Effects of climate change on women

Simona Donini, intern at the Italy, San Marino, Malta and the Holy See Desk at UNRIC in Brussels

There is an array of literature on gender and the environment, gender and water, gender and conflicts, and gender and disasters, but there is surprisingly little research on gender and climate change. Climate change will affect everyone. Will women be hit the hardest by its consequences? Why is it important to consider the gender aspects of climate change?

The impacts of climate change on women have not been in the mainstream focus of the key international agreements on climate change. In fact, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto protocol, the two most important treaties addressing the global efforts to combat climate change, do not even mention neither the word ‘gender’, nor the word ‘women’ (Margaret Skutsch, 2002). In addition, all key decision-making institutions related to climate change have a male-dominated hierarchal structure (Aguilar, 2007).

Nevertheless, during the UN Climate Change Convention in Bali in December 2007, a world wide coalition of women presented their position papers on how gender issues relate to climate change. One of the key issues in the papers is that "women are the most affected by climate change, but they are also key catalysts for positive change. Their knowledge and experience is fundamental for a successful mitigation of climate change, as well as for climate change adaptation."

In developing countries women in rural areas are typically expected to take care of families’ subsistence; they have the major responsibility for food security, household water supply, energy for cooking and heating. Denton (2000), for instance, argues that women are more vulnerable than men to the effects of climate change, because they are, in general, poorer and more dependent on natural resources threatened by climate change both in agriculture and fisheries. Jyoti Parikh (2003) suggests that for women, climate change could mean extra hardship in their activities, such as farming, fishing and water collection.

How does climate change affect women?

Food security. Despite unequal access to land, information and technologies women are responsible for 60-80% of the food produced in developing countries (FAO, 1997). Climate change will reduce crop yields and food production, and therefore, it will compromise women’s ability to preserve food security within the household. (FAO, 1997)

Water supply. Access to water will be the biggest threat to livelihoods in developing countries. Women are often the collectors and managers of water supplies in the household, as well as farmers of irrigated and rain-fed crops (FAO, 1997). Nevertheless, their access to water is often restricted, because of preferential treatment to irrigation of mono-crops, dominated by male farmers rather than the diversified cropping pattern of women farmers. Furthermore, in areas affected by desertification, the task of water collection will become harder and more time-consuming as women will need to travel greater distances (Broody, Esplen, 2008).

“Women were adapting to environmental change long before scientists gave it a name”
– Winnie Byanyima, Director of UNDP Gender Team

Health. Climate change will exacerbate the transmission of water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea, hepatitis and trachoma. As the collectors of water, women come into contact with poor quality water, which makes them more vulnerable to water-borne diseases than men. Climate change will also lead to higher rates of malnutrition due to food shortage, and women are likely to be the first to go hungry. As primary caregivers in many families, they may see their responsibilities increase. Further, in the developing world, women frequently have less access to medical care than men.

Natural disasters. Climate change will bring an increase in floods. Indeed women are more vulnerable than men during natural disasters and often less informed. For instance during the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh, warning information was only communicated to men and not the rest of the family, consequently women made up 90% of the deaths during the cyclone (Aguilar, 2004). As women have to spend more time maintaining their houses after flooding their work load will increase. It is also known that violence against women dramatically rises after a natural disaster (Duncan, 2007).

Furthermore, women commonly have unequal access to information and resources; they are under-represented in decision-making, which makes them even more vulnerable. Nonetheless, women have a strong body of knowledge and expertise that can be used in climate change mitigation, disaster reduction and adaptation strategies to build community resilience. A recent participatory project from Action Aid and the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex has shown that women in rural communities in the Ganga river basin are adapting their practice to secure their livelihood in the face of changes in flood’s duration and frequency (Broody, Esplen, 2008). Their knowledge and experience should be used to inform adaptation programs.

There are important gender perspectives in the issue of climate change and in order to successfully reduce its impact, women need to be considered: the way women use their environment, in comparison to men, and the way women are affected by environmental change are important factors in a successful climate change adaptation program. Also, it is important to mainstream gender in the institutions that deal with these issues. Failing to include women in climate change mitigation and adaptation will not only exacerbate gender inequalities but also undermine the effectiveness of climate change response. It is time to recommend that gender issues are expressly mentioned in the next climate change treaty. ■


References

L. Aguilar, Climate Change and Disaster Mitigation, 2004. IUCN. Available online at genderandenvironment.org.
L. Aguilar, Climate Change Briefing: Gender and Climate Change, 1007. IUCN. Available online at iucn.org.
A. Broody, J. Demetriades and J. Esplen, Gender and Climate Change: Mapping the linkages, 2008. IDS. Available online at bridge.ids.ac.uk.
F. Denton, “Gender Impact of Climate Change: a human security dimension,” in Energia News 3 (3).
FAO, FAO focus: Women and food security, 1997. Available online at FAO.org.
J. Parikh and F. Denton, Gender and climate change: report on an event, 2003 Available online at cru.uea.ac.uk.
M. Skutsch, “Protocols, Treaties and Action: the Climate Change Process Viewed trough Gender Spectacles,” 2002, in Gender & Development vol. 10 no. 2, pp. 30-39.
World Rainforest Movement at wrm.org.uy.

Image: UNEP-Shehzad_Noorani