Why gender is essential for high-integrity carbon markets

In the first blog of our new series ‘Gender-responsiveness for high-integrity carbon markets’, Inez Książek, Senior Technical Specialist at Social Development Direct explores the rationale for focusing on gender in the carbon markets.

It’s widely accepted that climate change does not affect all groups equally. Women and gender-diverse people often face greater economic insecurity, more limited access to resources, and higher exposure to climate-related risks. Research indicates that although everyone experiences the negative effects of climate change, women are one of the groups particularly affected due to the intensification of existing inequalities¹ – The Spotlight Initiative estimates that every 1°C rise in temperature is associated with a 4.7 per cent rise in intimate partner violence (IPV).² Furthermore, UN Women estimates that by 2050, under a worst-case scenario, climate change may push up to 158.3 million more women and girls into extreme poverty.³ These impacts matter not only because they deepen inequality, but also because women play a central role in adaptation efforts, natural resource management, and locally led climate action.⁴

These inequalities are also present in carbon markets. Women and people from other marginalised groups remain underrepresented in decision-making and often face barriers to accessing finance.⁵ When projects do not fully understand how benefits, risks and decision-making affect different groups, they can miss important local knowledge, overlook potential harms and weaken project outcomes. Addressing these issues can improve project effectiveness, strengthen social and environmental outcomes and support high-integrity carbon markets.⁶

Ways to change practices

Gender-responsiveness refers to actions and outcomes that are rooted in an understanding of gender roles and inequalities within the relevant communities. It supports inclusive participation and promotes the fair distribution of benefits,⁷ going beyond avoiding harm in order to address barriers and support diverse participation and leadership. In practice, this means recognising different needs, risks and constraints from the outset of the carbon project activity.

There are different ways projects can achieve gender responsiveness. For example:

• Conducting a GEDSI analysis. This is a tool used to examine how social and cultural gender roles influence the way people are impacted by contextual inequalities, policies, programs and resource availability, among other parameters. A gender analysis helps projects understand community roles and responsibilities, how resources and income are distributed, and how different groups may experience, participate in, and benefit from the activity.
• Inclusive decision-making. Women and people from other marginalised groups should be directly involved in project design, decision-making and benefit-sharing processes, so their priorities, expertise and lived experiences are taken into account when activities are planned and implemented.
• Applying a gender-lens across the value chain. Projects should also embed a gender-lens throughout implementation, for example by supporting women’s enterprises and unions, carrying out social inclusion training, and upskilling women within communities.

Approaches of this kind are likely to be more effective, representative and sustainable.

Good practice example: Women’s leadership in agroforestry reforestation in Burkina Faso

A carbon project in Burkina Faso is restoring degraded land through agroforestry and native tree planting while supporting the participation of local women’s groups.⁸ Women have been actively involved in tree planting, land restoration activities and community leadership structures. Through the project, women’s associations have gained access to training, income-generating opportunities and greater involvement in local decision-making.

Awa Fatimata⁹ leads a women’s group involved in restoring degraded land and managing tree-based activities. The project has helped strengthen women’s economic opportunities and leadership roles while contributing to climate and ecosystem restoration goals. This demonstrates how inclusive participation can help ensure that carbon projects deliver benefits that are both environmentally effective and socially beneficial.

The risks of neglect

There are many components to consider when designing and implementing high-integrity carbon projects. Gender equality is fundamental to the quality and success of these activities. Carbon projects and women may face many risks when inclusion is neglected, including:

• Missing out on local knowledge. When gender is overlooked, carbon projects may fail to draw on important local knowledge, distribute benefits unevenly, and could place additional burdens on women within the local communities.
• Harming women and vulnerable groups. Without appropriate measures to prevent and address sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment as well as physical and emotional harm, women and other marginalised genders may face greater harm. This can weaken social and environmental outcomes, reduce community support and ultimately undermine project effectiveness.
• Affecting trust and reputation. It may also contribute to land-use tensions and erode community trust, creating reputational risks for both project developers and buyers. For example, buyers who purchase credits from projects that do not adequately identify or address gender-related risks may face increased scrutiny of their due diligence and quality assurance processes.

