Gender Inclusion in Climate Policy: A Scoping Literature Review

Studies on the climate crisis highlight that gender can play a vital role in successfully achieving climate change targets while simultaneously reducing gender inequality. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive analysis of how gender could be included in climate policy and how this involvement could be assessed. Thus, this paper primarily focuses on the importance of gender in climate policy through the following aspects: gender differences in impacts of climate change, gendered views on responses to climate change, including responsibility and insights. The second part of this paper is based on a scoping review. The literature review covered publications from 2015 to 2025 retrieved using the Web of Science and Google Scholar databases, from which 29 papers were selected. The results demonstrate how research on gender inclusion in climate policy is distributed across different levels. Thus, this paper reviews research on gender inclusion and the assessment of this inclusion, considering layers such as policy documents, leadership, and decision-making. The paper also explores the contributions of non-governmental organisations and gender-focused advisory bodies to promoting equitable participation and the importance of community engagement. Thus, this review provides insights into how to ensure an inclusive, effective, and transformative climate policy, considering gender and, in turn, advancing both equity and sustainability.