by Jeannette Gurung
WOCAN participated in COP30 in Belém, Brazil, alongside more than 60,000 delegates. While much media coverage focused on limited progress in areas such as fossil fuel phase-out, we observed a strong and growing shift toward climate finance that is gender-responsive, locally led, and outcomes-based — a trend also evident at New York Climate Week. Through our role as speakers and moderators in seven sessions and numerous discussions with climate finance leaders, it became clear that WOCAN’s W+ Standard is well-aligned with this direction.
Three key themes emerged:
1. Stronger focus on Locally Led Climate Action (LLCA)
The Green Climate Fund launched its LLCA Framework, highlighting support for gender-responsive, community-driven solutions that provide context-specific metrics that measure outcomes. They highlighted an flagship LLCA project with a micro-grants fund, led by women in the Amazon described by a woman representative as: “We get technical assistance but the leadership is ours”..
Similarly, the UK underscored the importance of benefit sharing; Sweden called for innovation to ensure gender outcomes in climate finance; and Australia (DFAT) announced that 80% of its investments must deliver both climate and gender outcomes by 2029.
The Climate Bonds Initiative CEO stated “we posit gender as a resilience issue, as financial stability is better if provided through women” (noting much lower default rates than by men). BRAC shared how its Climate Bridge Fund directs resources to those most affected in Bangladesh.
The W+ Standard directly responds to this need by measuring women’s empowerment outcomes and ensuring financial benefits are shared with local women’s groups. This model was presented at sessions including at the Global Landscape Forum, UN Goals House, a UNFCCC Side Event, and a World Green Economy Organization WGEO session.
2. Growing role of carbon markets
Projects highlighted how carbon finance can generate direct benefits for women and communities:
- Boomitra enables smallholder farmers to earn revenue from soil carbon credits in 6 countries.
- AJA Climate Solutions supports women-led forest regeneration in Ghana, building on Singapore’s partnerships on Article 6.
- The Gates Foundation plans to use soil carbon credits to provide direct payments to women farmers.
- Indigenous leaders stressed that “we want carbon markets to contribute to us, not as beneficiaries but as partners”.
WOCAN demonstrated how the W+ Standard can align with carbon standards and showcased early projects in partnership with Value Network Ventures in an event of the Global Carbon Council.
3. Corporate engagement in women’s empowerment within supply chains
A community near Belém supplying ingredients to Natura (Brazil) exemplifies this approach. Natura works with 3.5 million women across 10,000 families in the Amazon, measuring both environmental and social impact. The company shares profits with communities, requires women’s leadership in governance, and increases value locally by supporting processing and co-product development. Natura measures well- being impacts through income (for women’s leadership, health, education) and is committed to honoring traditional knowledge, biodiversity conservation, and ensuring fair benefits along the production chain. For every $1 earned, $2.50 in social and environmental value is created.
Natura has expressed interest in using the W+ Standard to demonstrate how its supply chains support women’s leadership, biodiversity conservation, and shared prosperity.
A Clear Direction Forward
Despite the political challenges surrounding COP30, the momentum is undeniable: the future of climate finance is locally led, gender-responsive, and focused on verified outcomes. WOCAN’s W+ Standard is not just keeping pace with this shift—it is helping to lead it.
If climate action is to be truly effective, equitable, and lasting, women must be positioned not at the margins, but at the center of solutions.