Addressing the Environmental Breakdown rights and ensuring a gender-just transition

We highlight the serious threat posed by climate change to economic, social and cultural rights and demand that States take ambitious action to address climate change through green transition plans that respect, protect and fulfil human rights, especially the rights of women.

Moving towards a low-carbon and sustainable economic system has become one of the most important global challenges of our time. However, it is crucial to ensure that the transition to sustainability also transforms our social, political, and economic systems so that they respect human rights and ensure equality, particularly gender equality, and distribute global resources fairly. GI-ESCR has a longstanding record of advocating for the respect, protection, and fulfilment of human rights in the climate crisis. What does a feminist green transition look like and how can human rights guide all stakeholders towards a low carbon world? These questions lead our work on a gender just green transition. They have led us to explore interconnections associated with the transition, and find bold solutions and standards that have the potential to shift our societies away from our present unsustainable status quo.

Green transition with a gender perspective

GI-ESCR’s research has shown that the transition to renewable energy can negatively impact women’s human rights, but also that energy policies can adopt a gender-sensitive approach. ‘Renewable Energy and Gender Justice’, a briefing paper, revealed that decentralised and community-managed energy solutions can empower women to enter the climate debate. It has influenced key documents such as UN Women’s ‘Beyond COVID-19: a Feminist Plan for Sustainability and Social Justice’ (see below). To widen its impact, in 2021 we translated the briefing paper into Spanish and presented it to over a dozen Latin American organisations that now use it as an advocacy tool. We worked with civil society organisations and studied the participation of women in renewable energy policies. This research was published in the report ‘Women’s Participation in the Energy Transition’, which will be shared with experts at the sixty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66).

Promoting a gender-just transition perspective in international fora

In 2021 GI-ESCR expanded its reach beyond traditional human rights bodies by engaging with international fora that still lack a strong human rights and climate perspective. At the 65th session of the Commission on the Status of Women Forum, we co-hosted an event on promoting gender justice during the transition to renewable energies. We organised two panels at the Global South Women’s Forum on feminist visions of environmental justice. At the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, we deepened our involvement with an online campaign promoting women’s participation in the energy transition. During COP26, we also launched ‘Portraits of a Feminist Energy Transition’, an audio-visual series on women in energy, and convened an online panel to launch Energía renovable y justicia de género (‘Renewable Energy and Gender Justice’), with other civil society organisations.

Drawing human rights to the attention of renewable energy actors

We have continued to press for a gender-just energy transition in UN human rights mechanisms and other human rights fora. During the 47th session of the UN Human Rights Council, we organised a side event on renewable energy and women’s participation and presented an oral statement. These inputs, together with important insights from partners working on local contexts, became the backbone of ‘Women’s Participation in the Energy Transition: A human rights perspective’, our second briefing paper. Working with partners, we also examined the human rights implications of Mexico’s energy policies in recent years. Co-sponsored by 27 national civil society organisations, Derechos Humanos para una transición energética justa (‘Human rights for a just energy transition’) makes concise recommendations on how Mexico’s energy transition can adopt a gender-responsive and human rights-based approach. Based on the report, we and our partners highlighted the human rights and gender impacts of the Mexican Government’s energy policy in an urgent appeal to the UN Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

Subsequently, we have played a key role in bringing forward the case of the community of Unión Hidalgo in Mexico, which has been affected by a massive wind-farm project. As described in the Stories of Impacts section, UN special procedures recognised the case we made and sent letters of allegation addressed to the States of Mexico and France, as well as the energy company developing the project, which highlighted the human rights obligations of States and energy businesses to protect the rights of indigenous women and girls.

Developing progressive standards for gender-just transition

In the course of working with civil society organisations to strengthen our collective voices, GI-ESCR contributed to new narratives. We contributed to two amicus curiae to the European Court of Human Rights. In the case of Klimaseniorinnen e.V. v. Switzerland (Application No. 53600/20), we highlighted the impact of the climate crisis on elderly women and fleshed out the meaning of ‘progressive realisation’ in this context. In Cláudia Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Others (Application No. 39371/20), we stressed the impact of the climate crisis on enjoyment of a healthy environment and related economic, social and cultural rights as well as the right to life, and its disproportionate impact on the human rights of women and girls. In addition, also in collaboration with key partners, we launched the Gender and Energy Compact at the High-Level Dialogue on Energy, involving governments, private sector actors, finance organisations, intergovernmental agencies, academics, and civil society and youth organisations.

Shaping narratives and projects on gender-just transition

GI-ESCR’s collective analysis and key messages have influenced how others approach their work on renewable low-carbon energy and gender justice. As described in the section on Women’ ESC rights, our insights were quoted in UN Women’s ‘Beyond COVID-19: a Feminist Plan for Sustainability and Social Justice’. This landmark publication affirmed our key message that it is necessary to move away from highly centralised, male-dominated corporate models to more egalitarian forms of control over energy management and consumption. Together with Observatorio Ciudadano and ProDESC, GI-ESCR submitted a joint written paper on the impact of the energy transition on the rights of indigenous women and girls. Its analysis, and some of its main concerns and recommendations, were reflected in the first draft of a General Recommendation on the rights of indigenous women and girls issued by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. The Committee acknowledged that “States should also take measures to ensure indigenous women and girls’ access to clean and renewable energy”. This is an important stepping stone towards the development of human rights standards that support a gender-just transition to low carbon economies