At COP30 in Belém, the Holy See, Argentina, Paraguay and others block attempts to expand “gender” beyond male and female in official documents.
Newsroom (21/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) As negotiators at the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) grapple with emissions targets and financing commitments, a parallel battle over language has emerged: whether the word “gender” in official documents should continue to refer exclusively to the biological categories of male and female or be broadened to encompass the full spectrum of LGBT and non-binary identities.
The Holy See, joined by Argentina, Paraguay, Iran, and supported more quietly by Egypt, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, has firmly rejected the latter interpretation. In footnotes submitted to the latest draft text, the dissenting delegations insist that “gender” must retain its traditional meaning rooted in biological sex. The Vatican’s reservation, formally lodged since its full participation in COP proceedings began in 2022, states unequivocally that the term is understood “as based on biological sex, which is male and female.”
For these states, the push to insert an expansive, activist definition of gender represents a recurring pattern: the use of ostensibly technical international forums to advance socio-cultural agendas originating in Western progressive circles. What began as a widely accepted reference to the differential impact of climate change on women has, in their view, been repurposed as a Trojan horse for ideological imposition.
Speaking on background, a senior Vatican diplomat at COP30 told journalists that the Holy See is not opposing recognition of human dignity for any person, but refuses to allow foundational anthropological categories to be redefined by transient political fashion. “Public policy, including environmental policy, must rest on reality,” the diplomat said. “Deliberately ambiguous language obscures rather than clarifies, and risks turning consensus documents into instruments of cultural transformation.”
The controversy is not new. Similar clashes over the term “gender” have surfaced at previous COPs, as well as in other UN bodies, where delegations from the Global South and religious-majority states have repeatedly pushed back against formulations they regard as detached from the lived realities of their societies.
Argentine sources confirmed that President Javier Milei’s administration instructed its negotiators to align fully with the Holy See’s position, viewing the attempted redefinition as an infringement on national sovereignty over cultural and family policy. Paraguay and Iran have taken identical stances in their formal reservations.
While Western and some Latin American delegations argue that inclusive language strengthens climate justice by acknowledging diverse vulnerabilities, the dissenting bloc counters that injecting contested ideological concepts into texts intended for universal ratification only undermines the primary goal: effective action against climate change.
As negotiations in Belém enter their final days, the dispute remains unresolved. Observers expect either a compromise footnote preserving the traditional interpretation or, failing that, formal reservations appended by objecting states when the final documents are adopted.
Regardless of the procedural outcome, the Holy See’s intervention has once again positioned the Catholic Church as a vocal defender of what it regards as non-negotiable truths about human nature—even in forums dedicated to saving the planet.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Tribune Chretienne
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