Narrow The Gender Gap For More-Effective Climate Action

Action against climate change has been dominated by men. Group photos at the United Nations’ past COP events show rows of men, while even COP26 featured just a handful of female delegation leaders. As the former President of Ireland Mary Robinson once said, “When it is a male world, you have male priorities.”

Well, the Oliver Wyman Forum decided to find out how to bring women off the sidelines. A report we published in November outlined three areas where greater focus on women could advance the net-zero transition. Firstly, more women should be in leadership positions. Secondly, women should be prioritized as investors. And thirdly, women can act as influencers for the spread of low-carbon products.

To go a step further, we convened a group of business leaders for a panel discussion at COP26. One learning from this – as from a previous roundtable discussion we convened – was that the more people start to think about climate and gender together, the more they see the value in approaching climate action with a gender lens. Another was that widening the perspective on climate transition to include diverse groups is likely to generate more ideas for action.

Here are five points that came out of the discussion.

1 Climate action is for teams.

No one group or organization – in government, civil society, or the private sector – has the answer to how to combat climate change. Solutions will be science based. But they will need to be translated into political decisions, which implies negotiations and widespread agreement. That means diverse groups of people – from businesses to faith-based leaders – will have to come together. “It is a team sport,” said Lena Wilson, Non-Executive Director at NatWest.

2 Women should be in critical, decision-making roles.

Numerous studies show that greater diversity in organizations (including more women in leading roles) boosts creativity and reduces group think – exactly what is needed to reach net zero. Many companies now realize women’s potential to contribute, and 54% of chief sustainability officers in the United States were women in 2021, almost double the level a decade previously.

However, women are not sufficiently present in other leadership positions: They make up just 6% of CEOs at S&P 500 companies. To boost their representation, at least one of the senior board positions (chair, CEO, CFO or senior independent director) should be a woman. So should a chair of one of the big committees, such as audit, risk, or remuneration. “Climate action and greater female representation in companies are both versions of the fight against the status quo,” said Fiona Howarth, CEO of Octopus Electric Vehicles.

3 The private sector is finally showing up.

The business world needs to do far more to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, but there was at least some good news this year: After decades of absence from COP meetings, this time the private sector turned up. Witness, for example GFANZ, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, a group of 450 banks and insurers that have committed $130 trillion to tackle climate change.

The role of business is far clearer now to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Steve Varley, EY Global Vice Chair for Sustainability referred to a “Conference of Business,” or COB, to run in parallel to COP (the Conference of the Parties). COP26 might not do all that is needed to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels. “But business can play a big role in closing that gap,” he said. “I think there’s more that we can do.”

4 Business needs to engage activists.

Climate meetings never unite everyone, and COP26 in Glasgow was no exception. As well as delegates from international governments and businesses, it also attracted demonstrators, while other events took place around the world. Largely, the protestors thought the actions proposed do not go far enough, and that they are not being listened to by decision makers.

The private sector must not ignore or dismiss people who are angry and frustrated by the pace of change. Instead it needs to think of better ways to engage them, in order to address their concerns and benefit from their ideas. Speaking after the panel, Ann Cairns, Global chair of 30% Club and Executive Vice Chair of Mastercard, said: “We’re going to have to figure out how to listen more and work together better.”

5 Diverse cultures and social groups are a source of creative thinking on sustainability.

Much of the talk about corporations’ climate responsibility has centered on Europe and North America. However, other cultures might have lessons for the West. Fifty years ago, Milton Friedman famously wrote that the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. But in some parts of Asia, they would say, “The business of business is wider than business. They talk about natural capital in their definitions of values.”

Thinking about diversity in wider contexts could suggest new paths for climate action. It might also lead us to consider more deeply questions such as how far we can go in our efforts – and what is stopping us from going further.