“We have a moral responsibility to the most innocent victims of climate change: the poorest citizens of the world and those yet to be born. Be part of the solution; make a personal statement on how you live life.”
 -Steven Chu, Nobel Prize winner in physics; former U.S. Secretary of Energy

Gender and Climate Change

We began this project by using art and art making to mitigate the distress and denial that sometimes overwhelm us at the unthinkable losses we are experiencing in the natural world.  In our discussions, we pondered how to resist what separates people from coming together to make changes? Changes that create and maintain a world we all want to live in. Why is it so hard to agree on what to do? The costs of climate change are not borne equally by all people, often affecting those with the fewest resources.

Why Climate Change Disproportionately Affects WomenAs we seek a world that is sustainable for all it's inhabitants, it is essential to highlight the ways that climate change burdens some people much more than others, and each of us need to understand our part in the larger effort and act.

That’s because women are more likely to live in poverty than men, have less access to basic human rights like the ability to freely move and acquire land, and face systematic violence that escalates during periods of instability.
These factors, and many more, mean that as climate change intensifies, women will struggle the most. In fact, the Paris climate agreement includes specific provisions to ensure women receive support to cope with the hazards of climate change.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals urge countries to mitigate climate change under Global Goal 14 and promote gender equality under Global Goal 5. You can join us in taking action on these issues here. 

"Across societies the impacts of climate change affect women and men differently. Women are often responsible for gathering and producing food, collecting water and sourcing fuel for heating and cooking. With climate change, these tasks are becoming more difficult. Extreme weather events such as droughts and floods have a greater impact on the poor and most vulnerable – 70% of the world’s poor are women.Despite women being disproportionately affected by climate change, they play a crucial role in climate change adaptation and mitigation. Women have the knowledge and understanding of what is needed to adapt to changing environmental conditions and to come up with practical solutions. But they are still a largely untapped resource. Restricted land rights, lack of access to financial resources, training and technology, and limited access to political decision-making spheres often prevent them from playing a full role in tackling climate change and other environmental challenges. Unleashing the knowledge and capability of women represents an important opportunity to craft effective climate change solutions for the benefit of all." ~ IUCN, International Union for the Conservation of Nature

Where you live makes a difference.  Great disparities remain. "The 12 percent of the world’s population that lives in North America and Western Europe accounts for 60 percent of private consumption spending, while the one-third living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 3.2 percent. "...."The United States, with less than 5 % of the global population, uses about a quarter of the world’s fossil fuel resources—burning up nearly 25 % of the coal, 26 % of the oil, and 27 % of the world’s natural gas." ~Worldwatch Institute

Gender and the Environment Resource Center

 Mothers of Invention is an  initiative with a series of podcasts showcasing the work of grassroots climate activists at a local level, as well as globally resonant initiatives under way in numerous jurisdictions to force governments to adhere to the Paris agreement goals. Scientists and politicians feature alongside farmers and indigenous community leaders from Europe, the US and Australia to India, Kenya, South Africa and Peru.

"CLIMATE CHANGE IS THE GREATEST HEALTH THREAT OF THE 21st CENTURY” 
  -Margaret Chan, head of the UN World Health Organization
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At the UN Climate Conference, COP 25, in Madrid in December 2019, countries took steps to adopt a plan for a more gender-responsive approach to climate action.  The United Nation climate change Gender Action Plan (ccGAP) includes 20 activities grouped under the priority areas: a) capacity-building, knowledge management and communication; b) gender balance, participation and women’s leadership; c) coherence; d) gender-responsive implementation and means of implementation; e) monitoring and reporting. 

Gender equality and women’s rights have progressed immensely since the adoption of the most visionary agenda on women’s empowerment, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 25 years ago. This year, we have the opportunity to make a real difference in our climate response and to recognize its critical links to gender equality.  In addition to the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration this year, 2020 is also the year when countries are requested to deliver stronger climate action plans to adapt and cut their emissions further and faster under the global Paris Climate Accord. Climate action is attracting a large volume of funding through increasingly diverse funding streams, but often ignores its impacts on gender equality and misses to benefit from women’s leadership and expertise on climate-related issues.

