Climate Change or Climate Emergency?

 Introduction

Climate change is a critical factor in current and future changes to the water cycle. The sad reality is whilst African nations contribute the least to global emissions, they are most affected by the impacts of climate change, due to the over reliance on the natural environment. Currently,  9 out of 10 of the most vulnerable countries to climate change are in Sub Saharan Africa alone. Furthermore, climate change is not gender neutral. Because of their economic marginalisation, political disenfranchisement and differentiated labour responsibilities, women are most severely affected by climate change. This blog will look at the disproportionate effects of climate change through the lens of ‘intersectional feminism’.


This video by Simavi, summarises the topics I've covered in my blogs.


The impacts of climate change on women's agricultural productivity 


Increased climate variability reduces agricultural productivity posing unequal impacts on women’s natural, social and financial assets. The use of agricultural technology has been beneficial for women as it increased agricultural labour demand for women in Ethiopia, enabling employment (Teleworld et al 2013). However, they are not given proper training and lack the extension services for effective adaptation to the impacts of climate change (Witinok- Huber er al, 2021).  Despite their dominance in this sector, female headed households in Ethopia have significantly lesser endowments in key productive inputs such as land labour and capital, which caps their agricultural production and makes them more vulnerable and adaptive to impacts of climate change

COP27: Where are the women?

On 6 November, world leaders gathered in Egypt for the COP27 Summit. This year’s summit emphasised that women and girls should participate fully, equally and meaningfully in all levels of decision in climate action. It called for more gender responsive climate policies and actions, and an increase of international investments and initiatives to boost women’s resilience in climate smart sustainable development. Despite the focus on more female participation, it was ironic that only 7 out of 110 leaders that attended were women, one of the lowest concentrations ever seen at UN climate summits. The absence of women is echoed in the ‘family photo’ (Figure 1) 



Figure 1: The 'family photo' at this year's COP27


Despite the decision of more female participation in 2011, female participation in global delegations seems to be deteriorating by over 7% in the last 5 years (Figure 2). The Environment Minister of Rwanda who had 52% of women in its cabinet, said this turnout is ‘dangerous’ for the improvement of women’s conditions in relation to climate change. 



Figure 2: A graph showing the lack of female participation in country delegations 


Conclusion

With climate change projected to worsen in the future, the need to recognise and address the gender differentiated impact of climate change is critical. Given that 80% of people displaced by climate change are women, women need to participate in decision making at all levels to ensure climate change solutions are met.




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