Climate Change:
The Vulnerability of Women
 

Climate change has become one of the important environmental issues globally. Climate change refers to a statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability persisting for an extended period (typically decades or longer). Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forces. It is a result of persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use.

The issue of highest importance to developing countries is reducing the vulnerability of their natural and socio-economic systems to the projected climate change. India is a large, developing nation with nearly 700 million rural population directly depending on climate-sensitive sectors (agriculture, forests and fisheries) and natural resources (such as water, biodiversity, mangroves, coastal zones, grasslands) for their survival and livelihoods. The most effective way to address climate change is to adopt a sustainable development pathway by shifting to environmentally sustainable technologies and promotion of energy efficiency, renewable energy, forest conservation, reforestation, water conservation, etc. Vulnerability is a term which explains the extent of climate change to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes. Vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude, and rate of climate variation to which a system is exposed, its sensitivity, and its adaptive capacity. Climate change has brought out noticeable changes in the weather conditions such as increased temperature, droughts, storms or floods. The issue of climate change has become a sustainable development challenge these days, with major impacts not only on the environment but also on economic and social development.

Poorer section of women is more vulnerable to climate change

Apparently, the impacts of climate change vary from region to region, between different generations, income groups and occupations as well as between women and men. Due to lower adaptive capacities, developing countries and people living in poverty are likely to experience significant impacts of climate change. Historically, it is proved that women face more disadvantages as comparison to men in poor countries, which include limited access to decision-making and economic assets composite of climate change challenges. The reasons that why women cluster is vulnerable to climate change and suffer is that they have limited access to resources and services, victims of gendered division of labour, less liberty of migration, low visibility and decision-making power, face violence in face of disaster/conflicts, inadequate attention for women’s reproductive and sexual health. Women of rural areas in developing countries are highly dependent on local natural resources for their livelihood, because of their responsibility to secure water, food and energy for cooking and heating. The effects of climate change, including drought, uncertain rainfall and deforestation, make it harder to secure these resources. With frequent droughts, especially in semi-arid regions of India (e.g. Madhya Pradesh), women need to travel great distances to access clean water sources. This adds to their already busy schedules, and gives them very little time to earn an income, get an education or for leisure. Women find it difficult to recover from a natural disaster as they do not own land or other liquid assets that can be sold to secure income in an emergency.

It is therefore imperative that gender analysis should be applied to all different actions taken for climate change and that gender experts are consulted in climate change processes at all levels, so that women’s and men’s specific needs and priorities are identified and addressed.

Role of Women for Climate Change adaptation

In terms of climate change, women can play a crucial role to fight against climate change and mitigate the effects of climate change, because they are the prime conveyors of values and are often most concerned with the welfare of their children and the need for a livable, stable world by giving them the opportunity to participate as role models, decision makers and as environmental experts. The vulnerability and capacity of a social group to adapt to climate change depends greatly on the accessibility to assets, resources, knowledge, technology, power, decision-making potential, health, education and food. The more assets people have, lesser they are sensitive and vulnerable to climate change. In many areas of research, it has been proved that women tend to have limited access to assets as compared to their gender counterparts. In many developing countries, women are deprived of the capacity to cope or learn about their vulnerabilities or, rather, being kept out from accessing information. In most of the rural areas in India, women are facing constraints on both mobility and behavioral restriction. Therefore, women have become an important actor vulnerable to the climate change as compared to men.

Adaptation involves a range of activities to reduce vulnerability and build resilience. The key sectors concerning women‘s activities to adapt to climate change are agriculture, water, food security, forests, health and the economy. Traditionally, women have been working and are still assuming their responsibilities in these sectors in most communities, so one needs to underline, that in these areas women are already very active and innovative in order to secure the survival of their families and communities. Rural women in particular are responsible for half of the world’s food production and generate between 60-80 per cent of the food production in developing countries.

Generally, women look for better solutions for different household problems - lack of drinking water, and access to education and health - reducing factors of vulnerability of their communities and establishing networks with other women to increase their social capital. Women can better observe and understand the domestic environmental hazards. They are also aware of the patterns of sicknesses in the children and in neighborhood which help them to quickly detect the reasons of its origin. At local levels are the women who have greater clarity about what diverse social groups lose in the short term after a cyclone or an earthquake, which in the community are at risk and what is needed, and which native trees should be protected.

Women play an essential role at the community level to reduce the risk of disaster and searching good strategies to adapt to changing climate. Therefore, their knowledge and experiences should be taken into consideration to plan and execute good adaptation process for vulnerable communities. Therefore, it is necessary to promote strategies for adaptation through inclusive and consultative processes that give participation to both men and women exposed to risks, taking into account the needs and expectations of both, and addressing a perspective of gender equity. With this, the adaptation process becomes an opportunity to questioning and change traditional gender relations in society. In the processes of adaptation, it is necessary to promote for more and better documentation of experiences (best or lost practices) in this field. q

Reference
1. Climate Change 2001, Inter-governmental panel on climate change (IPCC), Cambridge University Press.
2. Climate change and gender: economic empowerment of women through climate mitigation and adaptation (2010), working Paper.
3. Global Environmental Outlook (1999), United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Oxford University Press.
4. Jayant Sathaye, P. R. Shukla and N. H. Ravindranath (2006), Climate change, sustainable development and India: Global and national concerns, Current science Journal, Vol. 90 (3)
5. United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE), Women Watch (www.un.org/womenwatch).
6. Y. Carvajal-Escobar, M. Quintero-Angel, and M. Garcia-Vargas (2008), Women’s role in adapting to climate change and variability, Advances in geosciences.

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