Elizabeth Munee Kiamba

Women perform much of the day-to-day work that carbon projects depend on — operating clean technologies, managing natural resources, and sustaining low-carbon practices — yet they are often excluded from ownership, income, and decision-making. This paper argues that closing this gap is not only an equity issue but an integrity issue for carbon markets. The Focus Note shows that financial services shape who participates in carbon projects, who benefits from them, and what can be verified.

Skip to main content Women perform much of the day-to-day work that carbon projects depend on — operating clean technologies, managing natural resources, and sustaining low-carbon practices — yet they are often excluded from ownership, income, and decision-making. This paper argues that closing this gap is not only an equity issue but an integrity issue for carbon markets.

By Max Mattern and Elizabeth Kiamba, CGAP Women are critical to the delivery of many carbon projects, carrying out much of the work that underpins mitigation outcomes – and yet they often lack equal access to project governance, assets, and revenues. Recent calls from the ICVCM’s Continuous Improvement Working Group for a stronger focus on gender equity highlight the failure of existing safeguards to address women’s exclusion.