A playbook for 50/50 at COP30
GR 40 turns parity into law. COP 30 is an opportunity to make it the norm.
Equal representation isn’t a favour. It’s a duty. And, the bare minimum.
In October 2024, the Committee that oversees compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)—one of the world's most ratified treaties— adopted General Recommendation No. 40 (GR 40). It’s a landmark interpretation that sets parity (50/50) between women and men, in all their diversity, as the measure of equal and inclusive representation. This is across all public and private decision-making spaces, from the national to the international level, including climate governance.
It recognises parity as a “fundamental human right.” One that requires “systematic action” to replace the “classic patriarchal model of governance.”
“GR 40 makes it clear: parity means 50/50—not 20%, not 30%. Parity means equal representation. It is not optional or a temporary measure. It needs to be ensured as a permanent feature of leadership. That’s a breakthrough in international law,” says María Noel Leoni Zardo, Deputy Executive Director of Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), and co-founder and director of GQUAL, a campaign to achieve gender parity in international decision-making spaces.
With GR 40, parity is no longer the ceiling. It is the starting point and a universal norm. In doing so, it moves parity from plea to principle and from principle to practice. This is particularly timely, especially in the context of climate governance and negotiations, because despite advances, the numbers have remained stubborn.
Since the first COP in 1995, only 5 women have been elected as President. At COP29, a majority of delegations continued to be dominated and led by men, as they have been in the last decade. Women headed 24 % of the delegations and made up 35% of the delegates.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC’s gender composition reports show uneven progress across constituted bodies. The representation of women increased in seven constituted bodies, but either decreased or remained unchanged across nine of them between 2023 and 2024. Women are underrepresented in legal decision-making spaces critical to climate governance, too—27% at the International Court of Justice and 29% at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
Back in 1995, the Beijing Platform for Action set out a comprehensive policy framework to advance women’s rights and called for equal participation and balanced power sharing. In 2024, one of the world’s most ratified human rights treaties—CEDAW, through GR 40, has made parity a legal obligation. Implementing it across climate action would mean moving to meaningful and equal participation of women, and investing in them to enable it.
Equal participation: name, nominate, correct
GR40 requires states to guarantee women’s equal and inclusive representation in decision-making systems, with transparent procedures, parity as a criterion, and public data to track compliance even in international fora like COP.
María Noel, whose work includes monitoring composition and elections across 190 international bodies, has guidance on how this could be done:
When it comes to constituted bodies,
Calls for nominations should include clear information on the gender composition of the specific bodies and how many women and men should be elected to achieve parity.
Regional groups and constituencies should be required to submit gender-balanced nomination lists that meet the same 50:50/40 per cent floor.
If a nominating group does not submit a compliant list, the deadline could be extended to fix it.
A roster of candidates with diverse backgrounds and gender balance could be kept.
Gender parity should be included as a selection criterion within regional groups and in the selection process.
The annual gender composition report could include information on compositions and nominations.
In addition, incentives could be given through incorporating parity in resourcing, including through the Trust Fund for Participation.
When it comes to delegations,
States need to commit to file a gender-balanced delegation, aiming for 50/50, not only overall but also in leadership roles such as Head and Deputy of Delegation and thematic leads.
Delegations should be filed early, perhaps with a fixed date, and made public. A deadline could be extended to fix any imbalances.
The Secretariat could keep a public dashboard with disaggregated data on delegations, leadership, speaking time, and other indicators, and include this information on the Gender Composition report, so that it can be used in advocacy, including for accountability before the CEDAW Committee.
“International decision-making spaces, including climate negotiations and climate governance, fall squarely within states’ parity obligations”, she stresses.
This is a legal standard, not a voluntary pledge.
And there is a way to carry this from law into policy, directly into national climate action plans. Beyond GR40, countries can encode parity and gender-responsiveness in their next round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). With the 2025-2035 NDC window extended to September, parties have had room to integrate gender across drafting, implementation and monitoring. Many NDCs already reference gender. The next step is to bridge the data gap, strengthen implementation, access to finance and routine reporting that aligns with an updated Gender Action Plan at COP30. Done well, NDCs could become the operating manual for 50/50—turning parity from a principle into budgeted action.
Beyond headcounts to influence
GR 40’s emphasis is not only on who is present, but on who leads, who speaks, and who drafts texts.
“It’s about sharing equal power across leadership, speaking roles and being able to effectively influence decisions,” says María Noel.
That means treating parity across decision-making spaces as a priority, not an afterthought. Start with leadership and ensure 50/50 among chairs, co-facilitators but extend parity among lead drafters and in informal drafting gatherings where real decisions often land. This can be done by collecting and releasing sex-disaggregated data tracking leadership roles, tracking the share of speaking time across delegations and, through course-correction, if the skew exceeds 55/45. It means going beyond headcounts.
Fund participation, fix the rules
Parity stalls without a purse. GR 40 recognises the need for equal access to resources as a means to guarantee 50/50 participation that is meaningful.
That means earmarked budgets for travel, care support, expert preparation and mentoring. “When it comes to delegations, it’s the prerogative of the states to change the situation. It is a commitment to building delegations that reflect diversity, and governments have to create some incentives, both by funding women’s participation, earmarking budgets for women’s participation,” says María Noel.
Parity is now an obligation and an operating system. It is the bare minimum as outlined in international law, across all decision-making processes. At COP30, as countries adopt the new Gender Action Plan, it is time to hardwire parity metrics into climate action.
COP30 in Belém runs from 10- 21 November. From India to Kenya and beyond, women innovating and driving sustainable climate solutions are demanding 50/50 seats, equal influence in climate decision-making and equitable investment as the bare minimum.