Event report · 7 November 2026 · Istanbul

Women of the Earth

Yeryüzünün Kadınları

From woman to woman for climate justice: Istanbul to COP31

On 7 November 2026, more than 100 women gathered at Akbank Campus in Istanbul to share how they are tackling the climate crisis, agree on common demands and carry those demands to COP31 with a united voice.

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More than 100 Women of the Earth participants gathered at Akbank Campus — 7 November 2026, Akbank Campus: Women of the Earth together.

100+women from civil society, business, academia, the arts, the public sector and youth movements

5themes, five presentations

5parallel workshops, two shared questions

18 Novemberreport at COP31 on Gender Day

Purpose

Why did we come together?

Holding COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, gave us an opportunity to bring women working to address the climate crisis to the same table with our international partners. We had three goals:

To share what women are doing about the climate crisis, including their experiences and solutions;
To agree on what we ask of those responsible for the crisis and of the public officials charged with stopping it;
To raise these demands at COP31 with a united voice.

Participation

Who took part?

More than 100 women answered our invitation: civil society representatives, business leaders and executives, social entrepreneurs, academics, public officials, artists, local land and livelihood defenders, and young climate activists.

Our international guests included Pat Mitchell, co-founder of Project Dandelion and Connected Women Leaders; Ronda Carnegie, co-founder and executive director of Project Dandelion; Dr. Regine Grienberger, Germany’s consul general in Istanbul; and Oksana Antonenko, an international expert from the European University Institute.

Opening

Women’s message to those responsible for the crisis

Gülseren Onanç on stage, with her mother on the screen behind her — Gülseren Onanç delivers the opening remarks, with her mother on the screen behind her.

Gülseren Onanç · SES Equality and Solidarity Association

Climate justice needs women’s leadership, and women’s leadership needs solidarity among women. Gülseren Onanç reminded us that the crisis is human-made. The companies responsible and the governments charged with regulating them know what to do, she said, yet have failed to act. Despite 31 years of COP talks, fossil fuel emissions reached a record high in 2025.

From Akbelen and İkizdere to the Kaz Mountains and Colombia’s Sierra Nevada, women’s wisdom came together in one sentence: “There are no rights, only responsibilities.”

What women want to see in the COP31 outcome declaration

an end to fossil fuel subsidies by 2030
renewable energy as a public priority
lasting mechanisms for working with civil society
women making up at least half of every negotiating table
funding for women-led climate solutions
protection for women defending their land and water

“As Women of the Earth, we draw on the wisdom and inspiration of our mothers, grandmothers and all the women in our families and communities to protect our olive trees, our land, our planet and our future.”
Gülseren Onanç

Sibel Asna

Armaş Foundation · Co-founder of A&B Communications

Drawing on her experience in communications, she stressed that a company’s reputation increasingly depends on how it treats the environment and responds to the climate crisis.

Dr. Hale Cide Demir

Head of SME Banking Marketing, Akbank

In her welcome address on behalf of our host, Akbank, she described the bank’s response to the climate crisis and its commitment to the issue.

Keynote and video messages

Solidarity from around the world

Keynote

Pat Mitchell

Co-founder of Project Dandelion and Connected Women Leaders

The importance of women’s leadership in the climate crisis

She told the story of Project Dandelion’s founding and how the movement grows each time a woman is invited in and given a yellow dandelion pin.
She recalled how the Icelandic women who came before Halla Tómasdóttir paved her way to the presidency, and highlighted women’s solidarity across borders.

Video message

Halla Tómasdóttir

President of Iceland

“Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up.”

She spoke about the Reykjavík Call, whose first signatories included herself, Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar and Mary Robinson.
More than 50 years ago, 90 percent of Icelandic women stopped work for a day, bringing the country to a standstill. Five years later, Iceland became the first country to democratically elect a woman as president.

Video message

Mary Robinson

Former President of Ireland · Co-founder of Project Dandelion

“Make women visible, fund them and recognise them.”

