Petro-patriarchy and the pope: Saudis, Vatican lead women’s rights backlash at COP29

BAKU, Azerbaijan — Women bear the brunt of climate change. A coalition of conservative autocracies wants to stop the world from discussing it. 
This year’s United Nations climate conference centers on finance, but countries gathered in Azerbaijan also hope to strike a few secondary deals, including a joint pledge to ensure climate action accounts for gender equality. 
Those talks, however, are on the verge of collapse after diplomats couldn’t agree on any text this weekend, when the summit, known as COP29, reached its halfway point. 
Saudi Arabia, the Vatican and Russia are leading a backlash against women’s rights at COP29, said five negotiators, granted anonymity to discuss closed-door talks. Two of the negotiators said Egypt was also among the nations blocking an agreement. 
The European Union, which has championed gender equality at these talks, briefly walked out of talks in protest this past weekend, one negotiator said. The bloc also vented its frustration at Saturday evening’s public gathering of all COP29 countries.
“Women and girls are already suffering the disproportionate impacts of climate change,” said Hungarian negotiator Veronika Bagi, who co-leads the EU’s delegation at COP29. “However, we are concerned about attempts to backslide from agreed language from 10 years ago.” 
Climate change worsens existing inequalities. The U.N. estimates that 80 percent of people global warming displaces are women and girls, and has warned that climate change exacerbates gender-based violence.
Researchers have found that extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent with climate change, increase forced and child marriages, while heat waves increase the risk of early births and health issues during pregnancy. Women also remain underrepresented in international climate talks. A coalition of female climate leaders formed earlier this year to advocate for stronger national climate plans. 
“Equal participation is a right,” U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell said last week, calling on countries to advance a “gender perspective in climate action and climate financing.”
The talks in Baku concern the so-called Lima work program, created in 2014 at COP20 in the Peruvian capital. The scheme seeks to integrate equality concerns into climate action — ensuring that governments consider different impacts on men and women and try to boost gender equality when developing climate policies. 
That work feeds into an overarching gender action plan, which countries hope to finalize at COP30 in Brazil next year. But if there is no agreement in Baku to continue the Lima program, “it ends here,” one European negotiator said. Another negotiator said it’s uncertain what would happen to the program without an agreement.
The latest draft negotiating text is enclosed in square brackets from top to bottom, meaning there’s no agreement on any part of it. 
One Western country negotiator said that while a wider group of countries disagrees with parts of the draft text, the four countries — Saudi Arabia, the Vatican, Egypt and Russia — are actively trying to prevent an agreement. 
“These [countries] are trying to backtrack on existing language,” the negotiator said. “They’re doing everything to derail the process.” 
The Vatican is blocking “to a lesser degree,” the negotiator added, “but they’re nevertheless taking the same position as Russia. Defending the traditional family and so on. … We see this as part of a global backlash against women’s rights.” 
Broader disagreements revolve around financing needs as well as certain terminology, such as the use of the word “gender” instead of “sex,” which some countries consider a reference to transgender or wider LGBTQ+ rights. 
“Once you go out of the climate change agreed context on gender and you start bringing gender issues that are not part of the discussion here into the discussion, then it’s a no-go for many parties,” said one developing country negotiator. 
But developing countries are split on the issue, two negotiators said. 
Another developing country negotiator involved in the talks described the “backtracking” on “gender and human rights” as “quite terrible.” 
The Vatican’s press office, the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Egyptian and Saudi COP29 delegations did not respond to requests for comment. 
Negotiations on the issue are continuing this week, but there was no breakthrough in talks on Monday, said a civil society group member who was in the room. 
At the moment, the Western negotiator said, “It’s very, very difficult to say whether there will even be a result.” 
Karl Mathiesen contributed to this report from Baku.