As the world gathers in Belém, Brazil, for the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a sobering truth becomes increasingly clear: the promise of gender justice as part of climate justice remains unfulfilled.

Acknowledged in rhetoric, excluded in reality, gender equality still sits at the margins of climate finance and policy 10 years after the Paris Agreement (PA). The result is a climate architecture that continues to privilege fossil fuels and corporate projects while neglecting the women and communities who live the crisis every day.

The PA committed nations to ensure that climate action is "gender-responsive, participatory, and equitable." The Lima Work Programme on Gender and the Gender Action Plan under the UNFCCC were designed to turn this into real inclusion and funding. Yet, gender justice has been treated as an afterthought, a side event topic, not a policy priority. The data makes this painfully clear.

According to ActionAid's 2024 "Fund Our Future" report, only 2.8 percent of multilateral climate finance for mitigation supports just transitions that prioritise workers, women, and affected communities. The report calls this "jaw-droppingly under-funded," warning that climate funds are "failing the people they claim to serve while subsidising the polluters who caused the crisis."

This failure is not abstract. It is visible in every village where women farmers are battling saltwater intrusion, every informal worker displaced by climate disasters, and every community are still waiting for adaptation funds that never arrive.

The problem is structural, not accidental. As the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) notes, "Feminist climate finance means resourcing solutions defined by women, Indigenous peoples, and grassroots movements -- not trickle-down projects managed by distant intermediaries."

But global climate finance still operates through complex, top-down systems -- large loans, multilateral channels, and co-financing requirements that exclude grassroots actors. Decision-making remains concentrated in institutions far removed from the communities most affected by climate breakdown.

Meanwhile, public money continues to prop up the fossil fuel economy. Global fossil fuel subsidies and investments exceed hundreds of billions of dollars annually, dwarfing adaptation budgets. Every dollar spent sustaining fossil dependence is a dollar stolen from the future of the planet and from the women and communities holding the line against climate chaos.

This isn't a moral appeal alone; it's an argument for effectiveness. Research consistently shows that gender-responsive climate policies deliver better outcomes like greater resilience, stronger adaptation, and deeper community participation. Women are not "victims" of climate change; they are key actors in climate solutions.

Across Bangladesh and the Global South, women lead cooperatives in renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and disaster preparedness. Yet, these efforts operate on shoestring budgets, excluded from international finance streams and national decision-making. Ignoring gender justice doesn't make climate policy neutral; it makes it ineffective.

The COP30 must mark a turning point -- from rhetorical inclusion to financial redistribution and structural reform. Three priorities are urgent: (i) the new UNFCCC Gender Action Plan must come with measurable finance targets. Governments must earmark dedicated funding for gender-responsive adaptation and just transition programmes -- not symbolic commitments buried in technical annexes; (ii) public money must stop subsidising the fossil fuel industry and instead fund the communities confronting its consequences. Fossil fuel phase-out and gender-just financing must be negotiated together -- not separately; (iii) the system must be simplified and made accessible to women's rights organisations, Indigenous movements, and community-based groups. Dedicated grant windows and direct funding mechanisms should replace bureaucratic barriers.

Without these shifts, the Gender Action Plan will remain another well-intentioned document -- underfunded, unimplemented, and ultimately meaningless.

For Bangladesh, one of the most climate-vulnerable nations and a global voice for equity, COP30 offers an opportunity to lead by example. Gender justice must not be a footnote in its delegation brief; it should define its negotiation agenda.

Bangladesh should push for a dedicated allocation within the new climate finance goal that guarantees direct access for women-led and community-based organisations. This could include advocating for a minimum percentage of adaptation funds to be earmarked for gender-responsive initiatives.

The country can demand that global mitigation funding, especially for energy transition, include mandatory social and gender justice safeguards. As Bangladesh transitions from coal and gas towards renewables, ensuring that women workers and communities benefit from new green jobs and energy access must be part of its national model.

Bangladesh can push for reforms in the Green Climate Fund and other multilateral channels to reduce complexity, remove co-financing barriers, and enable direct access for local women's groups. It could pilot such mechanisms domestically and showcase results internationally.

We should institutionalise gender budgeting in all climate-related ministries and ensure that their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plan (NAP) reflect gender equality as a measurable goal. That would strengthen its credibility as a leader on gender-responsive governance.

By building alliances with countries from the Global South, especially those with strong feminist movements such as Kenya, the Philippines, and Colombia, Bangladesh can amplify its voice for systemic change in climate finance architecture.

COP30 in Belém must not be another conference of promises. It must be the moment the world finally funds the future it has long promised -- one built on justice, equality, and shared power. Because when women lead, climate action works. And when justice is sidelined, so is hope.

Farah Kabir is country director at ActionAid Bangladesh.

Views expressed in this article are the author's own.