Women and climate change – new UNFPA report

Posted on | November 19, 2009 | No Comments

Women bear the biggest burden of climate change, but despite this fact their role have been largely ignored in the debate so far. That was the conclusion of the State of the World Population 2009 report, released yesterday. “With the possibility of a climate catastrophe on the horizon, we cannot afford to relegate the world’s 3.4 billion women and girls to the role of victim”, said UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid

The poor are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and poor women in poor countries are among the hardest hit – even though they can be said to have contributed least to it. Out of the people in the world who live on less than 1 USD, the majority are women and many of them are working in agriculture – a sector which is inevitably very sensitive to unpredictable weather conditions. Many of these poor women also live in marginal areas that are particularly sensitive to extreme weather such as hurricanes, floods and rising sea levels.

According to the report, women are more likely than men to die in natural disasters, and this difference is most obvious in areas with low income and where status differences between men and women are high. Another important point brought up in the report is the fact that investing in education and better health for girls and women tends to have a positive impact on climate issues. Policies, programmes and treaties thus need to take the rights and potential of women into account in order to be successful. Most importantly, it’s time to look at women and girls as important agents for positive change, not helpless victims.

Read the entire report here.

Source: UNFPA.

Written by Fanny Johansson

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