The 325th ‘Global Women’s Leadership Summit’ took place this week in Geneva, Switzerland with women leaders across the globe addressing current issues from climate change to women’s rights and freedoms. 56 The three-day conference with more than 500 participants from over 120 countries focused to contain such problems: For these challenges to be dealt with adequately, the following approaches were sought to be derived during the three–day conferences.

In the PATH workshop titled ‘Gender and Climate Change: Understanding the Intersectionality,’ Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was forced to paddle back some of her earlier arguments where she had noted that climate change especially affected women and girls in the developing world.

”I would like to remind you that women are the worst affected by climate change and yet many of them are not included in decision-making processes when it comes to climate policy,” Thunberg noted. It was therefore important that women are involved and that gender perspectives are taken into all climate plans.

The elements of the meetings included the panels and the workshops facilitated at the summit and these included sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, disaster risk reduction as well as climate finance. Members discussed new technologies and different approaches from the participants’ countries and organisations – the importance of women’s leadership in sustainable development of climate change.

The creation of the women climate leaders group was one of the major achievements of the summit since it seeks to bring together women from different countries who are fighting for change in climate change policies. It will create a social networking environment through which women will be able to share ideas, information, and opinion in order to be heard in international climate negotiations.

At the conference, the Women’s Climate Justice Initiative, which will financially and otherwise assist grassroots women’s groups developing climate adaptation and mitigation projects in affective communities, was inaugurated. It is a means of funding and supporting CBOs directly, and this would mean strengthening women’s voices and ideas concerning the climate in their communities.

The UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said: “This gathering has shown the importance of women’s leadership in the resolution of the most prevalent problems affecting the world today. Exploring various possibilities through the powerful synergy of women heads of state, we can come up with a more sustainable, modern solution to the climate change very soon.

At the end of the summit they adopted the final communiqué insisting on parity of women in climate change organs at all levels,Women boost funding for gender-comprehensive climate action,Gender mainstreaming in all climate related frameworks and programs.

The GWLS7 has created a platform that has urged heightened focus and commitment to Climate Change and Gender Equality; the participants are leaving the beautiful City of Geneva informed and ready to change the world in their various spheres of influence.