COP31 is the first COP of the “overshoot” period, in which the 1.5°C target has been exceeded. This makes the gender dimension of the crisis even more pressing.
The Gender Action Plan must return firmly to the COP31 agenda. The Istanbul recommendations will be amplified on Gender Day.

Presentations

Five themes, five presentations

Explore the five themes →

01 · Women’s Knowledge and Leadership

Deniz Ataç

TEMA Foundation

She described civil society’s leading role in climate justice and the knowledge of women working to protect land, water and forests.

02 · Women Building Climate Solutions

Ezgi Özkök Sefer

Ashoka Türkiye

In “Women Social Entrepreneurs and Climate Justice: Pioneers of Systems Change”, she described how women social entrepreneurs set systems change in motion.

03 · The Next Generation

Seren Anaçoğlu

Roots & Shoots Türkiye · EU Climate Pact Ambassador

“Hope is not a feeling, but a way to act and bring about change.” “We are not just representatives of the future. We are rights holders building change today.”

04 · The Power of Art

Billur Tansel

Open Dialogue Istanbul

Drawing on examples from conceptual art to the present, she showed how art responds to social upheaval and can create a new language for climate justice.

05 · From Istanbul to COP31

Ronda Carnegie

Project Dandelion

She connected the experiences shared in the room with the global women’s climate movement and explained how the voices raised in Istanbul could reach COP31 and beyond.

Workshops

What came out of the workshops?

In the afternoon, participants worked on two questions in five parallel workshops led by our team of five facilitators: “How can we tell better stories and have more impact?” and “What steps will we take, and with whom?” Each group shared its findings with the room at the end of the day.

Workshop I: “How can we tell better stories?”

People and next steps in the international solidarity workshop.

The “structural change and care” cluster.

Women’s Knowledge and Leadership

Facilitator: Aylin Yardımcı

Reaching communities: start with needs at the village level and bring rural and urban women to the same table.
Reaching decision-makers: bring women from the movement into key roles and build relationships with policymakers.
Language and communication: share lived ecological experience in clear language, without jargon, through trusted voices.
A feminist perspective: question human domination of nature and put care and rural women’s knowledge at the centre.

Women Building Climate Solutions

Facilitator: Bengi Turgan

Community and inspiration: create shared spaces where women social entrepreneurs can inspire one another and build trust.
Systems change: establish a clear legal framework, dedicated funding and long-term plans for social entrepreneurship.
Climate awareness: make biodiversity data accessible and teach children about nature from primary school onwards.

The Next Generation

Facilitator: Melodi Şahin

“I Can Do It Too”: research, a collection of stories and a campaign to make young women climate role models visible, followed by a permanent support platform.
Youth Civil Society Platform: a national platform for solidarity and advocacy among young climate activists, and a call to set up a climate committee in Türkiye’s parliament.

The Power of Art

Facilitator: Melissa Lara Clissold

Accessible, democratic art: a platform reaching all of Türkiye and including groups often left out.
Safe spaces: inclusive places where everyone can make art and speak openly.
Stories with a clear purpose: know who the story is for and give the floor to those affected.
Working together: bring artists, researchers and communities together around local issues, truth and memory.

From Istanbul to COP31

Facilitator: Rümeysa Çamdereli

Lived experience: bring women’s climate stories to COP31 in a declaration signed by women leaders.
International solidarity: connect women facing similar challenges across borders, for example through national platforms of the Women and Gender Constituency.
Structural change and care: make unpaid care work visible and fund care infrastructure using evidence broken down by gender.

The full findings of each workshop, including who should act, what steps to take and what to ask for, will appear in the joint report.

What’s next?

Women of the Earth will be heard at COP31

The workshop findings and presentations will be brought together in a joint report and presented on Gender Day at COP31.

