It provides a platform for its member NGOs and the UN to share information on issues relating to women’s rights, gender equality, and environmental protection. It ensures that women are represented in the delegations that formally negotiate UN climate policy.   

Additionally, the WGC educates members on the ins and outs of the UNFCCC and its complicated negotiations. Through WGC, women who may otherwise not have the resources to be heard at international climate conferences can raise their voices.  

Recently, the coalition spoke out on the need to include women on the organizing committee of the UN’s next climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. Initially, Azerbaijan only named men to its committee. A large, international cry of dismay from women forced the correction of this slight. Such action is codified by the Gender Action Plan (GAP), which was incorporated into the UNFCCC in 2017 after many years of advocacy by the WGC. Priorities include working towards a gender balance on committees, in leadership, and participation, building capacity by educating women in the area of climate negotiations, and monitoring how women are included and/or impacted by climate issues.  

WGC’s Gender Just Climate Solutions Awards 

Each year, the coalition hosts the Gender Just Climate Solutions awards.  These awards highlight climate solutions: 

• Whose benefits are equally accessible to women, men, and youth;   
• That either alleviate or do not add to a woman’s burden of workload; 
• That empowers women through better mobility/ accessibility, enhanced livelihood security, enhanced food security, improved health, access to safe water, etc.; 
• That is locally led and/ or locally driven; that contributes to climate change mitigation, emissions reduction, or climate adaptation; and  
• that shows interlinkages to cross-cutting issues, such as peace-building or natural resources management.   

This is among the additional criteria.