She started a movement that has so far planted 40 million trees in her native land. She’s been to jail for her activism. She’s won the Nobel Peace Prize. Now, at the Copenhagen climate talks, Wangari Muta Maathai accepted her new status as the twelfth UN Messenger for Peace.

“I will give my all to ensure that I succeed in this mandate,” the Kenya native said to an applauding audience.

But more than anything, Maathai showed the world what a crucial role women play in the climate change debate.

On average, women and girls in developing countries walk 6 km a day, carrying 20 litres of water, according to UNICEF. This extra burden takes time that could otherwise be spent studying or earning money. Droughts caused by global warming will force these women to walk farther, eating even more time out of their days.

The world's poor already face catastrophe from climate change, as they have no back-up plan when droughts and floods ruin their land. For women in particular, matters are worse. They make up 70 per cent of the world's poor, and they suffer for every minute of abnormal weather.

“Climate change is not just a future threat. It's a current catastrophe in many poor countries and women are bearing the burden of this,” said Mark Fried, policy coordinator at Oxfam Canada.

“They grow most of the food, they find the water and the fuel,” said Fried, and these activities will become much more difficult in a harshening climate.

Oxfam and a host of other humanitarian groups hope for two outcomes at the Copenhagen climate change conference, beyond the obvious desire that countries reduce carbon emissions.

First on the list is that rich countries fund poor ones “so communities can adapt to climate changes that are already happening and are inevitable,” said Fried.

Environmental organizations in developing countries could use the money. The 40 million trees Maathai and her Green Belt Movement have planted across Africa since 1977 absorb carbon and restore fertile land, and members ache to plant more.

Second, groups want the legal documents that emerge from Copenhagen to mention gender explicitly.

“It can be as simple as inserting the word 'gender' in there,” said Fried.

“If there is something explicit in the international treaty that says 'women should benefit from adaptation financing' or 'women have a part of the solution to climate change' or 'countries agree to take into account the differential impact on men and women of climate change,' then these are tools that activists can use to oblige more favourable policies from their governments.”

Thanks to the diligent work of activists worldwide, those words may make it in. This morning, seven mentions of “gender” and “women” adorned the latest draft text.

“We were pretty excited this morning to see all the gender language that's still in there,” said Cate Owren Tuesday in Copenhagen. She coordinates advocacy for the Global Gender and Climate Alliance, a conglomeration of 13 UN agencies and almost 30 civil society organizations from around the world.

The alliance, founded in 2007 with the Copenhagen conference in mind, has worked tirelessly to make climate negotiating teams aware of how important gender is. Now it scrutinizes every change to the draft text for gender issues.

“We've re-drafted our recommendation documents pretty much every couple of hours,” said Owren.

Though Copenhagen's final outcome may look nothing like the drafts, Owren doubts all the progress toward gender equality will be erased because so many negotiators now know that women are a necessary part of the agreement.

More urgently, countries may not reach an agreement at all. Monday morning several African delegates boycotted the talks as poor countries criticized rich ones for refusing to take responsibility for their emissions.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and British prime minister Gordon Brown landed in Denmark Tuesday, leading the crowd of at least 120 world leaders who have promised to douse fires and steer through the final stretch of the conference, which ends Friday.

Each delegate or organization has its own views on whether the leaders will agree on anything.

“We're cautiously optimistic,” Owren said, nursing a sore throat as she boarded a train to the next proceedings.