Women are the main producers of the world‘s staple crops, providing up to 90% of the rural poor’s food intake and producing 60–80% of the food in most developing countries. Maize, sorghum, millet and groundnut yields have a strong association with the year-to-year variability of ENSO (El Niño/Southern Oscillation) in Africa. For southern Africa the productivity is expected to drop by 20–50% in extreme El Niño years. If global climate changes move more towards El Niño-like conditions, crop production in Africa will decline (Stige et al., 2006).
Insect outbreaks could increase due to changes in climate. For example, locust outbreaks in China are associated with cold and wet periods, floods, and droughts (Stige et al., 2007). Climate variability also affects the relationships between parasite and host, and parasitoids are key agents of control of herbivore populations (Stireman et al., 2005). An increase in pest outbreaks would not only reduce crop and milk yields, but also add to the number of hours and resources women had to invest in pest control.
Climate variability played an important role in initiating malaria epidemics in the East African highlands (Zhou et al., 2004) and accounts for 70% of variation of recent cholera series in Bangladesh (Rodo et al., 2002). This increase in outbreaks could have gender-differentiated impacts because women have less access to medical services than men (Nelson et al., 2002) and women’s workloads increase as they have to spend more time caring for the sick.
Atmospheric brown clouds (ABS) due to aerosol loads and greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations have reduced historical rice harvests (Cramer, 2006). Rice is the major caloric intake of developing countries. Women are already more vulnerable to nutritional problems (for example, 50% of the women and children in developing countries are anaemic) due to physical, social, economic, gender and cultural issues (e.g. pregnancy, lactation, inequitable food distribution within families).
About 35 million people worldwide depend on fishing and aquaculture, including a substantial number of women (Aguilar, 2004b). Changes in fish communities can have a severe impact on fisherwomen. If the GHG emissions scenario remains as present, climate warming could result in biannual thermal stress spells causing coral bleaching (Donner et al., 2007). This phenomenon could result in the loss of a key marine ecosystem that supports many marine resources essential to women’s livelihoods (e.g. their fishing and tourism activities).
Changes in precipitation patterns have already impacted natural and human systems. Variation in precipitation in California was the most likely cause of the extinctions of two populations of checkers butterfly (McLaughlin et al., 2002). The loss of pollinators, such as butterflies and bees, could have a serious impact on women’s agricultural production of fruit (from their orchards), honey, nuts and flowers.
A study of disasters in 141 countries provided the decisive evidence that gender differences in deaths from natural disasters are directly linked to women’s economic and social rights. In inequitable societies, women are more vulnerable to disasters; for example, boys are likely to receive preferential treatment in rescue efforts and both women and girls suffer more from shortages of food and economic resources in the aftermath of disasters (Neumayer and Pluemper, 2007).
Women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men during a disaster. In the 1991 cyclone disaster which killed 140,000 in Bangladesh, 90% of victims were women (Aguilar, 2004a). Similarly in industrialized countries, more women than men died during the 2003 European heat wave. During Hurricane Katrina in the USA, African-American women who were the poorest population in that part of the country faced the greatest obstacles to survival.
Many key decision-making institutions related to climate change have a male-dominated hierarchical structure. At the COP 7 meeting in Marrakech, the ratio of male to female professionals deciding on forestry and energy projects was 11 to 1.
Women’s empowerment is now being linked to climate change solutions. In November 2006, Kenya’s Greenbelt Movement, founded by Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai, and the World Bank’s Community Development Carbon Fund signed an emissions reductions purchase agreement to reforest two mountain areas in Kenya. Women’s groups will plant thousands of trees, an activity that will also provide poor rural women with a small income and some economic independence. Women’s empowerment through this process will also capture 350,000 tons of carbon dioxide, restore soil lost to erosion, and support regular rainfall essential to Kenya’s farmers and hydro-electric power plants
Over the past two decades climate change has increasingly become recognised as a serious threat to sustainable development, with current and projected impacts on areas such as environment, agriculture, energy, human health, food security, economic activity, natural resources and physical infrastructure.
