Unfortunately, this intentional hunt for women only came after international condemnation of the petrostate of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, having the audacity to go public with a committee that failed to include a single woman.

Indeed, there were more fossil fuel executives than there were women when the committee was first announced. And there were more men named Anar, than women, including Assistant to the President Anar Alakbarov and Urban Planning State Committee chair Anar Guliyev.

Incredibly, President Ilham Aliyev only took a couple of days to unveil the 12 women they had found, including Deputy Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Umayra Taghiyeva and Human Rights Commissioner Sabina Aliyeva. At the same time, Aliyev also found another two men, creating a 42-person committee.

When Aliyev announced the 28 all-male committee last week, the international condemnation came swiftly and quickly.

While it would have been nice to hear from more prominent current and former country leaders, women’s voices were notably the loudest.

Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she was “appalled” by the move. Teresa Ribera, the deputy Prime Minister of Spain declared, “no woman to host … may mean… no woman willing to come… resulting in… no COP” on social media.

Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief responsible for the groundbreaking Paris Agreement, and arguably one of the most successful climate negotiators of all time, described the all-male committee as “shocking and unacceptable”.

Meanwhile, 75 female business and political leaders worldwide sent an open letter to the president declaring that the best outcomes could depend on the president including “as many women as possible” on the committee. The letter from the We Mean Business Coalition said the eyes of the world will be on Baku, and noted that “gender diversity is crucial to successful negotiations and decision-making, bringing with it better, bolder decisions that have been shown to last.”

The Coalition also highlighted the role of women in some of the most successful COP negotiations, including the Paris Agreement, which was led by women — a notable success, given just five women have even been presidents of these global climate negotiations.

Women’s leadership at international negotiation tables is already lacking, making the need to intentionally include women in organising committees like this one all the more essential. At last year’s COP, just 15 out of the 140 speakers on the main stage were women, a slight increase from the number in 2022.

This is despite the disproportionate impact of climate change on women and girls, including how extreme weather events impact women’s safety and contribute to gender-based violence, the evidence that child marriages increase in areas impacted by climate risks, especially drought, as well as how climate change further prevents girls from accessing education.

As Women’s Agenda shared last year in The Climate Load, climate change is and will continue to affect the safety and health of women in Australia, while women must be included in the massive industry upheaval required ahead if Australia is to be successful in meeting our emission reduction targets.

The swift action taken by the president to appoint 12 women to the committee was “warmly welcomed,” according to Maria Mendiluce, CEO of the We Mean Business Coalition.

But the fact that in 2024 a president is appointing 28 men and no woman to any organising committee is nothing short of jaw-dropping, let alone a committee tasked with organising critical global climate negotiations.

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Have you flicked on the news recently or scrolled through your social media only to witness the horror of a climate-related natural disaster and the devastation it caused to a community? In just the last few months, we’ve seen floods over and over again in places like Libya, India, Hong Kong and Greece.

And what about the raw memories of Lismore Floods last year, or the Black Summer bushfires in 2019 and 2020? The unthinkable loss of animal life and the very real damage experienced by thousands of Australians. Former NSW Fire and Rescue Commissioner Greg Mullins has already spoken about the very real risks we face in Australia this coming summer.

For Christiana Figueres, an internationally recognised diplomat and leader in global climate change negotiations, being able to hold onto both optimism and fury concurrently is the key to moving beyond this feeling of overwhelm to engage in effective action. 

Figueres is a former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2010-2016) and was a key player in the delivery of the historical 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. 

It’s very possible that without her skilled diplomacy, the UN might not have been able to get 195 sovereign nations to agree on a shared path forward to limit future global warming to well below 2 degrees (while pushing for 1.5 degrees).

Speaking at a Homeward Bound webinar hosted by Fabian Dattner on Wednesday, Figueres said she would encourage other women to oscillate between focusing on the good news and the bad news of the climate crisis. It’s a skill that we’re able to cultivate, she says. 

“It has been my experience, that the ability to hold two truths, two realities, two viewpoints that are antithetical to each other and hold them in equal standing with each other is actually a quality that can be fostered and promoted and cultivated,” Figueres said.

“It is a quality of mind that allows us to be open to the reality of the world, which is both good and bad. Which has bad news and good news.”

