Climate Change Takes Centre Stage at P20 Women’s Meeting

The disproportionate impact of climate change on women dominated discussions at the opening of the second P20 Meeting of Women Parliamentarians yesterday.

The Meeting of Women Parliamentarians is held under the theme “Women’s Leadership in Climate and Energy Justice.” The meeting is currently underway at the Arabella Hotel in Kleinmond, Western Cape, ahead of the 11th Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit (P20), scheduled for 1-3 October 2025.

The Chairperson of the Select Committee on Security and Justice, Ms Jane Mananiso, in her address, described climate change as one of the greatest social, economic, ecological, and environmental challenges of our time. “[Climate change] is also an incontrovertible challenge to human rights, not least because it severely impacts global public goods such as water and land, while placing those that have not caused the crisis at the frontline,” she said.

Ms Mananiso reminded delegates that although everyone feels the impact of climate change, underlying inequalities and varying coping abilities make some populations more vulnerable. “Women,” she said, “are at a greater risk due to a variety of factors, including being over-represented among the poor, highly dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods and often excluded from decision-making processes,” she said. Ms Mananiso urged G20 member states to adopt a gender-sensitive approach when addressing the adverse effects of climate change and to incorporate disaster risk management strategies to protect women better.

The Chairperson told delegates that the South African Parliament is overseeing climate change adaptation and gender mainstreaming initiatives, which aim to incorporate gendered considerations into adaptation plans and include women as decision-makers in climate change processes. She appealed to the G20 Member States to follow suit by advocating for gender mainstreaming in all climate change responses. “These actions must be integrated into spatial planning, and there needs to be improved data availability for monitoring and evaluating interventions. This will allow for the establishment and growth of an inclusive climate response,” she said. “The path towards a sustainable future, free from the effects of climate change, hinges on our collective ability to address its disproportionate impact on women.”

Delivering a keynote address, Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Ms Sindisiwe Chikunga, also reflected on the role women play in climate change. She said women have long stood at the frontlines of climate resilience and adaptation across Africa and the world.

Ms Chikunga told delegates that climate change is no longer some distant threat but an immediate lived reality. She reminded delegates of the devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, the documented impact of extreme heat on pregnant women, and beyond the country’s borders, the cyclones in Mozambique and the droughts in the Horn of Africa. These weather events, she said, are all wake-up calls as they continue to expose women to disproportionate risks of displacement, violence and impoverishment during crises.

The Minister emphasised that South Africa’s chairmanship of the Empowerment of Women Working Group has elevated three key priorities: the care economy, which recognises and addresses the value of unpaid care and domestic work; the promotion of financial inclusion, to ensure equitable access to resources for women; and addressing gender-based violence and femicide. “These three priorities are not exclusive. They are mutually reinforcing. The care economy, for instance, is foundational to the future of global well-being. As long as those at the bottom of the economic ladder, predominantly women, remain on the margins of under-compensated economic activities, inclusive economic growth and financial inclusion, which is the second priority, will remain elusive,” she said.

Ms Chikunga expressed the hope that the P20 Meeting would serve as a rallying call to position African women not as projected beneficiaries of climate and energy policies drafted elsewhere, but as architects of transformative change in these sectors. The Minister also told delegates that it is parliamentarians “who can ensure that energy and climate policies allocate resources fairly, that extractive industries are held accountable and that financing frameworks reach women at the margins”.

Malentsoe Magwagwa

30 September 2025