A/HRC/42/26 improve early warning and build resilience. She referred to an example from Chad, where Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, a young woman from the Mbororo Fulani community, had set up community management of natural resources with other indigenous women, mapping water and increasing women’s participation in community decisions. 8. She stressed that the exclusion of half of society from shaping policies, including those responding to climate harms, made those policies likely to be less responsive to the specific harms caused and therefore less effective and potentially even counterproductive. Women and girls of diverse backgrounds should be empowered to participate as agents of change in preventing and responding to climate harms in their community. 9. The High Commissioner called on States to address the discrimination which limited women’s choices and freedom, access to services and participation in society. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, if women had equal access to finance and resources, their farm yields would rise by 20 to 30 per cent, between 100 and 150 million people would no longer go hungry and carbon dioxide emissions would also be substantially reduced. 10. In closing, the High Commissioner referred to Human Rights Council resolution 40/11, in which the Council declared that “promoting respect, support and protection for the activities of human rights defenders, including women and indigenous human rights defenders,” was essential to both human rights and environmental protection. She urged States to reduce the impacts of climate change on women, increase women’s participation in policymaking and commit to action. 11. In her opening statement by video message, the President of the Marshall Islands emphasized that women and girls were often worst affected by climate change, while also being agents of change in the fight against climate threats. Women’s central role in ensuring the well-being of their families often meant that their own well-being was sacrificed. In 2015 and 2016, the Marshall Islands had suffered a severe drought. Malnutrition had risen among children and women in the outer islands and great efforts had been needed to secure adequate supplies of food and water for families. Women had had little time to produce local handicrafts, reducing an important source of income. Short on funds and supporting their families through crises, women were often those worst off. 12. The President stressed that sound data and analysis were needed to design effective policies. A gender-responsive and human rights-based approach was integrated throughout the mitigation and adaptation policies, planning and implementation of the Marshall Islands, including the 2050 strategy, the nationally determined contribution and the electricity road map, and the forthcoming national adaptation plan. The Marshall Islands chaired the Climate Vulnerable Forum, which had an all-women group of “summit champions”. Women were strongly involved in policy consultations, climate-related planning committees and in the work of key implementing agencies in the Marshall Islands. 13. In concluding, the President stressed that raising the level of ambition in climate action could lessen the future consequences for people everywhere, including women and girls. At the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the participants reaffirmed the need for enhanced national contributions by 2020, which were needed to keep the goal of 1.5°C of global warming within reach and strengthen resilience, safeguarding fundamental human rights. III. Summary of the panel discussion 14. The President of the Human Rights Council opened the panel discussion and invited the panellists to make their statements. A. Contributions of panellists 15. The former President of Ireland and High Commissioner for Human Rights noted how working on economic and social rights in African countries had made her aware of the gender dimensions of climate change. Women often bore the responsibility for putting food 3