Hillary Clinton has criticised the COP28 climate summit in Dubai for its lack of women.
The Former Secretary of State appeared at an Atlantic Council event titled “Empowering communities: Women at the heart of climate resilience” where she acknowledged the concerning decline of women’s rights and opportunities across the globe — a situation she believes is leading to fewer women in decision-making positions.
“It’s not only that we have to do more to make sure women’s voices are heard, we have to be conscious of the fact that we’re now sort of swimming against a tide that has turned against women in many parts of the world,” Clinton said.
“In many of the governments that are here represented at COP, there are some governments that have no women and some governments with very few women. And so how do we get the concerns of women particularly when it comes to climate to be heard, and that’s, you know, what events like this are about.”
Clinton described the important role policymakers have in encouraging more women to enter climate change discussions.
“We have seen repeatedly that women’s lives, women’s works, is often an afterthought, if it’s a thought at all. And it just doesn’t doesn’t rise to the level that it needs to in order for policymakers to pay attention and to act. So therefore it’s been a kind of absolute necessity over years to try to lift up women leaders and women.”
Clinton said she was concerned about the “pushback” of women’s rights and opportunities in places like China.
“The leaders of a number of big countries have basically sent the message out that women need to get out of the formal workforce, women need to get home, women need to have more babies. That was an explicit statement by Xi Jinping, the president of China last month.”
“We also see changes in legislation to both encourage and undermine the role of women in the sense that [they are] encouraged to sort of withdraw from the formal economy.”
This year’s summit sees 140 world leaders scheduled to speak with only 15 of them women. This 10 per cent is actually an improvement from last year’s summit which saw only 7 women represented out of 111 speakers (roughly 6 per cent).
At her discussion on Monday in Dubai, Clinton also acknowledged the disproportionate impact women face by the effects of climate change.
“Whatever the climate change is, it’s going to impact whether it’s increasing climate shocks, weather patterns, storms, droughts, heat,” she said.
“They’re going to impact women and children more dramatically, everywhere. So I think there’s just we need to see it as a political movement that we are all part of.”
Clinton’s comments comes after the Guardian revealed that the president of COP28, Sultan Al Jaber, said controversially last month that there is “no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C”.
Al Jaber, who is the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company, Adnoc, was speaking to former UN climate envoy Mary Robinson during a virtual event last month when he said: “Show me the roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuel that will allow for sustainable socioeconomic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves.”
On Monday, he addressed the comments he made in November, saying: “We very much believe and respect the science.”
“I respect the science in everything I do. I have repeatedly said that it is the science that has guided the principles or strategy as COP28 president. We have always built everything, every step of the way, on the science, on the facts.”
“I have said over and over the phase-down and the phase-out of fossil fuel is inevitable. In fact, it is essential.”
“I know that there are strong views among some [countries], about the phase-down or phase-out of fossil fuels. Allow me to say this again: this is the first [Cop] presidency ever to actively call on parties to come forward with language on all fossil fuels for the negotiated text.”
One of the most contentious issues at this year’s summit rests upon the extent and severity of expression used to describe the the final COP28 agreement. Over a hundred countries have already supported a phase-out of “unabated” fossil fuels, though some believe the description should be tampered to “phase-down”.
The definition of “phase-out” and “phase-down” has not been agreed upon by all nations.
If countries reached an agreement to “phase out” fossil fuels, it would be “one of the most significant events in the history of humanity”, according to former US vice-president Al Gore.
Gore told the Guardian in Dubai it would be a “welcome surprise” if leaders at COP28 agreed to call for an end to fossil fuels.
“If there were a decision here to surprise the world to say ‘OK we get it now, we’ve made enough money, we will get on with what needs to be done to give young people a sense of hope again and stop as much as suffering as possible and start the phase-out of fossil fuels’, it would be one of the most significant events in the history of humanity,” he said.
UN secretary general, António Guterres said last week, “The science is clear: The 1.5C limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce, not abate. Phase out, with a clear timeframe.”
Climate scientists have criticised Al Jaber’s comments, describing them as “incredibly concerning” and “verging on climate denial”.
Namibian climate activist Ina-Maria Shikongo said: “We are here in response to [Al Jaber’s comments] making loud and clear. There is no debate whether we need a fossil fuel phase-out to stick with the Paris agreement. The science is clear.”
Climate Envoy for the Marshall Islands, Tina Stege, said of Al Jaber’s comments — “We will hold him to that.”
“If 1.5C is the north star, in practice what that means is a phase-out of fossil fuels; that is what the science has said,” she said. “We can’t pretend there are other pathways to achieve 1.5C when so many lives are at stake.”
Over the weekend, she wrote on X: “We need to marry the tripling of renewables to a fossil fuel phaseout, underpinned by the necessary finance, to drive a just and equitable energy transition.”