DEVELOPMENT SECTOR PROFESSIONALS TAKE PART IN ROUNDTABLE ON GEG LABEL TO DISCUSS MARKET DRIVEN MECHANISM FOR GENDER EQUITABLE DECARBONISATION
Centre for Global Affairs & Public Policy (CGAPP) and the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) announced plans for a “Gender Equitable Green (GEG)” Label on the side-lines of the 52nd UNHRC General Session in Geneva. As nations move forward towards fulfilling Net Zero Commitments, CGAPP & ISC envision the GEG label as a market driven mechanism to incentivise pathways for Gender Equitable decarbonization of businesses. CGAPP submitted the idea before the UNHRC General session on 15 March, 2023, in collaboration with its partner organisation Rajasthan Samgrah Kalyan Sansthan (RSKS). CGAPP and ISC held extensive stakeholder consultations on the label. A roundtable was jointly organised by ISC and CGAPP on 14th March, 2023 with industry leaders & sectoral experts in energy transition and gender equity. The roundtable on “Ensuring Gender Equitable Decarbonisation for Achieving Net Zero Business Operations” was held as a blended seminar with both offline and online participation. The roundtable sought to discuss how to build the GEG Label as a measurable tool enabling businesses to move towards gender equitable decarbonised value chains.
The session, moderated by Ms. Trina Malik, Vice President of Global Programs, ISC, involved discussion on various aspects of the label, including identification of stakeholders, a roadmap for implementation, parameters/standards for the label, compliance issues and how to incentivize the label. Ms. Megha Nath, Program Manager, ISC, gave a presentation on the need for the label and findings of ISC ground surveys from various sectors in India. She pointed out that the gender dimension is missing from the standard formulations of Decarbonisation and achieving Gender Equity can add close to USD 12 Trillion to the world’s economy, particularly through Emerging Markets and Developing countries like India where there is potential to bring more women into the labour market. She also noted that targets for decarbonisation and gender equity are better met when they are attached to a business case, hence the need for a GEG Label as a market-based solution, and spoke of an amalgamated approach to Gender Equity and Decarbonisation that would prevent ingraining existing Gender inequities in decarbonised production processes.
Mr. Simone Cipriani, Founder of the Ethical Fashion Initiative and Chair of the Steering Committee of the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, applauded the idea and highlighted the importance of having standard setting bodies on board. Dr. Surekha Deshmukh, Domain consultant under the Sustainability Practice Team of TCS and member of IEEE Climate Change Group, shared that industries are implementing policies related to certain aspects of gender equity and decarbonisation. She said that the label must be contextualised for various sectors and acknowledge the existing fora and platforms working towards goals of gender equity.
Ms. Flynn Lebus, Managing Director at FSG highlighted the need to prioritise indicators that are at the intersection of Gender Equity and Decarbonisation. Ms. Glory Oguegbu, Founder & CEO of Renewable Energy Technology Training Institute (RETTI), emphasised that participation of businesses is required and issues related to resource constraints that may impede implementation of the label. Dr.. Mervi drew attention to the importance of incorporating industry associations as stakeholders in the discussion. Director, CGAPP Mr. Anindya Sengupta and ISC and CGAPP staff also attended the session.
