When over 6,500 feminist leaders, activists, and changemakers gather in Naarm (Melbourne) from April 27-30 for the Women Deliver 2026 Conference, they will be confronting an uncomfortable truth: climate change is not just an environmental crisis; it’s also a gendered catastrophe unfolding in slow motion.
The numbers are staggering. By 2050, UN Women estimates climate change will push 158 million more women and girls into poverty, 16 million more than men and boys. Another 236 million women will face food insecurity. These aren’t abstract projections; they are trajectories already visible in the communities most vulnerable to climate impacts, particularly across the Oceanic Pacific region hosting this year’s conference.
This is the first time Women Deliver has been regionally hosted, and the choice of the Pacific is deliberate. The region faces some of the sharpest impacts of climate change on the planet, with NASA projecting an additional 15 centimetres of sea level rise for Pacific Island nations within the next three decades even if emissions are controlled. Areas of Tuvalu that currently see fewer than five high-tide flood days annually could average 25 by the 2050s. This is not a distant future. This is happening now to real communities where women and girls bear disproportionate burdens.
The gendered dimensions of climate crisis reveal themselves in stark ways. In rural Pacific communities, women are primarily responsible for securing food, water, and fuel. When cyclones devastate fields and rising seas contaminate water sources, women must work harder, walk farther, and spend more time meeting their families’ basic needs. This is exhausting and dangerous. Climate-induced scarcity increases risks of gender-based violence, child marriage, and human trafficking. When resources become scarce and families are displaced, women and girls become even more vulnerable.
Yet despite bearing the heaviest impacts, women remain largely excluded from climate decision-making. Globally, women hold only around one quarter of parliamentary seats. While women’s participation in national delegations to UN climate conferences rose slightly to 35 per cent between 2012 and 2022, the proportion of delegations headed by women actually declined. Women occupy just 15 per cent of positions in climate-related ministries, 18 per ent in forestry, and 11 per cent in water and irrigation ministries.
This exclusion is unfair and counterproductive. Research shows that women’s representation in parliaments is associated with stronger environmental policies. Pacific women leaders are already demonstrating powerful climate solutions rooted in generations of traditional knowledge and community care. From sustainable agriculture practices to disaster response networks, women are on the frontlines innovating adaptation strategies. Yet climate finance continues to bypass them—only 3 per cent of climate development aid prioritises gender equality.
The Women Deliver 2026 Conference arrives at a critical inflection point. Hard-won rights are being rolled back globally. Anti-rights actors are better funded and gaining political traction. Grassroots and youth-led groups, especially from the Global Majority, are underfunded and shut out of decision-making. The conference theme, “Change calls us here”, reflects both urgency and determination to push back against these threats.
The conference agenda centres the leadership and knowledge of feminists, First Nations leaders, and advocates across the Oceanic Pacific who are pioneering climate justice approaches. From climate resilience in Micronesia to land-back movements in Aotearoa and Australia, the region offers bold solutions grounded in Indigenous wisdom and collective care. Confirmed speakers include Australia’s Minister for Women Senator Katy Gallagher, Kiribati’s Minister for Women Ruth Cross Kwansing, and First Nations leader Antoinette Braybrook AM, bringing together diverse perspectives on intersectional climate action.
The path forward requires what UN Women calls “feminist climate justice”, an approach that recognises women’s rights, labor, and knowledge, ensures just transitions that don’t deepen inequality and repairs historical injustices. This means wealthy nations must meet their climate finance commitments and ensure funds reach grassroots women’s organisations. It means polluting corporations must be taxed and regulated. It means women must have equal power in climate policy-making.
The Women Deliver 2026 Conference isn’t just another event. It offers a rare opportunity to stand alongside women leaders, climate justice activists, and feminist changemakers from around the world who are refusing to accept the status quo. This is where solutions are being forged, where Indigenous knowledge meets policy innovation, where the voices excluded from policy negotiations can finally be heard.
Women’s Agenda is a media parter for Women Deliver and will be reporting live from the event in April.