"Women Leaders at COP 21 in Paris Raise the Banner for Gender Awareness in Any Climate Deal." Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

By Stella Paul
PARIS, France , Dec 8 2015 (IPS)

53-year old Aleta Baun of Indonesia’s West Timor province is a proud climate warrior. From 1995 to 2005 she successfully led a citizens’ movement to shut down 4 large marble mining companies that polluted and damaged the ecosystem of a mountain her community considered sacred. After their closure in 2006, she became a conservationist and restored 15 hectares of degraded mountain land, reviving dozens of dried springs and resettling 6,000 people who were displaced by the mining.

On Monday, on the eve of the Gender Day at the ongoing UN Climate Change Summit (COP21) in Paris, Baun who is better known as or ‘Mama Aleta’ in West Timor, had a strong message for the negotiators: for a climate deal to be effective on the ground, it also had to be gender equal and recognize women’s climate leadership.

Running a landscape restoration project is costly. Baun has so far spent about 50,000 dollars pooled by community members and local NGOs. The project needs much more for completion. But this is a challenge as official funding has not come forth. This dismays Baun who feels that although women were setting great examples of climate leadership, it is not officially recognized by governments and international policy makers.

For example, she said, there was no official communication between the Indonesian delegation of negotiators at the COP and grassroots women climate activists like her. “We don’t know who the negotiators are and we don’t know what they are negotiating. We feel that we, the indigenous women, are alone in this fight against climate change,” she said.

Baun’s dismay and disappointment was shared by several other women leaders who expressed their thoughts on the draft climate policy at the COP. The draft, tabled at the end of the first week for formal negotiations, was “far from ideal,” said a woman leader because it had “too many brackets that made the text too complicated.”

“The purpose of the many sections is not clear. Also, some crucial components are missing. For example, gender equality is there, but indigenous people are not. One very important thing is inter-generational equity. For us, this is a core issue and it’s really not clear,” said Sabina Bok of Women in Europe for a Common Future.

Farah Kabir, head of ActionAid in Bangladesh agreed as her country has been hit by extreme weather events like flooding and sea disasters that have affected millions of women from poor communities. “The draft policy has lack of clarity on several of these points,” she said.

Presently, the key demands of most women leaders at the COP21 included commitment by all governments to keep global warming under 1.5 Celsius to prevent catastrophic climate change, including in all climate actions the recognition of human rights, gender equality, rights of indigenous peoples and intergenerational equity and provide new, additional and predictable gender-responsive public financing.

But, the negotiators seemed divided on the global warming target, which dismayed Kabir. “It is not clear whether the deal will stop global warming at 1.5 degree or at 2 degrees, the later will be catastrophic for women as that will mean more disasters and more suffering for women who are already the most vulnerable people.”

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) estimated that women comprise one of the most climate vulnerable populations. As the impact of climate change on women grows bigger, the vulnerability of women across the world is also growing and there is a sheer need for allowing women greater access to renewable technologies, said many. However, these technologies also had to be safe and gender responsive, so that they responded to both the daily and different needs and priorities of women. Alongside, investment is the need to train women in how to use these technologies.

Investments are also needed to facilitate women’s leadership in both mitigation and adaptation measures, said Neema Namadamu, a women leader from northern DRC. “In Congo, women are busy planting trees to help re-grow our rain forests. First, we need assured investments into initiatives like this that is a direct flight against climate change. The hair-splitting negotiations can continue after that,” said Namadamu, founder of Mama Shuja, a civil society organization that trained grassroots Congolese women in climate action and fighting gender violence using digital media tools.

However, to ensure women’s greater access to climate finance, renewable technologies and adaptation capacity, the climate draft needed to have a sharper gender focus, felt Mary Robinson, former Prime Minister of Ireland and one of the greatest women climate leaders.

“There will be a climate deal in Paris. It will not be a ‘great’ deal, but a fairly ambitious one. But its extremely important to have a climate agreement that is ambitious, fair and also gender-fair. We definitely need an agreement that will exhilarate more women’s leadership. If we had more women’s leadership, we would have been where we are now,” Robinson said.

