As we set out on 2025, we look at the journey ahead for gender equity in biodiversity & climate finance. When women are excluded from financial decision-making, we're not just perpetuating inequality; we're compromising our collective ability to address one of humanity's greatest challenges.
As we navigate through 2025 - the critical mid-point in what will be the defining decade for climate and biodiversity action – it is important to take stock of where we are on critical enablers and catalysts of progress.
One front of mind, as we approach International Women’s Day, is the journey toward gender equity in finance and climate —and more importantly, how much further we need to go. The intersection of these two fields presents both unique challenges and unprecedented opportunities for meaningful change this year.
The numbers still tell a sobering story. Women remain significantly underrepresented in financial leadership positions, holding only 19% of C-suite roles in banking and financial services institutions worldwide in 2023. In the energy space specifically, women occupied about 22% and 24% of the board seats of energy companies and utility companies, respectively, globally in 2023.
Nationally it is not much better. Women currently hold less than 15% of environment minister positions globally and in 2020, only 4 out of 37 OECD Member countries had women heading their government’s finance portfolio (less than 11%). As such, national agenda setting, finance and budget allocation, as well as land-use prioritisation, still remain largely in the hands of men. At the policy level, despite a decade of efforts aimed at improving gender balance, women continue to represent less than half of country-negotiating teams under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (36% at COP29 last year), and only 5 women have been the President of the conference since they started in 1995. While participation fluctuates each year, achieving gender parity is not expected until 2043. We can’t wait that long.
Behind these numbers are structural barriers, unconscious biases, and outdated systems that continue to limit women's full participation in shaping our financial and climate future. Most concerning is that women-led climate initiatives receive less than 0.2% of global climate finance, while Indigenous women, custodians of a large portion of the world's remaining biodiversity, receive even less than that and remain marginalized in decision-making processes.Why
As global economies continue transitioning toward sustainability, we're witnessing unprecedented capital flows into climate and biodiversity solutions. The International Energy Agency estimates that investment in clean energy will exceed $2 trillion in 2025 alone. At the resumed COP16 discussions for the Convention on Biological Diversity, the world agreed to mobilise at least $200bn per year by 2030 to help developing countries conserve biodiversity and to establish a permanent arrangement for providing biodiversity finance to where it’s needed most. This represents not just an environmental imperative but a tremendous economic opportunity.
However, who gets to participate in and benefit from this transition matters profoundly. Research consistently shows that diverse teams make better decisions, especially in complex environments facing uncertain futures—precisely the scenario we face with climate change.
When women are excluded from financial decision-making around climate investments, we're not just perpetuating inequality; we're compromising our collective ability to address one of humanity's greatest challenges effectively.
Women smallholder farmers—when able to access the same resources such as time, financing, land tenure, and extension support as men—can boost agricultural yields by 20 to 30 percent, leading to a 2.5 to 5 percent increase in total agricultural output.
This year makes the 30th anniversary of COP1 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1995, as well as the halfway point of the critical decade in biodiversity and climate action. This year also marks a critical point for gender under the UNFCCC as Parties embark on the development of a new gender action plan, beginning work in June 2025, with a view to recommend a decision for consideration and adoption at COP 30, in Brazil in November 2025.
This includes mandating project standards for carbon and market-based projects that are developed with, not just for, women (such as the W+ Standard), encouraging blended finance approaches that combine public and private funds to de-risk investments in women-led climate initiatives, and embedding gender equality metrics at the core of private finance through standardized reporting frameworks.
Financial institutions can and should collaborate with women-led community organizations to design products that truly meet local needs. This isn't just about providing access to finance; it's about transforming who gets to define how finance works.
The Nature’s Leading Women initiative is one example of an initiative working to provide women with the connection, influence and access to support they need—financial or otherwise—as identified by the women themselves. It is a project we have been fortunate to support through our research. To learn more about the initiative and our Centre's involvement, see here.
Advancing gender equity through more inclusive, accessible and representative finance will require systematic change and sustained commitment from all stakeholders. For financial institutions, this means establishing clear metrics, transparent reporting, and accountability mechanisms. For policymakers, it means creating enabling environments through regulation that incentivizes inclusive practices. For investors, it means asking tough questions about their portfolios.
We need improved tracking toward gender equity progress. Without proper tracking, we're investing time and money without a clear understanding of the current state of gender equity and the impact of climate interventions on women. This requires implementing standardized data collection across conventions and regular public reporting on progress and challenges. We are already seeing the development of methods to better include social data in environmental economic accounting including the development of social accounts in the ocean accounting space.
Creating inclusive spaces is equally important—whether in conference venues, board rooms, or community meetings. This means attention to physical spaces, institutional practices, and cultural norms that limit women's full and effective participation. We must ensure women's safety, respect, and dignity in all environmental governance forums. It will be important that COP30 is not just a moment to adopt an updated Gender Action Plan, but the COP itself creates a new blueprint for how to host inclusive, equitable and safe spaces.
We each have a responsibility to challenge norms, amplify diverse voices, and create space for others. Co-design approaches that facilitate extensive consultation with women, in all their diversity, help to include their concerns, priorities, and solutions in financial and climate decision-making.
The challenges ahead are significant, but by directing capital toward women-led climate solutions, reimagining governance structures, and creating dedicated and innovative finance mechanisms for women, we can build a financial system that works better for everyone—and more effectively addresses our climate challenges.
The time for incremental change has passed. We need bold action to ensure women's full and effective participation in shaping the financial future of our planet. When women thrive, we will all thrive.
In November 2024, more than 60 women from 12 countries across the Asia Pacific region and Africa gathered in Byron Bay, Australia, for the second Nature’s Leading Women event. This global movement, initiated by The Nature Conservancy, fosters a safe environment for women leaders in conservation to speak up and lead.
Disclaimer: Throughout this article, we use the term "women" to refer to all individuals who identify as women, including cisgender and transgender women. We acknowledge the diversity of gender identities and recognize that gender is not binary. The statistics and research cited in this article primarily use binary gender categories due to limitations in available data collection methodologies. We advocate for more inclusive data collection approaches that better represent all gender identities while remaining committed to addressing the documented inequities faced by women and other marginalized gender identities in climate finance and decision-making.
