COP30 Standoff: Push to Narrow 'Gender' Definition Risks Excluding Trans and Non-Binary People

At COP30 in Belém, Brazil, a political clash over the meaning of "gender" has escalated as several conservative delegations seek to add country-specific footnotes that would narrow the term. Critics say the move would effectively exclude transgender and non-binary people from gender-responsive climate measures and could set a precedent that fragments future United Nations climate agreements.

The contested footnotes appear in drafts of the updated Gender Action Plan (GAP) — the roadmap meant to guide gender-responsive climate action for the coming decade — and in a separate text on the "just transition," which aims to shift economies toward sustainability while protecting workers and communities. Paraguay, Argentina, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Holy See have so far signaled reservations by appending interpretive notes to key passages.

"When women and gender-diverse people are at the table, climate policies are more ambitious, more inclusive and more durable," said former Irish president Mary Robinson.

Delegates and gender equality advocates warn that allowing parties to attach their own interpretations to agreed language would undermine multilateralism and weaken core commitments. "If every Party could footnote core terms like finance, ambition or equity, we would have no negotiation left — only fragmentation," said Bridget Burns, executive director of the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO).

Mexico's environment secretary, Alicia Bárcena, described the move as a backward step: "We do not agree at all with what some countries are putting in the agenda footnotes. We feel we are going backwards — we should never go backwards." The dispute has been elevated from technical negotiations to ministerial-level talks as negotiators search for a political compromise.

Advocates emphasize the real-world stakes: women and girls already suffer disproportionate impacts from climate change because they make up a large share of the world's poor and are underrepresented in decision-making. During droughts and extreme weather, they often walk farther for water, perform more unpaid labour and face higher mortality risks. Despite longstanding commitments, women comprise only about 35 percent of COP30 delegates in Belém, according to WEDO.

The push to define gender strictly along biological lines reflects broader cultural and political debates in several countries. The Holy See, for example, states that it understands gender as rooted in biological sex, "male and female." Some national leaders and parties have also framed these interventions as part of a wider backlash against what they describe as "woke" cultural trends.

One practical compromise under discussion would allow dissenting parties to make formal statements after a decision is adopted, ensuring their perspectives enter the official record without reopening or weakening negotiated language. However, many negotiators and advocates insist that gender equality is already an agreed principle under the climate convention and should not be requalified through footnotes.

As ministers work to resolve the dispute, negotiators caution that the outcome could have ripple effects beyond COP30: permitting ad hoc footnotes on core terms could complicate finance, ambition and equity discussions in future climate talks and erode the integrity of shared decisions.