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Abstract

Despite the formal adoption of gender policies by significant climate funds and international agreements aimed at promoting equity, only 2.3% of global climate finance is explicitly allocated to gender equality, and women remain significantly underrepresented in climate-related decision-making processes. Although several climate funds, such as the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund, have successfully integrated gender components, implementation often remains symbolic rather than transformative. Drawing on a critical ecofeminist framework, this article examines how climate finance mechanisms, particularly in the Global South, can inadvertently reinforce existing gender inequities. Using Bangladesh as a case study, this analysis synthesizes existing literature and policy reports to examine the gendered impacts of climate finance and economic liberalization. The major climate funds lack gender-disaggregated data collection and guidelines that would mandate direct disbursement to women. Findings reveal that women, especially those in rural and marginalized communities, face compounded risks due to climate change, including a larger burden of unpaid care work, heightened exposure to gender-based violence, and reduced access to land and resources. Moreover, top-down, technocratic, and market-driven approaches in climate finance tend to exclude grassroots women’s voices, perpetuating elite capture and misaligned funding priorities. This can result in further reduction in women’s rights. The concept of “Gendered Impact Risk of Climate Finance” is introduced to capture these dynamics. The paper argues that for climate finance to contribute meaningfully to gender equity, it must move beyond participation metrics and adopt a transformative agenda and gender-responsive policies. This includes a) embedding intersectional gender analysis across project cycles, b) institutionalizing partnerships with grassroots women’s organizations, c) supporting women’s leadership development, d) enforcing accountability through independent evaluations, and e) establishing clear guidelines mandating the allocation of half of the funds to women and/or women-led organizations. Ultimately, achieving climate resilience and sustainable development requires rethinking financial strategies to center women’s agency and address systemic power imbalances. Without such shifts, climate finance risks increasing the very inequalities it seeks to reduce.

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