Delivering a keynote address during the launch of the COP 17/CMP 7 Presidency Legacy Project, Thuto ya Batho or ‘Teachings from my People’: Women And Climate Change, Robinson says, as Doha kicks the ground running, climate change must be women centered and must be a women rights issue.
The book was launched in Qatari capital of Doha on the sidelines of Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 18th Conference of Parties (COP18).
Robinson, the former President of Ireland, former UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, who has written a foreword for the publication said: “My organisation’s work is centered on a climate Justice approach, which links human rights and development to achieve a human centered approach to safeguard the rights of the most vulnerable, to share the benefits and burdens of climate change equitably and fairly. Women are vulnerable to change in climatic conditions,” she says.
Robinson added that if the world is to find effective solutions to climate change, then it has to include all of those who can make a difference. “Ignoring or undervaluing the contribution of women restricts the potential for innovation and our capacity to act.
Historically climate policy has not addressed the differing ways in which climate change affects men and women.
In seeking through its mission to realise its vision of a world engaged in the advancing of climate justice, the MRFCJ dedicates itself to action which will be informed by core principles.
Floods, famine, and droughts, mostly brought about by climate change, have heavily impacted the livelihood of the people.
South Africa’s International Relations and Co-operation Minister and President of COP17/CMP7, Maite Nkoana Mashabane, says her term as COP president has just ended but her responsibilities, as a mother, a citizen and a public work will never end as far as climate change is concerned.
Nkoana-Mashabane, a member of MRFCJ’s Troika of Women Leaders on Gender and Climate Change, played a key role in the successful stewardship of COP 17 last year in Durban.
Nkoana-Mashabane spoke about the launch of her Legacy project Thuto ya Batho or ‘Teachings from my People’. “The project is, a tribute to ordinary women who are on the frontline and face the daily reality of climate change on the ground.”
She said the book was written with a concept of Ubuntu, and touches on how women can play an important role in the fight against climate change.
“Thulo ya Batho: Women and Climate Change was inspired by women. It tells stories of women and gives solutions on how to mitigate the impact of climate change on them,” she says.
Robinson congratulated Nkoana-Mashabane for delivering during her tenure as COP17 President. “Durban delivered a commitment to develop a new protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force by 2015, which would come into force by 2020. This means that we now have all the countries of the world committed to working together as part of a multilateral process to develop a new legal agreement,” she says.
Robinson added that core climate justice issues have to be discussed and agreed including issues of equity, the right to development, the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
Writing on for the online magazine Outreach, Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, CEO of Food Agriculture Natural Resources Policy Advocacy Network said , climate change has significant impacts on freshwater sources, affecting the availability of water used for domestic and productive tasks.
Dr Sibanda wrote that the consequences of the increased frequency in floods and droughts are far reaching, “particularly for rural women who in countries like Mozambique already travel a distance of 30 to 40 km to fetch water for the entire household. “Currently only 58% of sub-Saharan Africans live within 30 minutes walking-distance of safe water and only 16% have a household connection.”
Post published in: Environment