COP29 row breaks out with Vatican over gender rights

The Vatican has blocked discussions over women’s rights at the UN climate summit following a row over gay and transgender issues, sources have told BBC News.

Pope Francis’ representatives have aligned with Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, and Egypt to obstruct a deal which would have provided more support, including financial help, for women at the forefront of climate change, Colombia’s environment minister told the BBC.

Charities including ActionAid said it is crucial a deal is reached as the UN estimates women and girls currently make up 80% of those displaced by climate change.

A Vatican spokesperson said the Holy See still hoped consensus could be reached.

Representatives from Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran and Egypt did not respond to requests for comment.

Countries at this year’s COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan were due to update the ten-year old UN action plan to make sure that any work on climate change took account of the experiences of women and channelled more money to them.

For a decade it has been called the Lima Work Programme on Gender.

But the Vatican, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran and Egypt now do not want any reference to “gender” – over concerns it could include transgender women, and want references to gay woman removed, the BBC has been told by charities observing the talks and negotiators from other countries.

This has stalled the whole deal on progressing women’s access to support in the face of climate change, they say.

“It is unacceptable,” Colombia’s environment minister and lead negotiator Susana Muhamad said of the stalling. She was one of the only country representatives willing to speak on the record. The others spoke to the BBC anonymously on the grounds that they were taking part in ongoing negotiations.

“The Latin American countries are working very hard – we will not allow the gender programme to drop and allow human rights to be dropped,” she told BBC News.

The Vatican spokesperson said it was important to pursue an agreed text that recognised the disproportionate impact of climate change on women and girls.

“The Holy See hopes that consensus will be reached, with respect for the sensitivities of each participating State and in a language acceptable to all,” the spokesperson said.

For more than a decade it has been acknowledged by countries globally that women face a disproportionate burden from climate change, often due to their caring roles and interruption of access to reproductive services during climate disasters.

According to UN Women, by 2050 close to 240 million more women and girls will face food insecurity caused by climate change compared to 131 million more men and boys. Whilst at the same time only 0.01% of funding globally goes to climate change projects that also take account of women.

In the new plan African and EU countries wanted to also include a line that not all women’s experiences of climate change are the same – that they can differ depending on their “gender, sex, age and race”.

The Vatican, along with Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt and Iran, said they took issue with the use of the word “gender” which they think could include transgender women, country negotiators told the BBC.

Charities observing this were surprised as over the course of a decade these countries had not taken issue with the use of the word.

“I was shocked when the Vatican raised their flag and opposed the human rights language,” said Sostina Takure, from Christian charity ACT Alliance. “My heart shattered into a million pieces.”

Mwanahamisi Singano, the director of policy for the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, told the BBC the group of countries also opposed the text as “they are very concerned they are code words to allow sexual expression.”

She said she understood this to be an issue with homosexuality.

Ms Singano, who was in the negotiating room, said countries like Iran argued that this was illegal under their laws and therefore they would not allow those groups to be recognised in the text.

Aid charities have said the deadlock has put the whole deal over support for women in jeopardy with just three days to go before the conference ends.

“I think if things continue the way they are it is not looking good for women’s rights in the negotiations,” said Zahra Hdidou, senior climate adviser at ActionAid.

When asked why the Vatican and others were making the intervention now, after nearly a decade, one country negotiator told the BBC: “It is part of a broader global backlash against women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights.”

Pope Francis has allowed priests to bless same-sex couples under certain circumstances and last year he said transgender people could be baptised in the Catholic Church as long as doing so did not cause scandal or “confusion”.

But the Vatican said it continued to view marriage as between a man and a woman, and in April it said it remained staunchly opposed to sex changes, gender theory and surrogate parenthood in a text dubbed “Dignitas Infinita” (Infinite Dignity).

The current UN programme on gender and climate is due to expire at the end of this year, meaning that if nothing is agreed at COP29 there will be no specific global plan for supporting women facing climate change.

But Ms Hdidou told the BBC part of the problem was the scant representation of women at the talks. Last year only 36% of those negotiating at the conference were women, according to the UN.

“Our voices are often shut out of the COP29 negotiating rooms. Which means we will get outcomes that don’t reflect the lived realities of women in climate-hit areas,” she said.

At the start of the conference the EU published a letter – now supported by 17 countries – which says “our ability to address the climate crisis hinges upon our commitment to the empowerment of women and girls, in all their diversity.”