In response to today's announcement by the UK Government at Gender Day at COP26, Laura Kyrke-Smith, UK Executive Director for the International Rescue Committee, said:

“The UK has made a welcome financial commitment to address gender inequality in the climate crisis. The emphasis on women’s leadership and empowering grassroots is especially important, as they understand the most about their local contexts.

Women and girls are set to suffer the most from climate change. The climate crisis will only deepen the effects of discrimination they already suffer in the home, schools, the workplace, and wider society. As climate change prolongs humanitarian crises, there is a real risk that violence against women and girls will increase. 

This must not be the limit of the UK’s ambitions. The UK’s current pledge is geographically limited in its scope, as it only commits to invest in the Asia and Pacific region. Considering the global scale of the challenges facing women and girls, we need the pledge to go further. Commitments to support women and girls who are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis must not end here.”