14/02/2023
CLIMATE CHANGE AND GENDER
One of the biggest problems currently facing humanity is climate change.[i] With growing dread, experts are sounding the alarm about this calamity. It is obvious that immediate action is required to minimize greenhouse gas emissions in order to control the future rise in global temperature.[ii] Living conditions and general well-being are impacted by climate change. The effects of climate change can differ for men and women. However, women are negatively impacted by climate change and its effects.
Research reveals that women are more negatively impacted by climate change than men in five impact areas[i]:
(i) Agricultural Productivity: Women have limited access to the education, outreach programs, and technology needed for efficient climate change adaptation that can enhance agricultural productivity. Additionally, barriers to women adopting technology are visible at all stages, including awareness, testing, and sustained usage.
[ii] Some societies restrict access to markets or the privilege to farm particular crops to men only. A lot of adaptation strategies also cost money for households with little access to credit and few, largely female, working-age adults since they need abundance of resources such as time, labour, technology, or networks for cooperative action. This has over the years negatively impacted agricultural productivity in the territory.
Research reveals that women are more negatively impacted by climate change than men in five impact areas[i]:
(i) Agricultural Productivity: Women have limited access to the education, outreach programs, and technology needed for efficient climate change adaptation that can enhance agricultural productivity. Additionally, barriers to women adopting technology are visible at all stages, including awareness, testing, and sustained usage.[ii] Some societies restrict access to markets or the privilege to farm particular crops to men only. A lot of adaptation strategies also cost money for households with little access to credit and few, largely female, working-age adults since they need abundance of resources such as time, labour, technology, or networks for cooperative action. This has over the years negatively impacted agricultural productivity in the territory.
Food and Nutrition Security:
Climate change has an impact on food production, food availability and access, diet quality, and nutrition. Through direct and indirect pathways like floods, droughts, and land degradation and indirectly through income shocks and health effects brought on by increased viability of pathogenic microbes and their vectors, climate change can have an impact on the availability and access to food and nutritional security.
Health:
According to the IPCC's 2007 report, climate change will undermine advancements in public health, particularly in Africa, where its effects on health will manifest as malnutrition due to food insecurity brought on by drought, the escalation of environmentally sensitive chronic diseases, and decreased water quality. Direct and indirect effects of climate change on women's health are exacerbated and magnified by socioeconomic inequalities. Physiological, cultural, and socioeconomic variables also contribute to gender variations regarding climate change effect on health. Particularly during pregnancy and lactation, women are more sensitive to food and nutrition security caused by climate change and tend to experience greater rates of chronic malnutrition.
Water and Energy:
Africa is the second driest continent on Earth after Australia, with only 9% of the world's renewable water resources. Climate change is expected to have an effect on the water cycle, posing a threat to the security of the water supply, which is essential for supporting health and welfare. The socio-cultural norms around the division of labor, particularly for collecting water, are related to women's vulnerability to a lack of water for household use, particularly during the dry season. Water and fuelwood collecting work can be harmful to women's health since it places a heavy burden on their metabolism and damages their musculoskeletal system, which can result in the early development of arthritis.
Disaster, Migration, and Conflict Due to Climate Change: The effects of climate-related risks on women will always be more severe due to the increased disaster risk brought on by climate change. Women who are left behind in gendered migration frequently experience heavier work-loads since they typically have fewer off-farm opportunities than males. Men are forced to travel to cities and other rural areas in search of off-farm employment as a result of declining livelihoods reliant on natural resources, yet it has been found that these male adaptation efforts make women more vulnerable.
