Chairperson, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is a great pleasure for me to address this meeting on Climate Change and Gender. I would like to thank the FAO and the IFAD for providing us with this platform. The subject is appropriately chosen to commemorate the International Women´s Day this year. Needless to say, gender issues and climate change have long ago ceased to be fringe issues. Now, they are at the centre of the global discussion, and intertwined as such. Climate change has emerged as one of the most complicated challenges facing the global community. It´s effect on gender equality and women’s empowerment could be profound, and could in many areas of the world diminish considerably the progress we have made sofar in securing gender equality.

It is appropriate to discuss these issues here in Rome, the home of the three UN agencies (FAO, WFP and IFAD), charged with the mammoth task of promoting the world´s food security, providing emergency food assistance and furthering agricultural development. The international development community draws on the expertise of these agencies and their staff in the struggle to achieve the Millenium Development Goals.

I am happy to see so many young people of various nationalities here today. Your presence underlines the fact that we are dealing with issues that will effect next generations and determine the future living conditions of humankind. These issues are global and will not be dealt with properly without an active engagement by all, especially the young, who are the politicians, experts and opinion makers of the future.

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Inevitably, we will all be affected by climate change in some way or another, but the largest changes occur in vulnerable areas. Possible effects of climate change, such as growing temperature, deforestation, floods and desertification, are closely linked to rural development and poverty eradication. Unless appropriately addressed, climate change will undermine what has been achieved through development efforts.

In the North, where I come from, we are alarmed by the warming of the Arctic Region. Small and poor indigenous communities are faced with changes affecting their livelihood and social structure. Temperature changes in the oceans may affect the fish stocks many coastal communities depend on for their survival.

This also applies to the more populous South, but on a much larger scale. In vulnerable areas in Africa, Asia and Latin America climate change could affect the existence of millions, especially in rural agricultural areas and coastal areas. Such prospects are especially alarming since agriculture is now increasingly recognised as a crucial element in addressing poverty and food security. All changes in agricultural production have considerable effect on the situation of women, given their crucial role in food production in many areas. The poor will be most affected by climate change and a large majority of the world’s poor are women.

The international community is increasingly aware of the gender aspect of climate change, as demonstrated by the discussion in the 52^nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York last month. I myself have a first hand knowledge of the precarious conditions of women in many developing countries, from my work with the Red Cross and the Red Crescent in Africa and Asia ten years ago. Climate changes could make the up-hill struggle for equal rights of men and women much more difficult.

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Problems caused by climate change can only be dealt with globally, not only by Governments, but also by the private sector and the individual consumer. The international community needs to commit itself to deal with global warming armed with knowledge and a vision. That is the challenge of this century. This the international community recognised in the Bali Action Plan, resulting from the UN Conference on Climate Change last December, in which I had the opportunity to participate. We welcomed the joint statement of the three Rome-based agencies, delivered by the FAO Director General. The Rome-based agencies should be lauded for bringing the world´s attention to the situation of rural women in the context of climate change. We also appreciate that the FAO has taken a lead in exploring how climate change affects socio-economic conditions of men and women in poor rural areas differently. The findings of such studies should be taken into account in development cooperation projects and emergency relief. We should be encouraged to integrate gender issues better into the work of all United Nations agencies and international financial institutions (IFIs), as well as the national development agencies. It is not enough to have a good policy in place, we need to secure the implementation.

Iceland and the Nordic countries have a strong commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of women. In our interventions here in Rome we have advocated gender mainstreaming and the integration of gender issues in all phases of development cooperation. Generally the UN organisations have good policies for addressing inequalities and strengthening the capacity of rural women, but they need to be better applied in practise. The standards and tools are there, but their application appears uneven. Lessons learned need to be fed into new project designs, and there should be accountability to ensure that the gender dimension does not disappear on the way from a project design to implementation.

A huge responsibility lies with Governments. They can take measures to curb the negative aspects of climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by various means, such as by legislation, tax policies and procurement policies. While most developed countries have made determined efforts to curb greenhouse gasses, we are in the next decades faced with the climatic consequences of an unprecedented industrialisation and new demand for energy in emerging economies like India and China. We need to reach an international consensus on how to address this. All states have a responsibility in this respect, both the developed countries and the developing world.

We will not be able to curb the emission of greenhouse gasses, unless we change drastically our use of energy resources, especially with regard to the production of electricity. In this respect we need actively to develop alternative and renewable energy sources, such as geothermal energy, hydro-electric energy and hydrogen energy. Many developing countries have untapped possibilities in developing renewable energy, such as geothermal energy. Making renewable energy available to the rural poor in the Least Developed Countries, will not only contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also free labour and enhance the quality of life. Time spent gathering fuels or water could be spent in generating additional income or acquiring an education. If the Millennium Development Goals are to be reached, renewable energy must be a factor in the equation. Iceland can in many cases offer the expertise and support necessary. We need to put renewable energy on the map.

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The Government of Iceland has made development cooperation and human rights, including gender equality, a central theme in it´s foreign policy. We need to strengthen capacity-building, efforts to diversify the economy of the developing countries and take the interests of the developing world into account in negotiations on world trade issues. Our work should not mean less development. We must, however, forge a partnership for better development. In this context, Iceland plans to direct more efforts into combating climate change, in particular through transfer of climate-friendly technology and support for adaptation.

We need to strengthen the role of women in the decision-making process on sustainable development, including climate change. Women need to have an equal access to training, credit and skills-development programmes to ensure their full participation in climate change initiatives. The Icelandic authorities are now planning to establish an International Research Centre on Gender Equality and Gender Equality Training Programme at the University of Iceland. My meetings with representatives from the gender divisions of the three Rome-based agencies today have encouraged me in this endeavour, and I have high hopes that our combined efforts will benefit gender equality in the context of development cooperation.

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Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I hope that our discussion here today will be a valuable contribution to the preparations for the High-Level Conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy, to be held at the FAO next June. Putting gender issues squarely on the global agenda of climate change will greatly contribute to the outcome of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next year.