In June 2015 a new major report backed by the UN World Health Organization contends that climate change threatens to undermine half a century of progress in global health.  Direct risks to health from climate change includes heat waves, floods and droughts, and equally devastating indirect risks include air pollution, spreading diseases, famines and mental ill-health.

In earlier administrations, the United States was a leader in drawing attention to the linkages between gender equality and climate change through its international development policies and engagement with international bodies  and has initiated gender-responsive climate policies through the State Department and USAID through new programs such as the Gender Equality for Climate Change Opportunities, Women in African Power, and the Partnership on Women’s Entrepreneurship in Renewables.

"What’s to come for more gender-responsive climate policy?" from the Gender Policy Report of the University of Minnesota asks, how, given that the effects of climate change are, and will continue to be, disproportionately experienced by women, the administrations' stepping back from engagement on climate change politically and financially will be weakening many domestic and international institutions that work to address gender disparities in the context of climate change.

Climate change has consequences .  In 2014 the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released a report that was the work of thousands of scientists stating that climate change has already increased the risk of severe heat waves and other extreme weather and warns of worse to come, including food shortages and violent conflicts.   We know that that poorest people in the world are the worst affected, and that while the carbon footprint of the poorest billion people is about 3% of the world's total footprint, loss of life is expected to be 500 times greater in Africa than in the wealthy countries. 

Such shortages can lead people to migrate as climate refugees, leading to further health problems, and conflicts. People forced to move, whether by food shortages, floods or extreme storms may suffer serious mental and physical health problems. Despite global efforts that are improving human health overall,  the following are also true:

• 10 million children still die every year;
• 200 million children under age five are undernourished;
• 800 million people are hungry
• 1,500 million people already do not have clean drinking water.
• All of the above could worsen very significantly due to climate change.

Recent research indicates the ways to avoid dangerous global warming are both available and affordable:

• Global poverty can only be reduced by halting global warming;
• A rapid phase-out of coal from the global energy mix is among the commission’s top recommendations, due to the millions of premature deaths from air pollution this would prevent.
• Carbon emissions will ultimately have to fall to zero.  (Currently carbon emissions, mainly from burning coal, oil and gas, are currently rising to record levels, not falling)

Reports indicate that it is POLITICAL WILL, not finance or technology that is the barrier to low-carbon economies and the associated improvements to health and poverty.

• Fossil fuel companies are benefiting from global subsidies of $5.3 trillion a year, equivalent to $10 million a minute every day, according to a startling new estimate by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

• The IMF says the costs of dealing with climate change caused by CO2 emissions account for subsidies of $1.27 trillion a year.

• if fossil-fuel subsidies were abolished, there would be no need to subsidize renewable energy,which receives a comparatively small $120 billion globally per year.  Renewable sources would become cost-competitive with fossil fuels if the latter were priced to reflect the total costs to society of their impact.

Today more than ever, society has come to recognize that the anthropogenic destruction of our planet’s sustainable biodiversity negatively impacts humankind, placing human life at risk.  The cause-and effect relationship that exists between environmental collapse and the subsequent risk to our existence can no longer be ignored. 

- Romina Picollotti, in Linking Human Rights and the Environment,



CLIMATE CHANGE GENDER VIOLENCE AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING:

Increasingly it seems that there's a link between a damaged environment and growth in modern-day slavery/human trafficking, Trafficking strikes all genders and ages regardless of religious affiliations, sexual orientation or country of origin. It is ethnically diverse as well as happening to all socioeconomic classes.
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The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently carried out the biggest and most comprehensive study on the relationship of gender violence to climate change.  It found gender-based violence to be pervasive, and that there is enough clear evidence to suggest that climate change is increasing gender-based violence.  Gender-based violence includes domestic violence, sexual assault and rape, forced prostitution, forced marriage and child marriage, as well as other forms of the exploitation of women. The report found human trafficking rises in areas where the natural environment is under stress, and links between gender-based violence and environmental crimes such as wildlife poaching and illegal resource extraction. Globally, about 12 million more young girls are thought to have been married off after increasing natural disasters, and weather related disasters have been shown to increase sexual trafficking by 20-30 percent.