Figueres says that being able to hold pessimism about the state of the climate and optimism about the possibilities we have before us to solve it, is the best way forward.

“Think of yourself as being the fulcrum between those two that oscillate – one day you will be more aware of good news, one day you’ll be more aware of bad news,” she said during the webinar.

“Holding anchor and being the fulcrum actually opens space and possibility for action that otherwise is not available.”

Figueres spoke about the “full-steam-ahead battle” for the hearts and minds of each one of us, as we confront the challenges of the climate crisis.

“That is, there are those who would want to convince all the rest of us that we are doomed, that we have no way of meeting this challenge, that we’re heading toward a world of total dystopia. That’s one argument,” she said.

The other argument, she says, is that when it comes to solutions and action, we’re actually catching up — especially when it comes to technology available in the energy sector.

“We’re catching up now because it is exponential,’ she said. “It’s why we have to double down and triple our efforts.”

Figueres explained that the fossil fuel industry is actively feeding that first argument, pushing the line that it’s all too hard, too expensive and too late to act.

“Of course the fossil fuel industry would want us to believe that this is impossible … for as long as we believe that, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy,” she said. “We do not then conjure up everything that it takes to have the transformation that is necessary. And we give the fossil fuel industry the time and the space that they want.”

“So it is a question of truly understanding that this is a race and we have to win the race.”

Figueres said the upcoming COP 28 summit, to be held later this year, will be key to determining whether nations will double down on their efforts in the energy sector and in biodiversity protection. 

“I’m not going to tell you that it’s guaranteed. There is no success guarantee. But if we don’t roll up our sleeves and do our darndest, then failure is guaranteed,” she said. 

And what about the place of women in these global climate conversations? Figueres says it’s essential that more women are elevated to leadership and decision-making positions. 

“We [women] do bring so many traits that are very, very scarce,” she said. “The traits of long-term thinking and acting, rather than short-term. The traits of leading with love and joy, and inclusivity rather than hierarchy.”

“It doesn’t mean that all women have those traits, and it also doesn’t mean that all men don’t have them. It’s just that they are a family of traits that are very necessary right now.”

“It’s got to be intentional because otherwise we’re going to continue down the path that we’ve had for thousands of years.”

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“The climate wars that have been going on in Australia for over a decade now are just – honestly they are such a suicidal situation because Australia… holds such promise with renewable energy,” she said during a recorded session for the Australasian Emissions Reductions Summit, which began online today.

Now the director of the global climate movement Mission 2020, Figueres said she had never shied from speaking about her frustration with Australia’s haphazard stance to a pressing emergency.

“I’ve been pretty vocal about my frustration for so many years of a completely unstable, volatile, unpredictable stand and position on climate change in Australia.”

“There is no other country that has as much sun potential as Australia,” she added.

Last month a bill was introduced in Parliament by Independent Zali Steggall working toward a net zero emissions target for Australia by 2050. It was signed by more than 100 organisations,  including Unilever, Atlassian and the Clean Energy Council – with the support of over 92,240 signatures. 

The bill called on the government to establish an independent climate change commission and incorporate the government’s technology investment roadmap; actions that the Morrison government vehemently opposes.

Rather than extend itself on Paris Agreement commitments, Morrison has instead suggested that Australia’s overachievements on Kyoto Protocol targets could be used as credits– a position Figueres simply branded “cheating” .

“It is just a total lack of integrity and not something that does Australia proud,” she said.

Earlier this year, Figueres spoke to Women’s Agenda’s Angela Priestley saying that despite her prevailing frustration with progress on climate change– and Australia’s inertia– that she remained “optimistic”.

“Since we can’t afford to fail, we have to take an optimistic route to this which means a gritty determination to harness our ingenuity and all our capacity to change things. I just don’t think that another choice is acceptable or responsible,” she said.

She also suggested that the role of women in pushing for action against climate change remained critical.

“On the front line, women are incredibly powerful. I’m not sure if it’s by choice or if it’s because women are the ones that are responsible for food and water, and being the backbone of the family, and therefore they a more and more resourceful in their adaptiveness and resilience,” she said.

“It’s evident that where there are more women in decision positions in companies, those companies are making better decisions — not just on climate but on other decisions as well.”

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