COP19: Lakshmi Puri on the empowerment of women

COP19: Lakshmi Puri on the empowerment of women

COP19 (20/11/13) – Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, says women have a special role to play in mitigating climate change.

Not only are women disproportionally affected by climate change, especially in developing countries and poorer communities, but they are also involved with rebuilding their communities, but Puri sais, they are never involved in the decision making process.

However, she is confident that a solution is imminent because gender was not an issue before 2010, and now policies have become gender balanced.

Puri says the only obstacle in implementing a gender-balanced solution is not money or time, but more so legislation needs political will.