In its implementation lies the success of the Belém Gender Action Plan
Because action, not intent, is what counts.
SHE Changes Climate welcomes the adoption of the Belém Gender Action Plan at COP30 as a win, fought for long and hard by gender rights advocates across the world.
The 19-page document recognises that climate impacts are not gender neutral and that inclusive, equitable responses are essential for effective climate governance. It sets out five key action areas and delegates responsibilities to implement them across all levels from the UNFCCC Secretariat to national governments and their representatives.
Capacity building, knowledge management and communication with women at all levels of climate action
Ensuring gender balance and meaningful participation, and leadership
Ensuring coherent gender mainstreaming at all levels
Gender Responsive implementation, including finance
Strong monitoring and reporting frameworks
In doing so, it lays out the roadmap for gender-responsive climate action until 2034.
The Gender Action Plan’s Success Hinges on Its Implementation
The next decade of implementation of this roadmap will determine who leads, who influences decisions and who gets funded. It will determine what a just transition with gender at its heart will look like.
The UN Women has said that for the GAP to achieve its goals, its implementation needs to be “firmly anchored in human rights principles, with adequate and well-defined provisions for means of implementation, including finance, technology and capacity building.”
This would mean 50/50 as the definition of parity as set out by international law.
It would include meaningful participation of women at all fora through capacity building and funding, and equitable access to resources such as land, technology and finance. This requires building systems that ensure equal participation, power in decision-making and equitable finance as the bare minimum. And then, monitoring and course-correcting until the systems work to benefit those they are meant for.
This new decade must be defined by implementation—by translating ambition into tangible, just and gender-equal action on the ground. SHE Changes Climate continues to urge countries to deliver on their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) in ways that centre justice, equity and the leadership of women and frontline communities. The next nine years will determine whether the global community truly advances a just transition that leaves no one behind.
Into a Just Transition
While it is frustrating that no new concrete pathways were adopted at COP30 to transition away from fossil fuels, SHE Changes Climate welcomes the commitment to scale total annual climate finance—at least $1.3 trillion a year for climate action by 2035, and a goal to triple adaptation finance to roughly $120 billion a year. That promise will fail if it is not gender-responsive in practice.
As the Gender Action Plan is implemented over the next decade, SHE Changes Climate recommends the following priorities:
1. Centre women, Indigenous Peoples, and frontline communities as equal decision-makers at every level
Demand that the COP processes, national climate policies, and global transition plans include women, Indigenous Peoples, and frontline communities at the decision-making table and not on the sidelines.
This starts with making the operationalisation of the Belém Gender Action Plan non-negotiable. The next 12–18 months are an opportunity to turn the Gender Action Plan into concrete action—law, budgets and seats.
Countries should adopt national implementation plans with timelines and clear indicators across NDCs, NAP and just transition plans, and civil society can push for annual public reporting on GAP progress in every country as an accountability mechanism.
2. Mobilise adequate, accessible, gender-responsive climate finance
Urge wealthy nations to fulfil and expand their obligations by providing gender-responsive climate finance to support adaptation, loss and damage, and community-led solutions.
We call on governments, climate funds, multilateral banks and private finance to set near-term milestones and a defined share of this finance for gender equality and women-led climate solutions, and to use the Global Climate Finance Accountability Framework, also launched in Belém, to publicly show that money is reaching women’s organisations and frontline communities.
3. Commit to a Real, Science-Based Fossil Fuel Phaseout and a Gender-Responsive Just Transition
Call on governments to move beyond rhetoric and deliver a binding, equitable phaseout of fossil fuels grounded in science, justice, and human rights. No just transition is possible while fossil fuel interests dominate and delay global climate policymaking.
Call on governments to hard-wire equal participation of women, especially from Indigenous and frontline communities, into all just transition, implementation and fossil-fuel phaseout processes.
As we enter the post-COP30 decade, the world stands at a decisive moment. After years of negotiation, targets and technical frameworks, we know what needs to be done. The task ahead is to actually do it. The Belém Gender Action Plan, the new climate finance commitments, and the just transition pledges will only matter if they change who holds power and who benefits. SHE Changes Climate’s 50/50 campaign is clear: equal power is the bare minimum—and it is long overdue.