Date18 November 2026 · COP31 Gender Day

Panel“Carrying the Torch: Women’s Leadership from Antalya to Addis Ababa”

VenueIreland/EU Pavilion, Blue Zone, Antalya

PresenterGülseren Onanç

ModeratorMary Robinson

OrganisersThe Elders, the Africa-Europe Foundation Women Leaders Network and Project Dandelion

The panel will discuss how to carry women’s leadership from COP31 to COP32 in Ethiopia. The demands agreed by more than 100 women in Istanbul will be heard where the negotiations take place.

Feedback

How did participants feel at the end of the gathering?

When participants were asked to describe how they felt at the end of the day in a single word, these responses emerged like leaves on an olive tree:

hopeful
happy
a sense of solidarity
a broader perspective
responsible
empowered
less alone
inspired

These words showed us that the gathering had met its goal and encouraged us to organise similar gatherings in the future.

The day’s programme

From listening, to working together, to solidarity for the future

Saturday, 7 November 2026 · 09:30–17:00 · Akbank Campus, Sabancı Center, Istanbul. Simultaneous Turkish–English interpretation was provided throughout.

Download the programme (PDF)

09:30–10:00
Registration and welcome coffee
10:00–10:30

Opening Remarks

Gülseren Onanç, SES Equality and Solidarity Association · Sibel Asna, Armaş Foundation · Dr. Hale Cide Demir, Akbank
10:30–11:00

Keynote: Why Women's Leadership Matters in the Climate Crisis

Pat Mitchell, Project Dandelion

With video messages from Jane Fonda, Halla Tómasdóttir, President of Iceland, and Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland
11:00–12:00
Women's Experiences of Climate Justice: Five Themes

Moderator: Gülseren Onanç
1. 01Women's Knowledge and Leadership: Civil society at the frontlines of climate justice
  Deniz Ataç, TEMA Foundation
2. 02Women Building Climate Solutions: Green and social entrepreneurship
  Ezgi Özkök Sefer, Ashoka Türkiye
3. 03The Next Generation: Young women leading for climate justice
  Seren Anaçoğlu, Roots & Shoots Türkiye · European Climate Pact Ambassador
4. 04The Power of Art: Women's creativity for climate justice
  Billur Tansel, Open Dialogue Istanbul
5. 05From Istanbul to COP31 – International Solidarity: Global women's solidarity for climate justice
  Ronda Carnegie, Project Dandelion
12:00–13:00

Lunch: Networking

The lunch break is a chance to meet women from different fields and to be enriched by one another's experiences. We hope every participant will leave today having met at least three new women.
13:00–13:45

Workshop I: Better Stories, and What Will Make Us More Effective?

Parallel groups on the five themes
13:45–14:00
Short break
14:00–14:45

Workshop II: Which Steps Will We Take, and With Whom?

Parallel groups on the five themes
14:45–15:15
Short break
15:15–15:50

Group Presentations
15:50–16:00

Closing: Women's Solidarity from Today to the Future

Gülseren Onanç · Pat Mitchell
16:00–17:00

Closing Drinks and Dandelion Pinning
About Project Dandelion →

Speakers

Women leading across civil society, business, art and the next generation

Read the full biographies →

Gülseren OnançFounder, SES Equality and Solidarity AssociationOpening · Moderator · Closing Sibel AsnaArmaş Foundation · Founding Partner, A&B İletişimOpening Pat MitchellProject Dandelion · Co-Founder, Connected Women LeadersKeynote · Closing Deniz AtaçChair of the Board, TEMA Foundation01 · Women's Knowledge and Leadership Ezgi Özkök SeferCountry Director, Ashoka Türkiye02 · Women Building Climate Solutions Seren AnaçoğluRoots & Shoots Türkiye · European Climate Pact Ambassador03 · The Next Generation Billur TanselFounder, Open Dialogue Istanbul04 · The Power of Art Ronda CarnegieCo-Founder and Executive Director, Project Dandelion05 · From Istanbul to COP31

With video messages from Jane Fonda, Halla Tómasdóttir and Mary Robinson.

Hand in hand

Women and organisations who make this gathering possible

Women of the Earth is built in solidarity by women who believe women's leadership is essential for climate justice, and by the organisations that stand with them.

Organised by