By Faustina Boakye

ACCESS participated in meetings and events organised by member organizations and civil society organizations, particularly the Women’s Gender Constituency (WGC) of the UNFCCC and Women’s Caucus and HIVOS.  ACCESS made submissions at various events and introduced the organization at a wide range of events.

Women demand to be equally and fully engaged in all levels of climate change decision making

Read the ACCESS Statement on COP22.

 

ACCESS member organization HIVOS moderated a panel discussion on “Unlocking Climate Finance for Decentralized Energy Access”.

Findings included the fact that despite the fact that the energy sector is already receiving big climate funds ($5.6 billion of $14.1 – 40%), only a small  share of international climate funds is going toward decentralised energy ($475 million -3%).  They revealed that international public funding is making only a small contribution to the overall financing needs for providing energy access to everyone by 2030.  Challenges and barriers accounting for these shortfalls were identified and recommendations to improve targeting of international climate finance decentralised energy access in low income countries, strengthen national enabling environments and fill knowledge gaps in low income countries.  In addition, developing partnerships to unlock finances is an imperative to move faster and to increase investments.

Actions organized by the Women and Gender Constituency – military spending and women’s participation

The first event highlighted the impact of militarism on climate change, and the importance of redirecting military spending to sustainable and equitable development. To meet the climate finance gap and implement the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals, activists visually illustrated the value of dismantling military spending and investing in gender equality, environment, equitable development and climate justice policies.

The second activity highlighted institutionalized barriers to women’s participation in climate decision-making at all levels. Civil society demands that governments and institutions ensure women’s full and equal participation in all levels of decision-making, and reach the goal of gender balance through targeted resources and capacity building efforts. Civil society also demands that structures of power are transformed with participatory, rights-based decision-making processes for climate policy that are inclusive of all peoples, particularly women and men in frontline and Indigenous communities in the economic South and North.

The actions received a lot of publicity from both local and international media and from the Minister of the Interior of Morocco who commended the group for the action.

Faustina Boakye representing ACCESS at COP 22

Meetings and Events on the African Renewable Energy Initiative

ACCESS participated in meetings and events on the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI).  This meeting was to gain insights into the initiative and the opportunities it may provide.  Members from Africa particularly expressed skepticism about the initiative and the prospects it had for small women entrepreneurs and poor rural women.  They recommended the involvement of CSOs in all sectors of the initiative and called for regular consultations to discuss emerging issues in the implementation of the initiative.

Travel and accommodation support was provided by HIVOS and accreditation by the Women Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)

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