Climate and Gender

Women's representation in the decision-making in energy, transport and construction fields are studied in Climate for Change - Gender Equality & Climate Policy project which is carried out in cooperation between Climate Alliance and UBC EnvCom.

The vision of the project is to achieve a well-balanced participation of women and men in decision-making processes relevant to climate protection. Ten cities from Germany, Italy, Finland and Sweden carry out a local survey to get a good view of the representation of women in climate change decision-making. The results are complemented with national studies including facts and figures about gender equality in the climate change area and framework conditions.

The project will deliver a toolkit that other cities can use to raise awareness on this issue. A database of female experts working in the Climate area and a Best Practice database will be put together and open to public on the project web-site in the autumn.

At the second international meeting 21-22 June in Lahti, Finland, the cities met to exchange their experiences and to compare the studies that had been carried out. Surprisingly for the cities, the differences were not as big as was expected.

In the autumn, national meetings will be organised to promote the project and the outcomes of it to a broader public on the local level. The national meetings for Sweden and Finland will be co-organised and will take place in Malmo on the 10 of November (tbc).

The project started in December 2003 and will be finalised in February 2005.