Millions of people have already lost their homes and livelihoods due to extreme weather events caused by climate change. Most of them are women.
During climate-related disasters, women are more likely to be injured or killed, lose their job, or be forced into slavery or prostitution to survive.
Historical and structural gender inequalities are the reasons why girls and women experience climate change drastically different than boys and men. These inequalities affect the extent to which girls and women can lead, make decisions, take action, and advance solutions to combat climate change. Systemic gender inequality has also led to women and girls having fewer resources and choices than men. For example, girls and women hold an unequal responsibility for securing food, water, energy, and other vital resources as well as caring for the young and elderly and therefore face more barriers than men to leaving areas that are prone to climate change and natural disasters.
With each climate-related disaster, women fall farther behind men. Women are less able to rebuild their lives due to the widening gender gaps in education, pay, legal rights, leadership, and societal responses to climate change.
- It is estimated that 80% of people displaced by climate change are women. (UNFPA Climate Empower project)
- By 2050, climate change could force up to 216 million people to move within their countries, according to the World Bank’s 2021 Groundswell report.
- By 2025, climate change could force at least 12.5 million girls each year in 30 low- and lower-middle-income countries to abandon their education, with 22 of these countries located in Africa. (UNFPA Climate Empower project)
- In communities in sub-Saharan Africa where 600 million people still lack access to electricity, women manage the household energy choices and have higher insight into how to protect and use their resources and finances. (World Resources Institute)
- If average temperatures were to increase by just 1°C, women would face a staggering 34% greater loss in their total incomes compared to men. (UNFPA Climate Empower project)
- Men fill 67% of climate-related decision-making roles and women’s representation on global climate negotiating bodies remains below 30%. (UN Foundation)
- Just 3% of philanthropic environmental funding supports girls’ and women’s environmental activism. (UN Foundation)
Strengthening women and girls as agents of change
Zonta International is taking action to achieve climate justice by partnering with UNFPA to prevent climate-induced gender-based violence (GBV) and other
harmful practices through interwoven innovative approaches and community-driven interventions in Madagascar, Mozambique and South Sudan, some of the countries most vulnerable to climate change. The Climate Empower: Community Empowerment and Innovation for Gender-Transformative Climate Action program hopes to strengthen women and girls’ role as agents of change for climate resilience.
Advocating for gender-equal climate action
Zonta Says NOW to Gender-Equal Climate Action is Zonta International’s global initiative to achieve gender-equal climate justice. Through Zonta Says NOW, Zonta members advocate for women’s full and equal participation in the economy and support their inclusion as decisionmakers on environmental sustainability at national and local levels.