Statistics vary widely from different sources, but the Secretary General of the United Nations (July 23, 2012 report) says 20.9 million persons have been trafficked into forced labor, with 43% of those trafficked for sexual exploitation. Today it is thought to be as many as 27 million persons.  It is estimated that 70 percent of trafficking victims are female.

There are economic, social, political, legal, and other factors that can lead to vulnerability to trafficking. Increases in poverty due to climate change and environmental disasters increase the likelihood that vulnerable people may be more willing to take a risk and trust someone promising a job outside of the impacted area.  Some organizations view climate change and situations within the physical environment  the greatest risk factor in regards to human trafficking.

GENDER SENSITIVE RESPONSES TO THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE:

Women can be more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men, primarily as they constitute the majority of the world’s poor and are more dependent for their livelihood on natural re-sources that are threatened by climate change.  They face social, economic and political barriers that can limit their coping capacity. Women and men in rural areas in developing countries are especially vulnerable when they are highly dependent on local natural resources for their livelihood.

It is also  important to remember that while women are vulnerable to climate change, they are also effective agents of change in relation to both mitigation and adaptation. Many women have a strong body of knowledge and expertise that can be used for climate change mitigation, disaster reduction and adaptation strategies. Additionally, women’s responsibilities in households and communities, as stewards of natural and household resources, positions them well to contribute to livelihood strategies adapted to changing environmental realities.

Four areas have been identified as critical building blocks in response to climate change: mitigation, adaptation, technology transfer and financing. The first two blocks are linked to manifestations of climate change; and the latter two are linked to the means for achieving development goals.  Women's voices need to be a part of the solutions and their participation in the planning of initiatives is critical to their success.

• Mitigation involves a process of curbing greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.
• Adaptation involves a range of activities to reduce vulnerability and build resilience in key sectors, such as water, agriculture and human settlements.
• New and improved technologies and
• Financing initiatives at all levels also need to receive attention as part of collective efforts to address climate change.

UN WomenWatch is focused on gender equality and the empowerment of women. Their fact sheet on Women, Gender Equality and Climate Change shares analysis of how women are affected globally by these issues; and how they respond. It provides information sources on agriculture and food security, biodiversity, and an additional focus on indigenous women, water resources, equality and health; migration patterns due to environmental degradation; climate change and women’s human rights; energy; financing technology, mitigation, adaptation and technology;  and emergency measures during natural disasters.


A NOTE FROM HELEN AND MARY KAY:
As we compiled this list, we wrestled with the difficulty of presenting painful truths without having a simple list of Things You Can Do. The solutions are not simple actions; they require looking into the face of the trauma that our human species is enduring during this planetary climate crises. One common reaction to trauma is to shut down or numb out. But when we refuse to do that, to not be silent and to muster the courage to open to the woundedness in and around us, we can shake off the numbness. Then we can take action.

"Trauma constantly confronts us with our fragility and with man's inhumanity to man, but also with our extraordinary resilience....Most great instigators of social change have intimate personal knowledge of trauma. Read the life history of any visionary, and you will find insights and passions that came from having dealt with devastation. The same is true of societies. Many of the most profound advances grew out of experiencing trauma: the abolition of slavery from the Civil War, Social Security in response to the Great Depression....Trauma is now our most urgent public health issues we have the knowledge necessary to respond effectively. The choice is ours to act on what we know”. Bessel van der Kolk “The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma"

Now we just need the WILL to act and require of our leaders that they do what needs to be done.