Why climate change and women?
Climate change impacts are not gender neutral. Because men and women have unequal roles, status and rights within society, climate change affects men and women in different ways.
Globally, women account for 70% of the world’s poor and depend more than men on ecosystems that are under threat by climate change.
Women are more vulnerable to climate change than men because:
1. Existing gender norms and ideas ascribe different roles to men and women;
2. Women have unequal rights to men and are more likely to face discrimination. For example, women have no or limited control over and access to land and natural resources. Similarly, they lack access to information, technologies and credit that are important for adapting and responding to climate change; and
3. Women are usually excluded from participating in decision making, and have little say in deciding how resources are to be managed and allocated.
Gender disparities of climate change are recognised at the international level through various agreements, such as:
- The International Conference on Population and Development (1994);
- The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995); and
- The World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002 and 2005).
The most pivotal instrument in recognising and protecting the rights of women is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). All Pacific Island Countries (with the exception of Tonga) have endorsed the CEDAW, although the monitoring and the implementation of measures to eliminate discrimination against women remain weak across the region.
The concern for the absence of gender considerations in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was highlighted by the CEDAW Committee in its statement on Gender and Climate Change in 2009.
Women alone can’t tackle climate change. Solutions come from women working together with men, governments of all countries, donors, civil society, concerned individuals like YOU and of course Mama Land.