A new standard aims to carve out a space in the voluntary carbon
market for projects that empower women by getting them involved in
carbon offset and renewable energy project development. The standard
puts women in control of the income generated from the credits giving
them the opportunity to invest in several poverty alleviating
initiatives such as education and health care.
18 April 2013 | In an effort to empower women in developing
countries, one organization is adding another standard to the carbon mix
that aims to use the revenue from carbon credits to improve their
livelihoods.
Jeannette Gurung, a forester and gender equality expert, founded Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN)
in 2004 after coming to the conclusion that she and other women in the
field who wanted to develop useful programs for poor, rural women were
being constrained by their own institutions. WOCAN targets and works
with institutions to change the attitudes and behavior emanating from
gender bias in the agriculture and natural resource management sectors.
“In a nutshell, the story of my career has been being a woman trying to
integrate gender equality issues and women’s empowerment activities
within a sector that doesn’t really care a lot about that,” she said.
“It’s been about 30 years of struggle.”
WOCAN’s latest effort, publicized this week at the Navigating the
American Carbon World conference in San Francisco, is to create a
women’s empowerment carbon standard. The new social standard would
certify the benefits of increasing women’s participation in carbon
offset and renewable energy project development and endorse projects
that create increased direct or indirect economic benefits for women.
“Carbon is a great foundation to start from,” said Margaret Bruce, a
consultant for WOCAN. “It’s a well-established market with
well-established methodologies. But it’s certainly not limited to
carbon.”
The idea driving the new standard is to use the voluntary carbon market
to provide social and economic benefits to empower rural women through
climate change and adaptation activities.
“I came to understand that climate change mitigation is an area that’s
considered a no-go for women,” Gurung said. “Whatever little discussion
there is around gender and climate change is limited to adaptation
aspects. I think that’s because of the perception of women as
vulnerable, as victims, as charity cases that need help. In my world,
nothing could be farther from the truth. Mitigation is associated with
technology and business and entrepreneurship and none of those terms are
what people associate with poor, rural women. There’s the disconnect.”
The certification will examine six core elements: assets and income –
allowing women to be empowered by controlling their own assets — health,
food security, time and leadership. The project does not have to meet
the standard’s requirements on all of the elements, but must receive a
score of 51 points or higher to receive WOCAN’s stamp of approval.
The women will be empowered because they are the rightful owners of
these carbon credits and can use the revenues as they see fit, perhaps
for literacy or health care programs, Gurung said.
The effort has received the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB),
which has financed pilot projects in Cambodia (biogas digesters), Laos
(improved cookstoves) and Vietnam (waste management). “They were
reluctant,” she said. “They think this is a risky thing. But they
decided to take it on and put a few million dollars behind it.”
The ADB-financed effort, called Harnessing Climate Change Mitigation
Initiatives to Benefit Women, aims to facilitate a more secure
livelihood for women by using modern technology to reduce the amount of
time women are spending on obtaining fuel wood and giving them access to
cleaner energy sources and safer environmental conditions.
“Why we find this so exciting is we really find it transformational for
women,” Gurung said. “No longer do they have to go to the forest to
cut, which is a difficult, physically demanding job. They don’t have to
stand in a dirty-smoke filled kitchen.”
WOCAN’s leaders are not concerned about the possibility for “standard
fatigue,” despite the numerous standards that already exist for
emissions reduction projects through existing organizations such as the
Gold Standard and the Verified Carbon Standard.
“The market will bear what the market will bear,” Bruce said. “The market will show how well this will be received.”
In contrast, Gurung has been told that the organization will never have
enough projects to satisfy demand from potential investors for a popular
product that will combine green investments with benefits for women.
“That’s something encouraging,” she said.
