ABSTRACT

The adverse effects of climate change fall more heavily on women in the developing nations due to long-running inequalities and dependencies on natural resources. As a result, the challenges women face adapting to climate change tend to overshadow the contributions women make to mitigating climate change. This chapter draws upon a series of applied case studies from Southeast Asia to demonstrate that women frequently have untapped potential to mitigate climate change. It argues that one of the keys to unlocking that potential is to take advantage of recent trends in international climate negotiations to make climate governance more participatory at multiple levels. On the ground level, pilot initiatives are needed to offer clear evidence of how women can mitigate climate change. One level up, policies are required to provide finance and other enabling reforms to help replicate gender-responsive mitigation pilot initiatives. At the highest institutional level, policymakers in gender and climate agencies need the skills and opportunities to work together in mainstreaming gender into climate policies. This multi-level approach fits well with trends in global climate policy that encourage countries to move beyond projects to policies and institutional reforms and leads to transitions that are at once environmentally sustainable and socially just.