Aira Kalela

COP20: Aira Kalela, Climate Change and Gender Equality Finland

COP20 (03/12/14) – Kalela describes Lima as a historic moment as for the first time in the history of the UNFCCC there will be a legal text on gender. She explains how gender is now included in the four parts of the text: the preamble, adaptation, finance and capacity building. However, there is still room for improvement in the text as ideally a strong guiding principle on gender equality should cover the whole agreement and must be legally binding.

Women, particularly poor women are impacted the most by climate change and Kalela emphasizes the need to include women in planning and adaptation, and access to funds and technology transfer as women can become powerful actors if empowered.