The half day collaborative conference on ‘Integrating Gender and Climate Change Conversations’ was held on 24 February 2023. The conference was part of the IIC Diamond Jubilee Discussions on Engendering the Discourse and is being organized in collaboration with WISCOMP (Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace), an initiative of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility and the Kubernein Initiative. The report is produced in partnership with the WISCOMP India.
When thinking of the threat posed by climate change, in the more immediate term, women and the marginalised constitute a grouping which is already in many ways experiencing a disproportionate impact of calamities. We advocate a two-pronged approach to gender intentional climate action: greater representation of women in governance to broaden ideas and perspectives, and significant empowerment of women to push the transformative potential of adaptation mechanisms with a bottom-up, localised approach. Through this publication we underscore and analyse the need for gender integration and considerations in India’s climate policy and discourses at all levels. In the use of the term gender, we take an intersectional and inclusive approach; keeping in mind the unique Indian context, to include considerations across various socio-economic groupings of women as well as more vulnerable and often marginalised communities. We present ideas from existing climate policies at the national, state and city level that could be expanded further. Our focus is on urban centres, positive experiences that exist and how they may be scaled up.
