The research project involves three work packages:

1) A systematic review of the literature on gender and climate change to provide data and evidence relevant for industrialised countries and to analyse hinderances and how to overcome resistence to integrating gender. Moreover, an analysis of the relevant international agreements and mechanisms and their strategies to address gender issues, as well as their implications for gender-responsive national climate policy will be undertaken. Finally, a methodology for a gender assessment of national mitigation and adaptation programmes will be developed and applied to the German climate change programmes.

2) The instrument of gender impact assessment (GIA), which was developed in the German Envrionmental Ministry in the 2002-2004 for legislative processes, will be further developed and adjusted to climate policy, primarily (but not exclusively) for the German institutional context. It will be tested using selected climate change mitigation and adaptation measures and discussed with climate change and GIA experts.

3) Based on the analysis of work package 1, the benefits of integrating gender dimensions into climate policies and measures and on the question of how climate policies can facilitate gender justice will be identified. Furthermore, recommendations will be provided on how to close information gaps and improve regular data collection, as well as how to integrate gender into German climate policy.

Results of the research will be provided at the end of each consecutive work package and in a final report. An expert workshop and events at UNFCCC meetings will allow for the results to be discuss and further disseminated.

The project is funded within the scope of the Departmental Research Plan of the German Minstry for the Environment, Nature Protection, Building and Nuclear Safety (project number 371641119). 

Adapting the gender impact assessment tool to issues of climate change

An articel about the process to adapt the Gender Impact Assessment to issues of climate change discusses how gender impact assessment (GIA) can be adapted and utilised to better include gender aspects in climate policy advice. The article explains the re-modelling of the equality governance tool gender impact assessment in the context of climate change and adaptation policies, programmes and projects on behalf of the German Environment Agency. While the focus of the tool remains on women and men, it operates with an intersectional and non-binary gender+ concept and understanding of sex and gender relations. The main novelties of the tool are its evidence-based educational elements and that it encompasses seven gender dimensions addressing the main areas of life that play critical roles in producing and reproducing gender disparities. This allows for the identification of how climate policies interact with gender relations and can make substantial contributions to gender equality, as well as of areas in which addressing gender issues could render climate policies more effective.

The article is availabe here

Final report of the research project

The final report of the research project "The contribution of gender justice to successful climate politics: impact assessment, interdependencies with other social categories, methodological issues and options for shaping climate policy" GenderCC - Women for Climate Justice was involved in, has now been published by the Federal Environment Agency. In addition to the German summaries of the various work packages, it also contains a 15-page summary of the results of the research project in English:

The final report can be downloaded here.

First interim report

The first interim report of the research procejt, including a comprehensive literature review, is published in German. A short version in English is available here, the full version is forthcoming.