Young Feminist Analysis and Recommendations on Intersectional Justice in the NDCs

Gender Policy Brief

The 2020-2021 updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) represent the cornerstone of each nation’s climate action plan under the Paris Agreement. The NDCs are the most important document for commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As such, it is vitally important that every NDC be equitable, just, and intersectional, in both construction and implementation. To that end, Care About Climate and global youth activists from more than 20 countries are thoroughly examining and reporting on the NDCs from a local, intersectional, feminist perspective as part of the NDC Equity Tracker project. While many countries have made improvements on the inclusion of gender and equity concerns into their latest NDCs, there is still significant progress left to be made -- especially when it comes to the adoption of gender justice and intergenerational equity in national climate policy plans.

In 2016, an analysis conducted by WEDO pointed out that only 64 of 190 Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), the first NDCs released in 2015, included any reference to women and gender. Furthermore, even those that did refer to women and gender typically did not include any direct and actionable commitments that highlighted feminist leadership. Of the 64, only 27 mentioned gender in relation to climate adaptation, while only 12 mentioned it in relation to mitigation. Further, the lack of reference to gender and climate justice in the INDCs was mostly concentrated in Annex I Parties, which refers to high-income “developed” countries under the UNFCCC. In the updated NDCs, there was a shift in scope on gender equity language, and several Parties who had not referenced women or gender previously, did so in 2020/2021. Some did so with more substantive policies, while others include surface-level mentions. Key takeaways are outlined below, with a focus on those most impacted by climate change, including young people, women and girls, and Indigenous Peoples.

Inclusive NDC Development

Few countries have centered women, youth, and Indigenous voices in the development of their NDCs; most reports submitted thus far were drafted by existing government bodies with limited input from outside stakeholders, especially members of civil society. Furthermore, these reports are often opaque on who was involved in the NDC creation process, neglecting to include any information about the demographics of the writing team. By not making a concerted effort to include those necessary perspectives as a key part of their decision-making process, these reports perpetuate existing structural inequities in climate policy. Many valuable insights have been missed, and the NDCs are weaker from their loss. This oversight is significant, and women, youth, and Indigenous perspectives must be centered as part of the NDC creation process in the future.

Women and Gender in NDCs

The quality of consideration for women’s issues in the content of the NDCs varies widely from one report to the next. However, as a whole, it leaves much to be desired. A significant number of NDCs - including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Pakistan, and Japan - do not include language on women in any meaningful or concrete way. This complete lack of valuable discussion of women’s issues and gender concerns is a major failure of these NDCs, and it leaves their policy plans with significant gaps and blind spots. Without specific plans to fight inequity and further gender justice, especially in high-emitter countries most responsible for climate action, the status quo will continue unchanged.

Of the comparatively limited number of NDC submissions that do specifically include a mention of women and gender, most only focus on some of the many facets that need to be taken into account when discussing gender and climate justice. For example, countries like the United Kingdom, Nepal, and Argentina discuss the increased vulnerability of women to the effects of climate change. However, they do not recognize or promote the significant role that women can and must play in combating climate change. Only a few submissions reviewed under the NDC Equity Tracker project, like Canada’s NDC, specifically discuss both of the perspectives of vulnerability and leadership, as well as providing concrete plans and policies for gender inclusion in the climate plans of the country. This type of approach is commendable and should be adopted as the baseline for gender consideration in all NDCs going forward. It’s also vital to note that lower-income and lower-emissions countries continue to do far better at incorporating women and gender than higher-income and higher-emissions countries (read more from WEDO).

Youth in NDCs

Despite being the group that will be living with the impacts of climate change the longest - and thus being one of the groups with the most at stake in these climate negotiations - most NDCs do not specifically discuss young or future generations at all. For example, the European Union’s NDC creation process included a stage of input from stakeholders, which is an important step in promoting equity; however, the EU report does not break down those stakeholders by age: instead, they are split into classifications such as business, citizen, or NGO. The oversight of this vitally important demographic information illustrates the kind of neglect shown to youth overall in high-level decision-making spaces.

The UK’s NDC - one of the most ambitious pledges from the Global North submitted so far - only cursorily discusses youth concerns, mainly in reference to education and capacity building. Almost none of the NDCs specifically discuss how young people will be engaged in their climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, which alienates a large portion of the population vital to fighting the climate crisis. Occasionally, reports will recognize youth as a vulnerable group that bears outsized impacts of climate change, like Nepal’s NDC. However, similarly to the issues with women and gender considerations, this only takes a small portion of the big picture into account. While recognizing that young people are at risk is important, failure to integrate youth into NDC plans is a significant gap that must be closed going forward. A young feminist lens guides effective climate policy, and it is imperative that countries include this approach in their national plans moving forward.

Indigenous Peoples in NDCs

Very few NDCs adequately consider the impact of climate change on Indigenous Peoples and other communities most impacted by colonialism and white supremacy. The omission of Indigenous Peoples, who lead environmental work and bear the brunt of climate injustice, is particularly unacceptable and makes for a much weaker national climate plan. Once again, a small number of NDCs make some mention; submissions from the EU and Japan reaffirm the rights of Indigenous Peoples, but fail to include substantive content and action points to protect and center the leadership of marginalized communities.

In many of the countries where the analyses under the NDC Equity Tracker project were conducted, Indigenous Peoples, especially Indigenous women, lead climate action work in their communities. Therefore, it is imperative that their NDCs reflect that in a more proactive way. In Canada, for example, Indigenous groups in the country had the opportunity to share their own emission targets, goals, and initiatives in the Canadian updated NDC. This first step must be vitally met through just climate policies that center Canada’s First Nations.

Takeaways and Recommendations

Underrepresented groups in UNFCCC processes must be significantly and concretely included in the NDC creation process of every country going forward, with the goal of ensuring a feminist and intersectional approach for every commitment made in these national climate plans. Additionally, the equity and justice concerns of women, youth, and Indigenous communities must be fully incorporated into each policy included in an NDC, rather than disregarded or minimized to one small section of the report -- usually focused on the vulnerability and marginalization of these groups, and not on their knowledge, power, and leadership. Specific recommendations for improved government approaches include:

• Actively seeking a representative balance of gender, sexuality, race, religion, age, and other identities among a nation’s NDC contributors;

• Wherever possible, publishing the demographic breakdown of each nation’s NDC contribution team;

• Providing financial support to traditionally exploited contributors - specifically women, Indigenous Peoples, displaced people, and youth - for their input in the NDC creation process, rather than relying on unpaid labor;

• Providing meaningful engagement opportunities to those same contributors in the policies and actions outlined in the NDC, rather than relegating them to a secondary role;

• Developing a wide-reaching framework as part of each NDC that ensures that all proposed policies promote equity and justice, in addition to their emissions reduction goals;

• Utilizing that developed framework to critically examine past NDCs, identify and deconstruct current failures, and highlight areas for improvement;

• Implementing policies to address current failures as identified through the inclusive NDC creation process and equity framework.

While these steps alone will not fix all of the equity and justice issues that this report has identified in the submitted NDCs, they will significantly improve the current scenario. To fully combat the scope of the climate crisis, governments (especially those most responsible for climate change) must further just climate policies that prioritize gender mainstreaming mechanisms and meet the needs of Indigenous Peoples and young people, who lead climate action.