'Gender' contested at COP30, 20 truckloads of contraceptives possibly lost, solutions 'blueprint' in South Asia report

There's a whole lot going on around the world: This weekly brief from Climate, Gendered is your chance to spend a few moments on a handful of items with the potential to disproportionately impact over half the global population — and the ideas that might make a difference.

'Gender' contested at COP30: 'Equality is being sidelined' (Climate, Gendered)

The word "gender" has come up as the subject of charged debate with regard to the updated Gender Action Plan set for finalization at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change currently unfolding in Belém, Brazil. 

Gender justice advocates say that some "hardline conservative states" wanting to define the term as "biological sex" represents "backtracking" and a harmful, regressive move following trans- and nonbinary-inclusive resolutions and language dating back to 2011. 

The Women and Gender Constituency of the UNFCCC has called "on those countries committed to achieving gender equality to stand with us as vocal and fierce champions in the negotiating rooms of Belém."

For more on this, read on at CG.

Experts identify evidence-based solutions to protect women and youth from climate threats: 'The solutions are known, and they can save millions of lives' (Nature Medicine)

The co-authors of new correspondence published in the journal Nature Medicine have highlighted practical strategies for mitigating the health impacts of extreme heat, vector-borne disease, and heat-trapping pollution on women and children. The solutions, once they name them, may feel both genius and obvious — like painting white "cool" roofs on maternal health clinics. 

The co-authors note that the 2025 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report "underscores that effective climate action is crucial for upholding the health and rights of women, children, and adolescents, who are disproportionately vulnerable to climate impacts." They also call on all countries to "endorse the Belém Health Action Plan" and to drive meaningful action themselves.

As many as 20 additional truckloads of U.S.-purchased contraceptives may be going to waste (Climate, Gendered)

The New York Times reported last week that while four truckloads of contraceptives — previously purchased with American tax dollars and intended for distribution in low- and middle-income countries through the United States Agency for International Development before it was dismantled — appear still to be in a warehouse in Geel, Belgium, many more may already be lost. 

Authorities in the country say that another 20 truckloads were sent to nearby Kallo, where the products were "stored incorrectly," and are no longer usable. If true — the ongoing saga has seen corrections before — the waste concerns have been multiplied considerably.

And the loss of long-acting reversible contraceptives may result in ripple effects of particular concern for climate-conscious reproductive rights advocates. LARCs could be a preferred method for some users vulnerable to extreme weather events that might disrupt access to short-acting methods that need to be procured more frequently.

Still, there may be something yet to salvage from this significant loss — for more on this, read on at CG

This report maps climate-resilient solutions to gendered health care needs across South Asia: 'A hundred organizations ... just provided a blueprint' (YLabs)

Mobile gynecology services and digital health tools in flood-affected areas. Community clinics located exactly where access to women’s health care is most threatened by disaster. Frontline maternal and reproductive health workers armed with knowledge about how heat can impact patients.

These are among the initiatives emerging across South Asia — initiatives aimed at reckoning with the obstacles that extreme weather can slam down in the path of essential care. These and other efforts are documented in a report recently released by YLabs, which also maps out the current funding realities in the background of this work. 

"From Islamabad to Kathmandu, organizations are developing integrated approaches while most funding still treats climate and reproductive health as separate issues," YLabs wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing the launch of Resilience Rising: South Asia. "This report provides the multi-country evidence base showing why that separation doesn't work — and boldly imagines a new future."

It's a separation that the Global Fund for Women has just decried as well, calling on donors to "Stop funding in silos" and instead "Fund climate-resilient reproductive health care as essential infrastructure." 

On December 9, YLabs will host a webinar exploring findings from the report. Those who sign up to attend will receive a recording of the event.

One goal at Climate, Gendered is to help bring an undeniable spotlight to the reality that proliferating pollution, increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, extreme weather, habitat loss, and more can uniquely and disproportionately impact girls, women, trans communities, and nonbinary people. We welcome with gratitude your timely observations on this topic: Please share one way you noticed this week in which climate and gender connect — and share CG with a friend.