Nigerian Woman Titilope Gbemisola Akosa at UN Paris Climate Talks;Offers Remarks on Gender and Threats to Ecosystems & Communities!

Titilope Gbemisola Akosa (Nigeria) from the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC) submitted remarks at the UN Climate Talks at the Le Bourget Conference Center, Paris, France. Ms. Akosa submitted an Intervention to the High Level Segment (HLS) calling for an ambitious and fair agreement that acknowledges the loss of lives, cultures, and ecosystems and includes a mechanism to address both financial and non-monetized Loss and Damage.

More when you continue..

When speaking about the new climate agreement, Ms. Akosa said, “It must provide clearly defined, new, additional, and predictable gender-responsive public finance that is scaled up in the form of grants.” Ms. Akosa continued, “The goal of $100 billion per year must be a floor, not a ceiling, scaled up at least every five years, with a 50:50 balance between mitigation and adaptation, and finance for loss and damage in addition to adaptation funding.”

Here is the entirety of Ms. Akosa’s remarks offered to the United Nations’ HLS; her biography is below:

“Distinguished ministers and heads of delegations,

My name is Titilope Gbemisola Akosa and I am speaking on behalf of the Women and Gender Constituency. I stand before you today in solidarity representing the voices and aspirations of millions of women, children and the socially disadvantaged communities of the world.

We are now at a crucial stage of the negotiations. We cannot allow our leaders to gamble with our future. As women, we are here to stand strong on behalf of the people and the planet to pressure world leaders to do what it takes to tackle the climate change crisis -- deliver a legally binding, just and gender-responsive agreement that will set the world on the path of resilience and sustainability.

As a woman living in the city of Lagos, in Nigeria I have witnessed how the ocean inches towards us and threatens to swallow up our habitats and lives. How irregular rainfall patterns threaten our food security, and floods destroy our livelihoods. All of this deepens social inequality. But we are not willing to play the victim game. These catastrophic situations have pushed us out of our comfort zone to be here, with our solutions, for an ambitious agreement in Paris.

Last week, world leaders gathered here to give their visions to the COP. Now it is time to ensure an ambitious and fair agreement. Therefore, it must ensure all climate actions, both adaptation and mitigation, respect, promote, protect and fulfil human rights, gender equality, the rights of indigenous people, intergenerational equity, a just transition and decent work, food security and ecosystem integrity and resilience.

This can only be achieved if Parties commit to stay below 1.5° C degree of warming.  -  in a manner which upholds the principles of the Convention, namely equity and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR).

The new agreement must acknowledge the loss of lives, cultures, and ecosystems that has already occurred and include a mechanism to address both financial and non-monetized Loss and Damage.

It must provide clearly defined, new, additional, and predictable gender-responsive public finance that is scaled up in the form of grants. The goal of $100 billion per year, must be a floor, not a ceiling, scaled up at least every five years, with a 50:50 balance between mitigation and adaptation, and finance for loss and damage in addition to adaptation funding.

Finally, we ask that you retain gender language in all the operative areas of the agreement.  

This is our stand and we will not give up on our beautiful planet.

Thank you!”

Ms Titilope “Titi” Ngozi Akosa is a lawyer, gender and social inclusion expert, researcher, and Vital Voices Lead Fellow. She is also a women’s climate justice advocate and Environmental Leader of the Bearhs Environmental Leadership program at the University of California at Berkeley, United States. Additionally, she is an alumna of the prestigious International Visitor Leadership program of the United States on Volunteerism and Community Development.

The Women and Gender Constituency (WGC) is one of the nine stakeholder groups of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Established in 2009, the WGC now consists of 15 women’s and environmental civil society organizations, who are working to ensure that women’s voices and their rights are embedded in all processes and results of the UNFCCC framework, for a sustainable and just future, so that gender equality and women’s human rights are central to the ongoing discussions. As the WGC represents the voices of hundreds and thousands of people across the globe, members of the Constituency are present at each UNFCCC meeting and intersessional to work alongside the UNFCCC Secretariat, governments, civil society observers and other stakeholders to ensure that women’s rights and gender justice are core elements of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.