Insight
Dec 23, 2025
by Jahanara (Jay) Saeed
Manager, Programs at WEDO
From Participation to Power: What COP30 Reveals About Gender and Climate Leadership
Manager, Programs at WEDO
“If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” In global climate policy spaces, that truth remains stark.
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Climate change remains an urgent and accelerating crisis. Yet the institutions tasked with responding to it are operating within a multilateral system under strain. As geopolitical alliances shift and governance priorities compete, the composition of decision-making spaces shapes what issues arise, where resources flow, whose realities are reflected in policy decisions, and whose rights to participate are respected.
Representation is not peripheral to climate outcomes. Political leadership in many countries today is increasingly aligned with extractive economic models and fossil fuel expansion, where the voices of the wealthiest and most powerful guide this destruction. Climate decision-making spaces do not exist outside of these dynamics. When power consolidates around resource competition, militarization, and short-term economic gain, inclusive and representative governance becomes even more critical.
If climate policies are to address lived realities, they must be shaped by everyone, including women and gender diverse people, Indigenous Peoples, disabled people, displaced people, and people of color, many of whom remain underrepresented in formal negotiations.
For nearly two decades, WEDO has tracked participation in climate negotiations, now displayed through the Gender Climate Tracker (GCT) website and app. The long-term trend is clear, and more work is still needed.
In 17 years, women’s participation as Party delegates has increased by just 9 percentage points, from 31% at COP14 to 40% of total delegates at COP30. While this reflects incremental progress, Party delegations remain male-dominated: at COP30, 61% of Party delegations had more men than women, and only 33% were led by a woman as their Head of Delegation.
This data demonstrates how much work remains to ensure that all voices are heard and represented in critical climate decision-making fora.
In addition to tracking and sharing data on participation, WEDO is also dedicated to increasing the number of women leaders participating in climate negotiations and preparing them to do so. Through the Women Delegates Fund, WEDO provides travel support, accompaniment, and comprehensive training for women leaders participating in UNFCCC negotiations. For example, in 2025, through Night School programs at SB62 and COP30, WEDO provided training for 67 delegates from 39 countries — including 29 participants from LDCs — covering the legal architecture of the UNFCCC, negotiation dynamics, and coalition strategy.
GCT data also demonstrate that regional differences in women’s participation persist. Least developed countries (LDCs) had the lowest average share of women in Party delegations at COP30, at 33%, while Europe had the highest, at 50%. These averages, however, require nuance. Lower regional representation does not mean that LDCs deprioritize women’s participation at climate negotiations. In fact, many Party delegations from LDCs, such as Angola, Solomon Islands, Sudan, and Kiribati, exceed the global average.
These differences often do not point to a lack of commitment, but to structural constraints. Access to financial resources, capacity-building opportunities, caregiving responsibilities, and entrenched gender norms all shape who is able to participate. More research is needed to understand the political, economic, and social factors that influence delegation composition across contexts.
This analysis also only scratches the surface. While data limitations mean that the GCT focuses only on the inclusion of women and, more recently, gender-diverse people, there is a need for intersectional data and analyses to truly understand the inclusivity of decision-making spaces. Without accurate, timely, comprehensive, and open data, our ability to monitor progress, identify best practices, and ensure participatory processes remains limited.
We must also go beyond the data and understand who holds power within delegations and who has access to backroom conversations where decisions are often made. Without this deeper lens, representation risks becoming a procedural exercise that reproduces existing hierarchies and power structures.
As gender and climate stakeholders prepare for the year ahead, we must work collectively to:
In a multilateral system under pressure, representation is not symbolic. It shapes ambition and the sustainability of climate governance itself.