(End)

Courtesy of the Mary Robinson Foundation

By Lusha Chen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 2 2013 (IPS)

Climate justice – the nexus between human rights and climate change – must be a pillar of the post-2015 development agenda, says former Irish president Mary Robinson.

As global temperatures rise, low-income communities suffer disproportionately from health problems, financial burdens, and social and cultural disruptions.

Founder of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, the former U.N. high commissioner for human rights spoke with IPS correspondent Lusha Chen about the challenges and opportunities facing developing countries, especially small island states, when it comes to their survival or extinction in coming decades.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: In 2009, when you attended the Copenhagen Climate Summit, you said you didn’t see journalists or some ministers from developed countries show urgency to deal with climate change issues. Do you think this year’s U.N. General Assembly offered any changes?

A: I am surprised that more heads of state and senior ministers of developing countries don’t actually speak about their reality: that they are suffering more and more from climate shocks.

They talk about it privately, but they somehow don’t want to project vulnerability. It’s a contrast to the heads of state of small island states that maybe are going to go under. They have no choice, so they speak out and they want climate justice.

We know the reality, and we also understand that communities that haven’t contributed [to the problem] have to benefit from the low-carbon economy that we must move to. And particularly access to affordable, renewable energy.

Q: Many developing countries are facing a conflict between economic development and paying the cost to protect the environment. What’s your take on this?

A: I recognise that there are costs, I think unfair costs if you like, on poor developing countries, and we need much more support for adaptation for climate resilience, whether it’s rural areas or in cities.

I was talking to [Liberian] President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.  She may have to move part of her population from her capital Monrovia – she hasn’t budgeted for that – because of the climate. So we need much more support for adaptation, and also for the technologies that will help poor countries to benefit from no-carbon growth.

And there are a lot of examples of south-south cooperation now, which I very much welcome:  south-south engagement in projects for access to energy, even at the local level, and I’m very keen that we promote as much as possible of that.

But we have to recognise that we are coming to a very difficult period, and if we don’t do the right thing in 2015, and have a fair, robust, equitable agreement that keeps us below two degrees Celsius [of warming], it will get much more difficult for countries that are seeing a big expansion in their populations… to cope with food security, to adapt.

So this is a very precious time, it’s a very important time, and that’s why climate justice links to a good sustainable development agenda post-2015 for all countries, which countries must take more responsibility to cut their emissions, and also a fair climate agreement.

Q: Are you still plugged into what’s going on in Ireland?

A: Yes, I would also look to Ireland to take responsibility. As a former president, I don’t engage politically in Ireland, and that’s understood. But Ireland is a good country to work on food security from, because we have a very good reputation for tackling hunger…  and I’m proud of that.

Excerpt:

Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was appointed last week as the secretary-general's Special Envoy to the Great Lakes region of Africa. Credit: UN Photo/Ky Chung

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 20 2013 (IPS)

A potential ad from the United Nations to be placed in a weekly London newsmagazine could possibly read: Vacancy for ex-head of government or ex-head of state; lucrative globe-trotting political assignments in Asia, Africa or Latin America; attractive per diem; first or business class travel; five star hotels; and guaranteed diplomatic immunity (including from the International Criminal Court).

Clearly, the United Nations is fast turning out to be a blissful second home for unemployed former world leaders – proving there is life after retirement, resignation or being kicked out of office.

As part of a growing trend, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has held office since Jan. 2007, has been naming former prime ministers and presidents either as agency heads or as U.N. Special Envoys.

The newest entrant to the elite group is Mary Robinson, former Irish president (1990 to 1997), who was appointed last week as the secretary-general’s Special Envoy to the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Robinson was also U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights during 1997-2002 and was appointed to that post by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The more recent political leaders on a U.N. salary or a U.N. per diem include: Romano Prodi, prime minister of Italy (1996-1998 and 2006-2008) as U.N. Special Envoy for the Sahel and Jose Ramos-Horta, president of Timor-Leste (2007-2012) as head of the U.N. Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau.

