On March 13, at the margins of the 70th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, government representatives, UN agencies, national gender machineries, and civil society gathered at the Australian Mission to the United Nations for a high-level convening on advancing implementation of the Belém Gender Action Plan (GAP).
The adoption of the Belém GAP at COP30 established a nine-year framework for integrating gender across climate policy and action within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). But, as every speaker at the Australian Mission made clear, adoption is only the beginning. This convening, co-hosted by the Governments of Australia, Türkiye, Solomon Islands, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Sweden, together with WEDO, the UNFCCC Secretariat, UN Women, and the Women and Gender Constituency, was convened to move from framework to action.
The event demonstrated that, above all, the political will to do so is alive. Remarks from the arc of COP leadership underscored the unity of all Presidencies on sustaining political commitment to the Belém GAP. The event was opened by Ambassador Beth Delaney of Australia and Mrs. Asli Güven, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Turkish Mission to the UN, speaking as COP31 President of Negotiations and President, respectively. Mr. José Gilberto Scandiucci Filho, Minister-Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the UN, reflected on the political and technical work that made the GAP a key outcome of COP30. Ms. Vaela Devesi, Director of the Women's Development Division of Solomon Islands and co-host of the COP31 Pre-COP, brought the Pacific voice into the room, grounding the conversation in the regions where gender-responsive climate action is most urgently needed.
The UNFCCC Gender Secretariat then provided a technical overview of the GAP's architecture: its five priority areas, the 2026–2034 implementation roadmap, and the accountability mechanisms through which countries can begin engaging now. Discussion then turned from structure to practice with participants naming the primary coordination challenge: gender and climate too often sit in different ministries — or in the same ministry, in different departments — with little institutional dialogue and chronically under-resourced gender machineries. Yet, each speaker also pointed to what this GAP makes possible: a decade-long framework that can finally align with NDC cycles, national development plans, and sustained financing, while opening entry points into emerging areas critical to the gender-climate nexus.
As government, funders, and civil society begin the work of translating this framework into a funded, coordinated, and monitored action, this event demonstrated that political will exists across COP Presidencies, governments, and civil society alike, and that the Belém GAP gives us the language, the legitimacy, and the timeline for a gender-transformative decade of climate action.
“Feminists fought hard to make sure the Belém GAP reflects real issues like health, care work, and gender-based violence. These are systemic challenges that national gender ministries understand well, but they’re often missing from climate policy. There’s now an opportunity to use the GAP to bring more coherence to gender-responsive climate action at the national level, especially if countries take a structured approach to mapping impacts and opportunities.”
– Bridget Burns, Executive Director, WEDO
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