Climate change is accelerating and impacting more and more communities around the world. The worst affected are the poorest countries, with rising sea levels, increasing temperatures and extreme weather conditions. Within these countries, the poorest, most marginalized groups have the fewest opportunities to protect themselves. Due to discrimination and gender norms, women and men are impacted differently by climate change. In many developing countries, men work away from the home while women cultivate tiny plots of land without irrigation to produce food for their families. Climate change directly affects their ability to grow crops. On top of that, women often face barriers to basic education, employment, and to owning property. This often leaves women voiceless in advocating for climate change solutions and vulnerable to its adverse effects. By paying special attention to the different needs and contributions of men and women, gender responsive climate finance not only addresses climate change, but also reduces gender inequalities and empowers women. Effective projects ensure equal benefits. Take for example, a climate project used to fund sustainable public transport. Do women feel safe while using the system? Can they afford the fair? Does the schedule meet their specific needs? Without answering these questions, the project will not serve a large part of the population. Climate action that disregards half of the population cannot be efficient or effective. Taking women's needs into consideration is not only the right thing, but also the smart thing to do. In short, only gender responsive climate projects can be equitable, effective, and efficient. To achieve gender responsive climate finance, there are a number of essential steps. One, climate projects need to involve more women on the ground, both in consultation and in implementation. What exactly are women's needs and contributions, and how can these projects respond accordingly? For example, a project that provides women with access to renewable energy not only provides them with electricity, but also decreases their work burden in caring for families and communities. Second, climate funds need to have social and gender experts, not just technical ones. Policy makers need to look beyond the scientific and economic aspects of climate change and incorporate social and human rights dimensions as well. Third, more women should hold a seat at the table to affect the focus and the way climate decisions are made. In most climate funds, there are currently very few women holding these seats. This must change. Fourth, funds should be made directly accessible in the form of loans or grants to women's groups or female entrepreneurs working on climate action. This would empower them to be agents of change for clean energy projects. It is high time for decision makers and funding mechanisms to fully support women as important stakeholders in climate action. Over the last 10 years, advocacy groups such as the Honeyk Bosch diphton have pushed for more recognition of the gender dimensions of climate finance. So far, there has been some success. Look at the Green Climate Fund, currently the largest multilateral climate fund, which started its operations with an explicit gender equality mandate. This is an important step and a signal to the world, even if there's still a lot of work left to do. If you want to know more about the Green Climate Fund or the basic principles guiding climate finance and its delivery, check out our other two videos.