Women’s Role in a Warming World An Untapped Resource in Climate Adaptation

Published: Wednesday, June 02, 2010

In June climate negotiators will reconvene in Bonn, Germany for an interim meeting to discuss the working text of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC, the international treaty that aims to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent climate change's worst effects. A relatively new aspect of this conversation is how women can help adapt to climate change and their unique circumstances when it comes to the issue. They are severely affected by climate change yet underrepresented and not engaged in solutions.
Women are likely to be hit harder by climate change than men due their social roles and the simple fact that a majority -- as much as 70 percent -- of the world's poor are women. As a result, they are much more devastated by natural disasters than men. One researcher concludes that women are 14 times more likely than men to die in a natural disaster such as a tsunami. Experts predict climate change will only exacerbate such inequities.
But over the last few years the increasing portfolio of climate solutions is beginning to include gender-sensitive approaches and women's involvement. Observers realize that women need to be protected, engaged, and empowered for climate solutions to truly succeed. They also see that a vulnerable segment of the population is in fact one with mass potential to bring positive change.
Women are a largely untapped resource that we must use to effectively and justly combat climate change. They need to be harnessed to prepare communities for global warming's effects, particularly in developing countries where warming will have the most severe consequences.

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