* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Two months after the failure of COP 15 in Copenhagen, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has announced the creation of an all-male advisory body for climate change financing.
With an ambitious task of "build[ing] momentum towards a successful negotiation of a comprehensive climate change agreement," the body is expected to mobilise funds amounting to $100 billion annually until 2020 to support the poorest nations affected by climate change.
While the formation of an advisory body is an expected measure out of the weak Copenhagen Accord, its all-male membership comes as a surprise, especially as the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change has increasingly recognised the dire impacts of climate change on women and the latter's contribution to rehabilitating and keeping the earth's resources.
"If we want to overcome gender inequalities, we need to have women in the climate change decision-making process," remarked Ulrike Roehr, a board member of GenderCC - Women for Climate Justice.
"Women like Joke Waller-Hunter (the predecessor of Yvo de Boer, the current U.N. climate change chief) have guided the process in many positive ways," she added. "The nomination of the next UNFCCC executive secretary is another chance to implement gender equity. Let her be female!"
While we are aware that the appointment of women does neither necessarily translate into women's empowerment nor gender equality, we need to ask: Has the world run out of women experts? Is the planet consisting of men alone? Is it not because of such imbalances that this climate crisis exists?
GenderCC, alongside with women and gender experts from all over the world, therefore asks UN-Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to make sure that the climate change financing group as well as the whole process respects gender parities and gendered perspectives.
There's no climate justice without gender justice!
