 2014 Climate Summit at the United Nations. She

cofounded <a href="http://www.jojikum.org">Jo-Jikum</a>, meaning “your

home,” a nonprofit organization to educate youth on environmental issues

and to foster a sense of responsibility and love for the islands.Activist

women in small island states and in the Arctic have brought to life the

human face of the impacts of climate change on their communities. In

Papua New Guinea, <a href="http://www.tulele-peisa.org/about/ursula-rakova/">Ursula Rakova</a>, executive director of <a href="http://www.tulele-peisa.org/about/">Tulele Peisa</a>,

an NGO whose name means “sailing the waves on our own,” is drawing up

an ecologically and culturally sustainable voluntary relocation and

resettlement program for the Tulun/Carteret Atoll community threatened

by climate change.<a href="http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/library/legal_docs/testimony-before-iachr-on-global-warming-human-rights-by-sheila-watt-cloutier.pdf">Sheila Watt-Cloutier</a>,

a Canadian Inuit activist and author of The Right to Be Cold, filed a

petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2005 on

behalf of <a href="http://www.rightlivelihood.org/watt-cloutier.html">Inuit communities in Canada and Alaska</a>

claiming that US failure to curb greenhouse gas emissions results in an

incursion on their cultural and environmental human rights. The

commission held a public hearing in 2007, and while the petition was

ultimately dismissed, it’s been called an “example of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=tsevJQEydiEC&pg=PA313&dq=hari+osofsky+inter+american+commission+on+human+rights&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAWoVChMIqObG1JmZyQIVxUsmCh27XQTh#v=onepage&q=hari%20osofsky%20inter%20american%20commission%20on%20human%20rights&f=false">creative lawyering</a> in both substance and form” and paved the way for subsequent legal action in The Netherlands, New Zealand and elsewhere.Young

women in the fashion industry in New York are also embracing the

climate message and working to use their widespread popularity to bring

public attention to climate change.Model and activist <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_russell_looks_aren_t_everything_believe_me_i_m_a_model?language=en">Cameron Russell</a> spearheaded People’s Pilgrimage, a <a href="http://www.vogue.com/13365588/cameron-russell-climate-change-peoples-pilgrimage/">march across the Brooklyn Bridge</a>

in October 2015 to raise awareness about climate change. The 17 models

walking across the bridge have six million social media followers, and

Cameron believes they can launch a new conversation urging the fashion

industry to reduce its massive environmental impact – textile

manufacturing <a href="http://www.nrdc.org/international/cleanbydesign/files/cbd-initiative-fs.pdf">pollutes 200 tons of water for every ton of fabric</a> produced – and to use its compelling media presence to raise awareness about climate change.The

work of these women, and the work of countless other women who struggle

with and adapt to the effects of climate in their day-to-day lives,

should be celebrated. Importantly, governments, businesses and civil

society organizations should work to include greater representation from

women in climate negotiations and climate actions.“There is no

greater power than the power of choice,” Christiana Figueres advised the

graduating class at the University of Massachusetts Boston in <a href="http://issuu.com/governance_and_sustainability/docs/figueres-leadership_dialogues-issue">her commencement speech in 2013</a>.

          <div class="bio-new body_environment">
                  <div class="author-bio"> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/maria-ivanova-202573" rel="author">Maria Ivanova</a>&nbsp;is

an Associate Professor of Global Governance and Director, Center for

Governance and Sustainability, John W. McCormack Graduate School of

Policy and Global Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston. </div> </div>