Not One Woman on the List (COP29)
Not One Woman on the List (COP29)
1/25/2024 by Pat Mitchell
Leaders of post-Soviet states—Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenia and Uzbekistan—arrive to the Summit of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on Dec. 26, 2023, in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Left to right) Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov. (Getty Images)
This article was originally published in Pat Mitchell’s blog and weekly newsletter.
Earlier this month, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev announced the organizing committee for COP29, which will be held there in November. The list included 28 appointees, including Azeri government ministers of energy, health, finance and economy, among others.
What the list did not include: women.
Not one woman on the list.
The backlash was swift and thunderous. Many women (and men) leaders reacted on social media, including Christiana Figueres, who oversaw the 2015 Paris Agreement as the COP president that year, calling the all-male panel “shocking and unacceptable.”
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The news of the list was broken by Guardian environment editor Damien Carrington. Kudos to Carrington for his coverage, which spurred more articles in other media outlets around the world, increasing the pressure on the COP29 Presidency to fix the problem. A few days later, the Azeri president added 12 women (and one man) to the list, including Azerbaijan’s deputy minister for ecology and natural resources, Umayra Taghiyeva; the chair of the state committee on family, women and children affairs, Bahar Muradova; and its human rights commissioner, Sabina Aliyeva. See the updated list here.
She Changes Climate’s Elise Buckle said the new additions represent “good progress, but [it’s] still far from making its composition fully gender-balanced: a quick fix but not enough.” She called on the COP29 Presidency to go one step further: “to walk the talk and lead by example, championing gender balance, endorsing the inclusion and diversity principles and inviting all UNFCCC Parties to do the same.”
We Mean Business chief Maria Mendiluce agreed: “There is still a long way to go for gender parity to be achieved in the climate negotiations and all our wider communities.” Progress, yes. But once again we can see how important the voices of She Changes Climate, Project Dandelion, We Mean Business, The B Team, and so many other partners are in this work. We will keep up the pressure and I hope you will join us! Because 12 out of 30 members is still not truly representative. As We Mean Business stated in their letter: “The inclusion of both men and women in the decision-making team will offer strong foundations for a successful year of climate negotiations for Azerbaijan and take us a step closer to keeping our planet and all people safe for the future.”
https://msmagazine.com/2024/01/25/women-cop-29-all-male-azerbaijan-president-ilham-aliyev/