Climate diplomacy, just transitions, and gender mainstreaming: India’s experiences

The disproportionate effects of climate change on women as well as the underrepresentation of women in climate change-related decision-making processes are gradually being recognized as a form of climate injustice that requires to be addressed urgently. The introduction of the Gender Action Plan under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2016 has led to greater acknowledgment of the need for ‘gender mainstreaming’ and resulted in nation-states adopting roadmaps to integrate gender into their respective climate actions, including just transitions. India also endorsed the action plan - highlighting a series of initiatives that the government has implemented (or is in the process of implementing) that are aimed at making climate policies, including energy transition, more gender-responsive. Yet there has been little effort to integrate gender into climate diplomacy practices worldwide, with far-reaching implications for just transitions processes. Without addressing the role of gender in the implementation of the Paris Agreement and gendered implications of energy transition, climate diplomacy will fall short on achieving its goals linked with international cooperation. In this context, the chapter aims to analyze the evolution of gender in global climate diplomacy, especially with a focus on the intergovernmental processes such as the UNFCCC and their implications for the just transitions’ discourses and practices in countries such as India. It uses the intersections between the conceptual frameworks of ‘climate justice’ and ‘gender justice’ through an ‘intersectional’ lens to decipher and problematize the discourses and practices of ‘gender mainstreaming’ (with women as an analytical category) in climate diplomacy. Most importantly, the chapter conducts an in-depth examination of India’s climate diplomacy - building on its national/global policies on climate change (as climate diplomacy is essentially an interface between national priorities and international cooperation) - and unpacking the role of gender in it, focusing primarily on energy transition. This is also critical considering India’s growing clout in global climate governance as well as the proposed just energy transition partnership(s) between India, G7 members and other interested bilateral and multilateral development partners.