Gender Transformative Climate Finance

Today, at COP27, we focus on gender responsive climate finance, because women are disproportionately affected by climate change, but remain underrepresented in the sectors targeted by investments for mitigation and adaptation. 

At the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), drawing on our Gender Policy, all projects are required to integrate gender. This means analyzing gaps between women and men in relation to the project and incorporating activities that address these gaps and indicators to measure progress. 

To achieve gender-transformative change, structural and normative barriers that women face in equal access to markets, services, resources and leadership have to be removed. How do we identify those barriers and address them? Below are a few lessons learned and examples from CIF-funded projects. 

Access to green jobs and entrepreneurship

The International Labor Organization estimates that 24 million jobs could be created in the global green economy by 2030. But today women make up only 22% of the labor force in the energy sector overall, 32% in the renewable sector, and are more likely to be employed at lower and administrative positions. 

This is because gender stereotypes, lack of role models and opportunity costs prevent girls from pursuing STEM education. Dedicated scholarships can help address this gap. For example, in Nepal, 30 percent of scholarships for tertiary-level studies in watershed management were provided to women.

To actively recruit, retain and promote women in male-dominated labor markets, issues of equal pay, sexual harassment prevention, professional development support, flexible work, parental leave, access to childcare and lactation rooms must be addressed.

In Mexico and Brazil, companies with gender plans to address such issues have access to reduced loan rates. One company partnered with universities to recruit female interns among the STEM graduates and provided mentorship. As a result, after 5 years, 50% of their core technical and leadership positions are held by women. 

Lack of knowledge, information and professional networks, and inaccessible financial services prevent women from accessing opportunities in resilient agriculture and forestry management, clean cooking technologies, off grid energy generation and more. 

In Tajikistan, commercial banks partnered with local women organizations to carry out information campaigns and provide financial literacy and business development services. Financial products were redesigned to include more flexible collateral requirements, repayment plans, and grace periods. As a result, half of the beneficiaries of climate resilience loans were women.

Women farmers are less likely than their male counterparts to use technologies that reduce vulnerability to climate change. In Niger, women’s groups were engaged to raise awareness about the benefits of drip irrigation and project financing, resulting in high uptake of new irrigation systems powered by solar pumps by women. 

In agriculture, women cooperatives strengthen collective action and provide opportunities for sustainable income sources drawing on traditional knowledge on adaptation and mitigation. In a Burkina Faso nut-processing women association, two-thirds of income is shared among producers, while a third is reinvested for business development. 

Reduced electricity tariffs or preferences in bidding for contracts in the energy supply chain to SMEs owned by women or employing large numbers of women or other vulnerable groups also foster equality in the sector. 

Access to services and resources 

Women are disproportionately affected by lack of access to electricity, yet they struggle to access renewable energy solutions due to high costs and are rarely consulted on the design. Through CIF’s Scaling Up Renewable Energy Program in Low Income Countries (SREP), women are involved in decision-making about electrification solutions and low-income households are subsidized. 

Lack of land tenure, limited access to forests, water, extension services and early warning systems and social protection schemes leave women more vulnerable to climate-related disasters and hinder their agricultural productivity. In Burkina Faso, financing for forestry and livelihoods projects was made conditional upon transfer of land ownership rights to women’s associations. In Zambia, targeted grants for women-led adaptation activities in local soil and water management were provided.

Women leadership

Beyond access to green jobs, services and resources, we want women leaders at the helm of climate policy making and natural resource management despite gender norms, time poverty, and lack of experience and networks.

In Kyrgyzstan, technical support to the Climate Finance Center includes dedicated activities to mainstream gender in all climate-related legislation and policies supported by the Center. 

In Cambodia, through project activities, almost half of the members of Village Disaster Management Committees, a third of members of Farmer Water User Committees and half of the participants of village plan consultations are women. As a result, women-specific needs in access to water, flood protection, and risk reduction were addressed and gender norms about participation in public life also started to change.

What next? 

CIF’s new programs – Accelerated Coal Transitions, Renewable Energy Integration, Nature, People and Climate – are currently in the country investment plans phase. This is our opportunity to work closely with Multilateral Development Banks and national stakeholders to raise gender ambitions and scale up women climate leadership. 

And to further test bold and innovative business models, we are setting up the Women-Led Coal Transitions (WOLCOT) Grant Mechanism under our Accelerated Coal Transitions Program. Drawing on CIF’s experience working with vulnerable people and just transition issues, WOLCOT will empower local communities and organizations working on the rights of women and underserved groups.