Importantly, inclusive approaches are not automatically beneficial if they are treated as a compliance exercise. Poorly designed “tick-box” initiatives can overlook local norms, bypass traditional governance structures, and, in some cases, increase risks for women and gender-diverse people. By contrast, gender-responsive approaches seek equitable outcomes by recognising local inequalities, understanding the community context and ensuring that activities reflect the needs, priorities, and realities of different groups.

Benefits for projects, communities and buyers

Gender-responsive approaches can strengthen carbon projects. When implemented effectively, gender inclusion can improve project outcomes, reduce community resistance, and respond to growing demand for high-integrity carbon credits that both avoid harm and create meaningful opportunities for women. It can also benefit carbon credit buyers by reducing the risk of investing in or being associated with lower-integrity projects, while increasing confidence that climate and social outcomes are being delivered as intended.

A practical way forward is to adopt a risk-based approach. This would require collection of gender-disaggregated data and implementation of gender action plans as a standard measure where the context-related risks are high. Embedding a gender lens early in the planning process can address concerns around cost, measurement, and credibility before they become an issue. Later in this blog series, we will focus on what these gender-responsive approaches look like in practice.

Stay tuned for the second blog in our series, which will be talking about how to identify and mitigate risks.

Inez Książek, Senior Technical Specialist at Social Development Direct

About us

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market is an independent, global non-profit governance body for high-integrity carbon markets. Its vision for the carbon market is that where there is integrity, scale will follow. The Integrity Council recognises gender equality as an important component of high integrity in carbon markets and has adopted a strategy to help raise awareness, support inclusive market practices, and strengthen gender considerations across its work.

Social Development Direct is a social enterprise specialising in gender equality, disability and social inclusion. They co-authored the first major study on women’s participation in the carbon market and the first comprehensive guidance for carbon project developers on how to integrate gender into their projects, which was co-signed by the Integrity Council and launched at Climate Week NYC 2024. Reach out to learn more about their expertise and practical experience.

References

¹ SDDirect (2025). Evaluating the Impact of Climate Change on Women and People with Disabilities; UN Women (2025). How gender inequality and climate change are interconnected; UN Women (2026). Extreme heat and the unequal consequences of the climate crisis.

² Spotlight Initiative (2025). Colliding Crises: How the climate crisis fuels gender-based violence.

³ UN Women (2025). Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 202

⁴ The research emphasises women’s role in climate adaptation, e.g. the UNDP study shows how women in Africa are driving resilience and adaptation strategies while IIDS provides evidence that involvement of women in the design and implementation of the climate adaptation efforts leads to more sustainable outcomes. UNDP (2025). Leading the Way: Women Navigating Climate Change, Mobility, and Resilience in Africa; IISD (2025). Advancing Gender-Responsive and Socially Inclusive Practices in Nature-Based Solutions for Adaptation.

⁵ Evidence suggests that women face similar barriers in the carbon markets and while gender inclusion is considered in some projects (particularly under some of the existing standards, e.g. Gold Standard), further action is needed. H. Nicholson, L. Besco (2025). Gender (In)Equality in the Voluntary Carbon Market, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society. The Social Development Direct (2022). Integrating a Gender Lens in Voluntary Carbon Markets report notes that ‘(…) Historically, women have been under-represented throughout the VCM ecosystem, especially in the global south’, leading to uneven distribution of finance and benefits.

⁶ UNDP (2025); IISD (2025).

⁷ UN Women (2020). An introduction to gender-sensitive key performance indicators.

⁸ Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM). Restoring degraded land in Burkina Faso with agroforestry and native tree planting. CCP-Eligible Program Case Study. Available at: https://icvcm.org/case_study/restoring-degraded-land-in-burkina-faso-with-agroforestry-and-native-tree-planting/

⁹ Tree Aid. Awa Fatimata: women leading land restoration and livelihood improvements in Burkina Faso. Available at: https://treeaid.org/stories/awa-fatimata/