Supporting low-carbon transition and gender equity in the Global

 

Climate change continues to affect the world in increasingly catastrophic ways, as demonstrated in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report of August 2021. The unprecedented impact of climate change is placing a disproportionate burden on developing countries while also endangering their economies. There is growing agreement that rapid action is required to meet the 1.5°C goal outlined in the climate agreement and all forces need to be deployed to achieve the low-carbon commitments in the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and a sense of shared vulnerability across countries have created momentum for a green economic transformation.

Countries, including those in the low- and middle-income category, are pursuing climate adaptation and mitigation action. While doing so, they are also striving to achieve the other Sustainable Development Goals and ensure sustainability, gender equality, and inclusion. Ensuring a transition, particularly a low-carbon transition, while addressing inclusion in the Global South is particularly challenging.

The necessary transformations towards a low-carbon economy are knowledge intensive. Accordingly, this project will develop an actionable research agenda that identifies knowledge gaps and research needs to create enabling policy environments, to mobilize new climate investments, and to transform key sectors such as energy, infrastructure, and forestry. Gender equality, women’s economic empowerment, human capital, and institutions are cross-cutting themes.

This agenda will be developed through review of policy documents and literature on policy instruments as well as analyses of key sectors and emission markets. Gender analysis will be integrated throughout and capacity development needs, as well as investment models, will be considered. Outputs will include an overarching research agenda to support an inclusive low-carbon transition, supplemented with more detailed thematic reports. These documents will support the mobilization of policymakers, researchers, and donors to implement research in support of a low-carbon transition that works for both women and men.