Chapter 3 GLOBAL GENDER AND ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK Chapter 1


Box 3.2: Climate change-related lawsuits in the North and South Chapter 4: Chapter 2


In the Netherlands in 2015, a court ordered the government to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 25% within five years in response to a case brought by more than 800 individuals. “Before this judgement, the only legal obligations on states were those they agreed among themselves in international treaties,” said Dennis van Berkel, legal counsel for Urgenda, the group that brought the suit, in an interview.


the German energy firm RWE. He lives in the floodpath of a glacial lake that is on the verge of breaking through its banks as the climate warms. This suit advances the idea of global environmental accountability for climate changes that are manifested locally (Collyns 2015). In the Philippines, Greenpeace and the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement filed a petition in September 2015 on behalf of typhoon survivors, calling for the devastation caused by extreme weather-related disasters to be properly recognized. In April 2016, lawyers for the petitioners met with the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines to identify expert witnesses for a hearing into the liability of 50 of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies for violating the human rights of Filipinos as a result of catastrophic climate change (Howard 2016; Darby 2015; Greenpeace 2015). In the state of Washington in the United States eight young people (aged 11 to 15) won a case in 2015 to force the state to consider science-based emissions regulations. This was the first victory for the campaign group Our Children’s Trust, which (with other organizations) is bringing similar actions across the country challenging the federal and state governments by seeking damages from climate change-related harms or citing a violation of the public trust doctrine, according to which the government owns resources in trust for public use. If their actions are successful, the federal government could be required to create an inventory of CO2 national remedial plan to phase out fossil fuel emissions and draw down excess atmospheric CO2


“This is the first a time a court has determined that states have an independent legal obligation towards their citizens…” The country’s Environment Minister later said the government would contest the decision but would begin to comply in the meantime (Neslen 2015; Lin 2015; Darby 2015). Environmental Justice Australia is canvassing support for a lawsuit similar to that in the Netherlands (Darby 2015). In Belgium a similar case (expected to be decided in 2016) was filed by around 10,000 people (Neslen 2015). In 2015 a farmer in Peru began proceedings to bring a legal challenge against one of Europe’s largest CO2


emissions and “an enforceable so as to stabilize


the climate system and protect the vital resources on which Plaintiffs now and will depend” (O’Berger 2016).


emitters,


Innovative financing: In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN Member States agreed to work towards a significant increase in investments to reduce the gender gap (UN 2015a). In addition, in 2015 Member States and entities of the UN system and civil society launched the Addis Ababa Action Plan on Transformative Financing for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, which calls for accelerating implementation of the financial commitments in the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and for meeting new commitments in the context of the 2030 Agenda (UN Women 2015).


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Sufficient support and financing to increase gender equality across sectors helps reduce other inequalities and discriminatory norms, with broad social, economic and environmental effects. For example, greater gender equality in education and employment can stimulate sustainable growth and help reduce


poverty. Relative increases in women’s employment may leverage bargaining power within households, contributing to greater control by women of their time and income as well as increased investments in children’s well-being (OECD 2013). Economic policies that promote full employment for all, decent work and social protection (including the right to organize in the workplace) contribute to gender equality in livelihoods. These policies should also facilitate better access to productive resources such as land and credit. In addition, they should reduce the disproportionate burden of unpaid care and domestic work on women and girls and enable its redistribution within the household and between households and the State. An enabling (macro)economic environment that generates decent jobs and sustainable livelihoods is central to financing gender equality and women’s empowerment (UN Women 2015).


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