Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Director Jennifer Klein at U.S. Center COP26 – Our Climate Future is Female: Women and Girls Leading Climate Action

Climate change is not gender-neutral.  The moment we’re in demands that we build back better.  And it requires us to work with a broad range of partners to develop and implement solutions, including those that address the unique and disproportionate impacts that climate change has on women, girls, and other underserved populations.

Women and girls are disproportionately harmed by the impacts of climate change, including extreme weather, food insecurity, water scarcity, and increased exposure to infectious disease.  And certain populations are particularly vulnerable, such as the threat that extreme heat poses to pregnant people.  Left unchecked, climate change would further entrench global patterns of inequality: resource competition and forced migration are linked to increased rates of gender-based violence, and economic and social upheaval can hinder progress on human rights.

To advance gender equity and equality at home and abroad, we must address longstanding gender discrimination and the systemic barriers to full participation that have held back women and girls.  That’s why, this October, the Biden-Harris Administration issued the first-ever national gender strategy to advance the full participation of all people – including women and girls – in the United States and around the world. The strategy identifies the need to integrate gender equity throughout climate change mitigation, adaptation, and response efforts as a top priority.

In the face of great challenges, we have an opportunity to marshal the capacity, commitment, and creativity of people of all genders.  The costs of exclusion are too high, and tackling the climate crisis requires ambition, innovation, and broad mobilization. 

To meet this challenge, women and girls must be fully empowered as leaders – from the private sector and civil society to community and household decision-makers.  And women must have access to the critical leadership roles that advance our shared climate goals at all levels of government: from developing climate mitigation and adaptation strategies and working in environmental and climate science fields to leading climate negotiations and guiding climate-linked disaster response. We look forward to working with our partners to realize this vision in the months and years ahead, ensuring that women, girls, and members of other underserved communities are part of the solution, that they are represented at the tables where decisions are made – at every level – and that we enlist the talent and potential of the entire global community as we face the challenges of our time.