Another ex-head of government, Jorge Sampaio, president of Portugal (1996-2006), quit last month as High Representative of the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) after completing his term of office since April 2007.

Last week, Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile (2006-2010), stepped down as Under-Secretary-General (USG) for U.N. Women, where she was heading the U.N.’s newly-minted office since July 2010.

Bachelet said she was resigning for “personal reasons” but the speculation in the corridors of the U.N. is that she is planning to run once again for president of Chile.

Another former head of government, Helen Clark, prime minister of New Zealand (1999-2008), was the first woman to be appointed as administrator of the U.N. Development Programme (since April 2009), and also chair of the U.N. Development Group.

Although her four-year term ends next month, there are strong indications the secretary-general will renew her tenure for an additional four years.

The secretary-general’s appointments for agency heads (including U.N. Development Programme, U.N. Population Fund, U.N. children’s agency UNICEF) have all to be confirmed by the 193-member General Assembly, the U.N.’s highest policy making body.

But no appointments have been rejected so far.

Another pending appointment is the secretary-general of the Geneva-based U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which falls vacant later this year.

At a diplomatic reception last week, a senior U.N. official was heard confessing to a group of envoys about a proposal to appoint former French President Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012) as a Special Envoy for a political hotspot in Africa.

The French government, which considers Sarkozy a discredited politician, was apparently outraged about the proposed appointment.

As a result, the proposal never got off the 38th floor of the secretary-general’s office.

When Ban named a 27-member High-Level Panel to advise him on the global development framework for the U.N.’s post-2015 agenda, he went one step higher: he picked three current heads of government to co-chair: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Chakravarthi Raghavan, a veteran journalist who covered the United Nations during 1962-71 and a one-time president of the U.N. Correspondents Association (UNCA), told IPS, “I can’t recall any such highflying personalities/heads of governments or states being named special envoys or to top U.N. posts.”

He said there were one or two cases from Central America or Latin America, where governments had been overthrown in coups, and personalities from overthrown governments were appointed.

Jose Rolz-Bennet of Guatemala was one such appointment – as USG for Special Political Affairs – under then Secretary-General U.Thant (1961-71).

Raghavan, who currently covers the United Nations in Geneva, said, “I think it was only (Secretary-General) Boutros Boutros-Ghali (of Egypt) who tried to equate his job with that of a head of state, and would visit only those countries that agreed to extend that kind of status to him.”

Until then, he said, secretaries-general were treated on par with foreign ministers, and it was foreign ministers who signed credentials of U.N. permanent representatives and delegates to the General Assembly.

“Boutros did name some special envoys, as did Kofi, but they were mainly people who had been ambassadors at the U.N.”, said Raghavan.

The inflation of jobs as special envoys at USG levels, and then former heads of states as special envoys or to U.N. secretariat posts perhaps began then, he added.

“But Ban Ki-moon has really a very high opinion of himself, and may be preparing himself, after leaving office, to run for high office in Korea,” said Raghavan.

Asked if these politicians are qualified for their jobs purely because they were either former heads of government or current heads, James A. Paul, senior advisor at the Global Policy Forum (GPF), told IPS, “Frankly, it depends on who they are and what kind of a job we can expect of them.

“The problem is not this, it seems to me, but rather the general decline in effectiveness of the U.N. in this period, the abysmally low level of leadership offered by the present secretary-general, and the determination of the great powers to defend a grossly unstable and unjust global order by all means necessary,” said Paul, a longstanding U.N. expert and former GPF executive director.

Raghavan told IPS that some smaller member countries did name prominent personalities as their envoys to the U.N. – but that was probably to get them out of domestic politics, and keep them busy elsewhere.

“But that is entirely different from the U.N. head appointing such people to serve under him,” he said.

And every secretary-general, he noted, seems to make his predecessor look better.