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We, women are appalled and alarmed.

After more than 10 days of technical negotiations and with the resignation of the president of this COP supposedly because of “procedure,” there are still no firm and worthwhile commitments on the table. Worse, civil society has been effectively excluded from its already marginal participation.

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By Nina Somera, Isis International

Thirty four people were arrested from yesterday’s “Reclaim Power” mobilisation where civil society protested its exclusion from the climate talks. As in the previous mobilisation where more than 100,000 people showed up on the streets, the police once more unleashed violence as they used teargas and batons in dispersing the protesters.

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by Nina Somera, Isis International

Copenhagen, Denmark (16 December 2009) - With the tightened security at the Bella Centre and the resulting marginalisation of civil society organisations (CSOs), a number of CSOs led by farmers, indigenous peoples, women and activist intellectuals such as Naomi Klein walked out of the conference premises, shouting, “Reclaim Power.”

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Statement of GenderCC-Women for Climate Justice

There are reasons to be happy in the recent past. Women have been recognised by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as stakeholders, with the creation of a Women and Gender Constituency. We have seen more and more national governments that are pursuing a gender language into the texts that would eventually form the outcome document of COP 15. We have seen them become more understanding of the linkages between women and climate change.

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by Nina Somera, Isis International

Copenhagen, Denmark – (11 December 2009) While climate change is usually associated with the industries in urban areas, cities are also gendered sites that experience the negative impacts of climate change.

Although the expansion of cities indicates growth in incomes and opportunities, it also means hosting more and more people who live below the poverty line. In most cases, such expansion facilitates greater greenhouse gas emissions and at the same time, greater vulnerability to the population, especially women in the more marginalised sectors. This, as cities have a range of spectrum where at one end are the industrial elites and on the other end, the working poor. As Gotelind Alber of Gender CC described,

“The carbon footprint variability [in the cities] is extremely high. Slumdwellers are usually close to zero footprint but overconsumption also happens. The North-South divide happens within the city itself, between rich and the poor.”

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By Nina Somera, Isis International

Copenhagen, Denmark (10 December 2009) – Finland has been hailed as the champion of women and gender rights in the climate change talks here at the Bella Centre. Finland, along with Liberia was among the first to articulate the need for greater women’s participation in the process. It has also earmarked some 500,000 Euros to fund the participation of Southern women, particularly those from Africa.