Today, on International Women’s Day, and in the lead up to November’s COP26 UN climate negotiations in Glasgow, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) is pleased to announce a renewed partnership with the Scottish Government, via a grant of £150,000, to support enhancing the voice and leadership of women leaders, including grassroots and indigenous women leaders, in climate change decision-making as well as investing and scaling gender-just climate solutions.

The widespread and unprecedented impacts of climate change are already magnifying existing and overlapping inequalities. Achieving gender equality – in access to rights, resources and equal representation – is inextricable from the ability to sustainably mitigate, adapt and build resilience to climate change across our communities.

The grant will support efforts to enhance women’s leadership in the climate change negotiations via the Women Delegates Fund, a WEDO-led program that provides training, networking and travel support to women leaders from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to serve as national delegates in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In addition, these resources will enhance efforts to track, monitor and share knowledge around current efforts across countries to implement gender-responsive climate action via the Gender Climate Tracker. Finally, the support will be used to uplift, scale and replicate gender-just climate solutions – from solar co-ops, agroecology and seed-saving, clean cookstove initiatives and rainwater harvesting technology. These solutions will be showcased at the COP26 and will be central to centering climate justice in climate action.

Scottish Government Environment and Climate Change Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said:

“We are pleased to announce £150,000 to support WEDO address gender equality in climate action in the global south and directly support gender equality in decision-making at Glasgow COP26.

“This funding will help the organisation assist grassroots and indigenous women leaders to invest in and scale up climate solutions, complementing our climate justice approach to support the poor and vulnerable who are the first to be affected by climate change, yet have done little or nothing to cause it.”