2024-03-10 14:21:03
The United Nations says that women are more affected than men by climate change, and that this gap may increase in the future.
The researchers estimate that with a 1°C increase in long-term average temperature, the income of female-headed households will decrease by about one-third compared to male-headed households. This gap means that women in the world’s low- and middle-income countries lose $3.7 billion more to heat and $1.6 billion more to floods than men.
According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), women and children have to work more than men even in extremely high temperatures. In such an environment, rural children work an average of about one hour extra a week. Female-headed households lost eight percent more income than male-headed households in rural areas due to heat. In case of flood also, the financial loss of women is about three percent higher than that of men.
Lauren Phillips, FAO Deputy Director for Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality and co-author of the report, said governments around the world are failing to address the causes of women’s disadvantages. Climate aid is also not designed in a way that will address the gender equality gap.
He said, for the first time in this report, the financial loss gap has been clearly measured.
This gender gap can have a dramatic impact on GDP growth, Phillips said. If we can reduce the insecurity of 4.5 billion people by focusing on women, it can increase the global GDP by one percent.
One of the reasons why women are affected more than men by the climate crisis is that its effects exacerbate existing gender inequalities in society; For example, unequal rights to land tenure, lack of economic opportunities for women, etc. Women also shoulder more of the burden of providing water, fuel and food.
Governments and donors can address this problem by better targeting aid, Phillips said. He said, women should be targeted in such a way that their empowerment is more profitable. Targeting climate finance to women has multiple benefits and advantages.