The adoption of the Belém Gender Action Plan (GAP) at COP30 in Brazil marks a historic turning point in the global effort to integrate social equity with environmental preservation. As the international community gathered in the heart of the Amazon, the consensus reached on this ambitious nine-year roadmap signals a profound recognition: the climate crisis is not gender-neutral, and its solutions cannot be either. By placing the rights and leadership of women and girls at the absolute center of the climate agenda, the Belém GAP provides a strategic framework designed to deliver tangible, life-altering results for those living on the front lines of ecological collapse.
For years, advocates have argued that climate change acts as a “threat multiplier,” exacerbating existing inequalities. In many parts of the world, women are the primary providers of food, water, and fuel. When droughts parch the land or floods destroy harvests, it is women and girls who must travel further to find resources, often at the risk of their personal safety. Yet, despite being the most impacted, they have historically been excluded from the high-level rooms where climate policy is negotiated. The Belém GAP seeks to dismantle this exclusion, transforming women from perceived victims of climate change into recognized architects of climate resilience.
The newly adopted decision is notable for its breadth and its willingness to tackle complex, interlocking issues. It introduces critical language regarding health, acknowledging that climate-related disasters often disrupt maternal health services and increase the prevalence of waterborne diseases that disproportionately affect women. Furthermore, it takes a hard stance on the protection of women environmental defenders. In recent years, those standing up against illegal logging, mining, and land degradation have faced unprecedented levels of violence and intimidation. By including protection mechanisms for these defenders, the Belém GAP validates their essential role in safeguarding the planet’s biodiversity.
One of the most revolutionary aspects of the plan is its focus on the “care economy” and the concept of a “socially just transition.” Traditionally, climate conversations have focused on transitioning heavy industries and energy sectors to green alternatives. However, the Belém GAP recognizes that a truly green economy must also value the unpaid or underpaid care work that sustains society. It advocates for the creation of decent work and quality jobs for women within the burgeoning green sector, ensuring that as the world moves away from fossil fuels, women are not left behind in low-wage, informal labor.
The Belém GAP is also a landmark for its intersectional approach. It acknowledges that a woman’s experience of the climate crisis is shaped by more than just her gender; it is defined by her race, her physical abilities, and her geography. The document specifically names the unique realities faced by Indigenous women, women with disabilities, those living in rural and remote outposts, and women and girls of African descent. By doing so, it ensures that climate policies are not “one-size-fits-all” but are instead tailored to the specific vulnerabilities and expertise of diverse communities. For Indigenous women, who have been the stewards of the world’s most vital ecosystems for millennia, this recognition is a long-overdue validation of their traditional ecological knowledge.
However, the adoption of a plan is only the first step. For the Belém GAP to succeed over the next nine years, its implementation must be rooted in the firm principles of human rights. This requires more than just political will; it requires “means of implementation”—a term often used in UN negotiations to describe the three pillars of support: finance, technology, and capacity building. Without dedicated funding and the transfer of green technologies to the Global South, the GAP risks remaining a visionary document without the teeth to effect change.
Sarah Hendriks, the Director of the Policy, Programme, and Intergovernmental Division at UN Women, emphasized the organization’s commitment to this mission. She noted that UN Women is prepared to collaborate with all parties and stakeholders to bridge the existing gaps in policy and practice. The goal is to ensure that the Gender Action Plan becomes a functional, everyday tool for inclusive and sustainable climate action. As Hendriks pointed out, the objective is to create a framework that benefits women and girls in all their diversity, ensuring that no one is sidelined as the world navigates the transition to a low-carbon future.
To understand the weight of this achievement, one must look at the structure of the UNFCCC Gender Action Plan. It is organized around five priority areas that serve as the scaffolding for gender-responsive governance. The first area, capacity-building and knowledge management, aims to ensure that climate negotiators and local leaders alike understand the gendered dimensions of their work. The second focuses on gender balance and leadership, pushing for more women to hold seats at the head of the table. The third, coherence, seeks to align gender goals across all areas of the UN’s work, from biodiversity to disaster risk reduction. The fourth and fifth areas focus on the actual implementation of policies and the rigorous monitoring and reporting required to hold nations accountable.
The context of COP30 in Brazil added a layer of symbolic and practical importance to these negotiations. As the host nation, Brazil has been vocal about the need to protect the Amazon and its people. The Belém GAP reflects this spirit of urgency. It recognizes that climate mitigation, adaptation, and finance are not merely technical challenges but are deeply social ones. When climate finance is gender-responsive, for example, it means that grants and loans are accessible to women-led cooperatives and small-scale farmers, rather than just large-scale industrial projects.
UN Women’s involvement extends beyond the halls of the climate COP. The organization works across the “Rio Conventions”—which include the conventions on biodiversity and desertification—to ensure a holistic approach to environmental justice. They operate on the belief that a safer, healthier planet is impossible to achieve without gender equality. By shifting laws, challenging outdated social behaviors, and restructuring institutions, UN Women aims to close the gender gap permanently.
The road ahead is challenging. The next nine years will be the most critical in human history for curbing global temperature rises. The Belém Gender Action Plan provides the map, but the journey requires every nation to integrate these principles into their National Climate Plans (NDCs). It requires a shift in how we value labor, how we protect activists, and how we distribute resources.
As the delegates leave Belém, the message is clear: the era of treating gender equality as an “optional extra” in climate policy is over. The rights of women and girls must be at the center of global progress—always and everywhere. Because, as the mission of UN Women reminds us, gender equality is not just a policy goal; it is a fundamental requirement for a sustainable and just world. The Belém GAP is a promise made to the women and girls on the front lines; the task now is to ensure that promise is kept through every dollar spent and every policy enacted in the coming decade.
This is more than a diplomatic victory; it is a blueprint for survival. In the face of an escalating climate emergency, the Belém Gender Action Plan offers a vision of a world where leadership is inclusive, where the vulnerable are protected, and where the transition to a green future leaves no one behind. It is an invitation to redefine what climate action looks like, ensuring it is as diverse and resilient as the women who are leading the charge.