Although climate change impacts will affect all countries, its impacts will be differently distributed among different regions, generations, age classes, income groups, occupations and genders (IPCC, 2001). The poor (of which 70% are women), primarily but by no means exclusively in developing countries, will be disproportionately affected (Drexhage, 2006).
Climate change does not affect women and men in the same way and it has, and will have, a gender-differentiated impact. Therefore all aspects related to climate change (i.e. mitigation, adaptation, policy development, decision making) must include a gender perspective.
However, women are not just helpless victims of climate change – women are powerful agents of change and their leadership is critical. Women can help or hinder in dealing with issues such as energy consumption, deforestation, burning of vegetation, population growth and economic growth, development of scientific research and technologies, policy making, among many others.
It is widely recognised that industrial countries bear the main responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions. It is therefore relevant to analyse the gender aspects of climate change in developed countries from the angle of emissions and to also consider mitigation strategies from a gender perspective.
Recommendations:
• The UNFCCC should develop a gender strategy, promote women representatives as official focal points, invest in gender-specific climate change research, and establish a system for the use of gender-sensitive indicators and criteria for governments to use in national reporting to the UNFCCC Secretariat, adaptation planning, or projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
• The international climate change negotiation process – as well as climate policies at regional, national and local levels – must adopt the principles of gender equity and equality at all stages: in research, in analysis, and in the design and implementation of mitigation and adaptation strategies. This applies in particular to the process towards a post-2012 climate protection system or “regime”.
• Governments should aim to ensure the involvement of women and gender experts when they prepare their contributions for the international and national processes, and ensure women’s participation at international and national meetings.
• Invest in research in areas such as: gender-specific resource-use patterns; gender-specific effects of climate change; gender aspects of mitigation and adaptation; women’s and men’s capacities to cope with climate change; and gender-related patterns of vulnerability.
• Most of the climate change strategies proposed need to build upon existing gendered strategies already being practiced and incorporate lessons learned about agricultural, livestock, water and coastal management, as well as disaster management (e.g., disaster and risk reduction efforts related to analysis/assessments, preparedness/mitigation, disaster response and recovery/reconstruction).
• Multidisciplinary groups are needed when developing climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, policies, research or initiatives so that environmental, social, gender and economical aspects receive equal attention.
• National and local governments should:
– Develop strategies to improve and guarantee women’s access to and control over natural resources;
– Create opportunities for education and training in climate change; and
– Provide capacity-building and technology-transfer measures.
• Women, like men, should have equitable access to the benefits of market-based approaches to curbing climate change (e.g., the Clean Development Mechanism). CDM should fund projects that make renewable energy technologies more accessible to women and that can fulfil their household needs.
• Measures that provide present and future benefits are required to increase the resilience of people’s livelihoods, diminish gender inequality, increase awareness of climate change effects and prepare them for future changes.
Source:
http://www.gdnonline.org/resources/IUCN_FactsheetClimateChange.pdf
In the face of extreme weather events, desertification, and a rise in the sea levels, governments and communities increasingly recognize that the need to adapt and mitigate to climate change is urgent. the global agenda and negotiations focus on what governments, corporations, and institutions can do in the search for large-scale technological solutions. Yet women, men, and local communities all have roles, responsibilities, and interests that hold the potential either to harm or benefit the environment.
Climate change is the defining human development issue of our generation. The 2007 Human Development report acknowledges that climate change threatens to erode human freedoms and limit choice and the report further underscores that gender inequality intersects with climate risks and vulnerabilities. Poor women’s limited access to resources, restricted rights, limited mobility and muted voice in shaping decisions make them highly vulnerable to climate change. The nature of that vulnerability varies widely, cautioning against generalization but climate change will magnify existing patterns of inequality, including gender inequality.
The resource guide on gender and IWRM is meant as a reference document to assist water and gender practitioners and professionals as well as persons responsible for gender mainstreaming, and anybody else who is interested in the water sector.
The purpose of this report is to assist the Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA), a division within the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in meeting its goals of incorporating gender mainstreaming throughout the entirety of its programme of work, activities and products.
Promoting a gender-inclusive approach to disaster risk reduction
Engendering Climate Change 