Photo by U.K. Department for International Development.

The outcome document for this week’s Rio+20 summit is 49 pages long. Some 23,917 words.

Women were mentioned in less than 0.01 percent of the text. And only two of the 283 sections addressed women’s needs for family planning.

At first, this might not seem like a big deal. It’s easy to think of Rio as a purely environmental conference, dealing with issues related to sustainable development and a green economy. It’s easy to say that Rio is not about "women's issues."

Well, we have some news for you: You can’t have sustainable development without women.

Photos: angela7dreams via FlickrWe have a critical opportunity right now to make sure the next U.N. climate chief will serve the needs of the global community of women, and we need to seize it. With Yvo de Boer stepping down as executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be appointing a replacement.  The role of the executive secretary is critical to achieving a fair, ambitious, and binding climate agreement, and a strong successor to de Boer is absolutely essential for Cancun and beyond. What will make for a strong UNFCCC executive secretary? …

When will we finally break through this damn glass ceiling?U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced an important new climate change financing group last week, but out of the 19 people named, no women were included. This is unfortunate because women will bear the brunt of the effects of climate change and are key to any climate solutions.  The group is tasked with investigating potential sources of revenue to support developing countries in their efforts to cope with the impacts of climate change and the shift to low-carbon development pathways. The Copenhagen negotiations in December called for $30 billion in climate financing …