UN report shows who hogs the mic at climate meetings – and it's not women or young people

Glasgow, UK - A report by UN on climate conferences shows that women across all age groups never hog the mic – but men do, especially those between the ages of 36 and 66.

Men used 63% of the total speaking time over the one million minutes of recorded footage the UN looked at (stock image).
Men used 63% of the total speaking time over the one million minutes of recorded footage the UN looked at (stock image).  © 123RF/piscine26

The UN's report shows that gender representation is pretty much equal for participants at UN Climate Change meetings.

However, the report also shows that the amount of speakers and time they use is still heavily-weighed towards men.

Researchers worked with over one million minutes of recorded speaking from recent climate change meetings and panels. The recordings showed that 60% of speakers were men, who used 63% of total speaking time.

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That includes every single speaker, regardless of their roles at the meetings. If you dive deeper into the nitty-gritty, the report also looks at what the gender gap is for speakers who negotiate and make decisions for the groups they represent.

If officiating speakers, who don't participate in negotiations, are taken out of the equation, the gender divide gets worse. Up to 74% of the speakers involved in negotiations were male, taking up between 63% and 74% of all speaking time.

The differences stand out even more when you zoom in on age groups.

For speakers aged 36 to 55, 23% of the speakers were women, and they used 22% of the speaking time, whereas men in that age group took up 46% of speaking positions, but used over half of the total speaking time.

The younger delegates, who will experience the worst effects of climate change after their older colleagues are long dead, barely spoke at all, and when they did speak, they used less than their fair share of speaking time.

The trend has been slow, so the focus is on future climate conferences, like COP26, to see increased representation for women and young delegates.

Cover photo: 123RF/piscine26

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