Amanda Blanc, chief executive of British insurer Aviva and chair of a climate action group, has said more women should be at the top of multilateral organisations to help alleviate the financial impact of climate change.
Blanc and other senior leaders in the Women in Finance Climate Action Group presented recommendations on Nov. 3 at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, for better gender balance in organisations that provide climate finance.
The group also seeks a global framework for reporting gender data and metrics to help climate-related investment decisions.
About 80% of people displaced by climate change are women. Still, only 19% of International Monetary Fund and World Bank board members are female; Blanc said in an interview with Reuters late on Monday.
“If women are 51% of the population, is it that unreasonable to expect that the number (be) greater than 19%? asked Blanc, who is also Britain’s Women in Finance Charter Champion.
“You’ve got to be looking at something closer to 30-40% to make sure you’ve got good representation and a good voice around the table.”
Other Women in Finance Climate Action Group members include Sarah Breeden, executive director of the Bank of England; Irina Ghaplanyan, senior adviser at the World Bank, Alison Rose, CEO of NatWest; and Tanya Steele, CEO of WWF UK.
The group also seeks improvements in women’s access to financial services and gender equity in governments’ climate plans.
“Women are often the breadmakers in the developing countries as well as working full-time and bringing up a family…and normally working on the land or in food production – those are the areas that are very, very badly affected when you have climate impacts,” Blanc said.
(Reuters)
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