PS: Do Not Step into the Footnote Trap

As published in ECO 9, COP30, Climate Action Network International’s Eco Newsletter

Some Parties have been spotted wandering around the gender negotiations looking like a lost Hansel and Gretel. Be careful, everyone: do not follow their breadcrumbs. The footnotes in the current Gender Action Plan draft, where certain Parties are trying to define what gender means to them, are not helpful clarifications. They are detours that lead us into a maze and stall our common path towards adopting a successful and ambitious GAP here at COP30. Concerningly, beyond the GAP, the footnotes are also slowly sneaking up behind the backs of other tracks.

For anyone feeling disoriented, the Women and Gender Constituency is here to help guide the way.

Most Parties understand that inserting footnotes is a dangerous precedent that harms everyone. If governments start redefining core agreed terms in footnotes – whether on finance, ambition, human rights or equity – then nothing is safe. It would particularly damage Global Majority countries, who rely on strong and consistent multilateral principles to uphold justice, responsibility and accountability.

This sudden backtracking on agreed language on gender – by the same Parties who agreed on a Lima Work Programme on Gender just last year – seems performative at best and a tactical hijack of the process and progress at worst.

Here are the real breadcrumbs everyone should follow. Footnotes are not meant to provide clarity; they are meant to make multilateralism murky.

We will not find real solutions in an asterisk. Therefore, let us get back on the main road. No distractions. No detours.

Adopt an ambitious, actionable and resourced Gender Action Plan and leave footnotes deep in the woods where they belong.