There’s a world of women who admire and love what we do at 1 Million Women. In recent months this world has literally reached out to us, first including us in the invitation-only International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit in New York in September 2013, and now the United Nations celebrating 1 Million Women at its annual climate summit in November. This is recognition of how incredibly important it is that women like us - women who live privileged lives by global standards, women of the wealthy world - take practical action on dangerous climate change in our own lives. How important it is that we act through the way we live, through the choices we make and through how we spend our money. It is always welcome that those of us who have more help those with much less. Our charity to the poor, the oppressed and the environmentally challenged is always a good thing. But is not enough. It is not sufficient to give to good causes and then get on with our own privileged lives without changing how we live, cutting the waste and pollution that we cause, and actually living better and more fulfilling lives while we go about it. It is extremely rare for UN agencies to showcase developed world initiatives such as 1 Million Women, given their understandable focus on the struggles of peoples in developing world countries, including women and children, to rise about grinding poverty and to meet new challenges like climate change. This is how the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has presented the rationale for 1 Million Women: ‘Australia is a developed country with a high per-capita carbon pollution rate. In Australia, like many well-off nations, everyday lifestyles can be wasteful and polluting. This overconsumption harms the planet, the climate and future generations. Women make most of the household spending decisions, which means women have enormous economic power to make a difference and save money. If one million women were to make better choices, it can lead to real change.’ It is the economic power of women , alongside our citizen power, which is shaping the future for 1 Million Women and our growing community of daughters, mothers, sisters and grandmothers who are determined to get on with action on climate change. Women are over half of the population, and almost half of the workforce. We make about 85% of the spending decisions that affect our household’s carbon footprints. We are powerful natural networkers and we have enormous influence in the consumer market place. We need to use this power to make a difference – in the key areas of our lives like the food we consume, the way we travel, how we shop and the energy we use in our homes. And that’s just what 1 Million Women focuses on. We are apolitical, setting ourselves above the politics of the day in Australia and any other country, focusing instead on the difference that individuals can make in their own lives, and the collective impact of many women acting. In terms of the solution we represent, the UN says this: ‘So far 83,000 women have joined the 1 Million Women campaign, and together they have committed to cut more than 100,000 tons of carbon pollution. Since 2009, 1 Million Women has grown to become Australia’s largest women’s environmental organization. When the campaign reaches its ultimate target of one million women members and cutting more than one million tonnes of carbon, it will be equivalent to taking 240,000 cars off the road for a year. The campaign can be replicated in different countries – refined, modified and shaped in a way that makes it relevant to different cultures and communities – to foster women’s leadership on climate change.’ In September, I was the sole Australian delegate at the inaugural International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit , held in New York, which brought together 100 leading women drawn from 35 countries across the developed and developing worlds. This event, to draft a women’s agenda for global climate action, was underwritten by a man, the US billionaire businessman and philanthropist Ted Turner, and indeed it is not only women who see the crucial need to elevate women at every level if the world is to solve the climate crisis. At the New York summit , 1 Million Women became a founding signatory of the International Women’s Earth and Climate Initiative Declaration Statement, which makes a comprehensive call for decisive action on addressing climate change to protect today’s and future generations, including a price on carbon and 100% renewable energy. Everyone, women and men, can sign on to this Declaration and I urge you to do so here http://www.iweci.org/declaration Under its gender and climate change commitment, the UN says, ‘It is increasingly evident that women are at the centre of the climate change challenge. Women are disproportionately affected by climate change impacts, such as droughts, floods and other extreme weather events, but they also have a critical role in combatting climate change.’ As 1 Million Women, we are concerned that women do not have an adequate say in climate policy development in Australia, much less an equal one. It is vital that this be addressed and remedied, to bring to bear the benefits of gender balance, as a key aspect of constructive diversity, on such a vital matter for today’s and future generations. It is well documented that women think differently to men about environmental matters in general and climate change specifically, and that they are more likely than men to be strongly concerned about the well-being of future generations. Keep up with 1 Million Women on the blog, on Twitter and Facebook to get all the action for this exciting event! Save the date for an exciting announcement! Join Christiana Figueres for a live Twitter chat on 6 November at 16:00 (CET) to coincide with the launch of the 2013 Lighthouse Activities. Christiana will be joined by activity representatives who will speak about how their innovative and inspiring projects are creating real change on the ground. Follow the hashtag #M4C (which stands for “Momentum for Change”) to keep track of the conversation and use the same hashtag in your posts if you would like to join the conversation. If you want to ask Christiana Figueres a question, send it to @CFigueres on 6 November. Join in here: http://unfccc.int/home/items/7921.php We hope you're as excited as we are!
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