Launch of “Progress of the World’s Women 2026” at COP31

– As global leaders gather in Antalya, Türkiye, for the thirty-first UN Climate Change Conference (COP31), UN Women warns that the climate crisis is deepening gender inequality.

On 10 November, UN Women is launching its flagship report, Progress of the World’s Women 2026: Gender Equality in the Age of Climate Crisis, which examines who is driving the climate crisis, who bears its costs, and what it will take to build a transition that is both green and fair.

The report makes it clear that climate change has been driven by the world’s wealthiest – a group that is overwhelmingly male – yet its harshest consequences fall on women and girls, particularly those living in poverty, who have done the least to cause it. Droughts are putting women and girls at greater risk of violence and child marriage, rising temperatures are making pregnancy more dangerous, and water scarcity and extreme weather are adding hours to women’s unpaid care work.

The report traces how the crisis is reshaping women’s safety, health, work, and livelihoods, and assesses how far governments’ climate plans go in responding. It documents the power of women environmental defenders, Indigenous leaders, and feminist movements, and sets out a roadmap for feminist climate justice built on fair responsibility, adequate finance, and investment in care and equality.

The urgency is clear. Women remain locked out of the rooms where climate decisions are made and most national climate plans fall short of addressing the risks they face. With just transitions a key focus of negotiations in Antalya, UN Women is calling on world leaders to put women and girls at the centre of the transition away from fossil fuels: to ensure that the biggest emitters pay their fair share, that climate finance reaches the communities most affected, and that women have the rights, resources, and power to lead the solutions.