Blog Day 3 – which may be slightly harder to write after a night out in Finnieston – or then again that might make it easier…
Today I am getting a bit more used to COP26 and what it’s all about, and finding my way around much more easily. I got in early enough this morning to join the Women and Gender Constituency group who have a daily catch up at 9am every morning, where they hand out coloured masks to match the day’s theme, and today it was yellow. It felt good to be part of a bigger movement working towards gender equality.
One of the really interesting events I attended this morning was in the Benelux pavilion where they had invited government ministers to respond to an excellent report on the (lack of) gender integration in the Belgian policies and in particular their National Energy and Climate Plan. It was really interesting to hear the responses from the Government representatives who basically talked a good talk, but in terms of policies to address the clear need for the integration of the gender perspective, the level of ambition in their policies was somewhat inadequate. They were basically being challenged, through this public engagement, to do more. In the short term, they were invited to sign up to the Joint statement published by the Scottish Government and UN Women at COP26 calling for the role of women and girls to be advanced in addressing climate change. The longer goal of the Benelux team, however, was to get engagement from their ministers for next year’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) where work towards achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes takes centre stage. I wish them luck, and look forward to seeing whether this strategy has been successful.
Another useful network group I came across today was the Global Alliance for Building and Construction – a group I had not come across before, but which were established at COP21 in Paris to represent the international building and construction industry. This group were really the closest organisation I have come across so far to the building and engineering sector, who seem to be somewhat unrepresented here in the blue zone at COP26. The other sector that seems to be missing here is the materials sector, who surely play a massive part in climate change mitigation, but who don’t seem to be represented here at all – or not that I have seen so far. Maybe I just haven’t come across them yet, but I will keep looking.
At lunchtime today I met up, for the first time in person, with my colleagues from Womenvai – a group of International women engineers who have been super supportive of one another here at COP26, sharing intel, helping with accommodation let-downs, and generally supporting one another with anything and everything. It is great to have such a support group to turn to.
And then this evening I had an excellent night out with 2 other female colleagues from Engineers Without Borders, so thank you Emma and Lottie for the invitation to join you.
Anyway, it’s a very early start tomorrow, so that’s it for now.
Today I am getting a bit more used to COP26 and what it’s all about, and finding my way around much more easily. I got in early enough this morning to join the Women and Gender Constituency group who have a daily catch up at 9am every morning, where they hand out coloured masks to match the day’s theme, and today it was yellow. It felt good to be part of a bigger movement working towards gender equality.
One of the really interesting events I attended this morning was in the Benelux pavilion where they had invited government ministers to respond to an excellent report on the (lack of) gender integration in the Belgian policies and in particular their National Energy and Climate Plan. It was really interesting to hear the responses from the Government representatives who basically talked a good talk, but in terms of policies to address the clear need for the integration of the gender perspective, the level of ambition in their policies was somewhat inadequate. They were basically being challenged, through this public engagement, to do more. In the short term, they were invited to sign up to the Joint statement published by the Scottish Government and UN Women at COP26 calling for the role of women and girls to be advanced in addressing climate change. The longer goal of the Benelux team, however, was to get engagement from their ministers for next year’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) where work towards achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes takes centre stage. I wish them luck, and look forward to seeing whether this strategy has been successful.
Another useful network group I came across today was the Global Alliance for Building and Construction – a group I had not come across before, but which were established at COP21 in Paris to represent the international building and construction industry. This group were really the closest organisation I have come across so far to the building and engineering sector, who seem to be somewhat unrepresented here in the blue zone at COP26. The other sector that seems to be missing here is the materials sector, who surely play a massive part in climate change mitigation, but who don’t seem to be represented here at all – or not that I have seen so far. Maybe I just haven’t come across them yet, but I will keep looking.
At lunchtime today I met up, for the first time in person, with my colleagues from Womenvai – a group of International women engineers who have been super supportive of one another here at COP26, sharing intel, helping with accommodation let-downs, and generally supporting one another with anything and everything. It is great to have such a support group to turn to.
And then this evening I had an excellent night out with 2 other female colleagues from Engineers Without Borders, so thank you Emma and Lottie for the invitation to join you.
Anyway, it’s a very early start tomorrow, so that’s it for now.