COP18 (27/11/2012) – Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, describes the shared commitments of leading female figures in the climate change negotiations, including Mary Robinson, Christiana Figueres and Connie Hedegaard. She says it is an honour working with these women, who are unified as women and as leaders, possessing the same passion and commitment.

She describes how women in developing countries, as food providers, are finding their own solutions to adapt to the realities of climate change. Strongly affected by increasingly erratic weather patterns, she praises women who are finding mechanisms to cope, and emphasises the need to bring this alternative expertise to the political arena.

She suggests there is a growing consensus that to tackle climate change, we must be gender smart, and cites the example of Gender Day at every COP as a sign of progress in this direction.