How tilting towards greater gender equality will help the world tilt to green
On the occasion of International Women’s Day on 8 March, Ms. Odile Renaud-Basso, the EBRD President, published a special message.
The President emphasised that tackling climate change effectively will require deep changes to how we live, work, and think. These can be implemented if everyone takes an active role, and if the emerging opportunities related to the green transition are shared equitably.
There are many ways to understand how men and women experience climate change differently. Women form the majority of the world’s two billion poorest people, for instance, among whom the negative impacts of climate change are concentrated.
In the developing world, women are often the primary agricultural producers. As farmers, entrepreneurs, producers, consumers, and household managers, women are key for implementing low-carbon strategies and, thus, important change agents. But, since women seldom own the land they work on, they have often been excluded from development decisions. Including them can change outcomes.
To achieve the dual track of tackling climate change through gender action, women must be recognised as economic, social and political actors who play a crucial role in adopting new technologies, taking and supporting the tough decisions needed to spur action at scale, and seizing the opportunities that a new, greener economy can bring.
At the EBRD, gender equality is recognised as an integral part of green investment and policy action. In 2020, the new strategic priorities were set to make the EBRD investments more green, more inclusive, gender-equal and digital.
The critical connection between climate action and gender equality is at the heart of EBRD agenda by:
Together with the Green Climate Fund, EBRD ensures that women are able to harness the opportunities coming from these new technologies through access to skills and green jobs throughout the transition to a low-carbon economy.
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