Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental protection, and disaster risk reduction policies and programs was the major theme of the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66), which was held in 2022. This was a significant opportunity to build on the knowledge and advancement made on these links in climate change decision-making venues over the past few decades and marked the first time CSW focused a primary focus on gender and climate change linkages. Additionally, CSW66 offered a chance to draw greater attention from a global perspective to new subjects and problems, such as the mounting body of evidence demonstrating the catastrophic effects of and connections between climate change violence against women and girls (VAWG).
The program focuses on the integration of VAWG and climate change linkages into the CSW66 agreed conclusions and recommended actions, and it addresses major opportunities derived from illustrations of effective methods and flexible resources for putting them into practice. A crucial step toward advancing and fostering cooperation between decision-makers and practitioners involved in ending VAWG and climate action is the inclusion of the relationship between VAWG and climate change issues as part of the accepted conclusions.
