{"id":13971,"date":"2023-03-03T10:56:48","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T07:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=13971"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:31:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:31:31","slug":"role-of-women-in-climate-change-adaptation-and-mitigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2023\/03\/03\/role-of-women-in-climate-change-adaptation-and-mitigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Role of women in climate change adaptation and mitigation."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Both the Effect and role women can play to reduce climate change<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Climate change is one of humanity\u2019s most significant global challenges in the twenty-first century. Climate change is a serious threat to livelihoods and will endanger the achievements of Sustainable Development Goals if we fail in mitigation and adaptation mechanisms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women account for 50% of the world\u2019s population. While climate change affects everyone, it does not affect everyone equally. Vulnerability to climate change is worsened by inequity and marginalization linked to gender, ethnicity, low income, and other social and economic factors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Climate change will impact the hardest on poor regions, in which 70% of these poor are women; on the other hand, women can be valuable agents of climate change. Empowerment of women in planning and decision-making on climate change should be a joint effort, even at the local levels. Therefore, women must have equal access to knowledge and technology to influence climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to UNFCCC, various social-economic increases in women\u2019s vulnerability to climate change. They include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women don\u2019t have easy and adequate access to funds to cover weather-related losses\/adaptation technologies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women face gender-based barriers to accessing land, financial services, social capital, and technology, making them vulnerable to food insecurity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Close to those who live on less than a dollar a day,70% are women.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women work for about 2\/3 of the day\u2019s hours and receive only 10% of the world\u2019s income: This translates to women owning only 1% of world property.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women parliamentarians (MPs) average only 17% of all parliamentary seats globally. This means women have been sidelined in terms of governance and decision-making on climate change issues.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only 8% of the world\u2019s cabinet is women. Cabinet has been the highest decision-making organ, which means when climate change policies are being formulated where women are the most vulnerable, only a handful of women are involved.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women are not only vulnerable to climate change but they are also effective actors\/agents of change in relation to both mitigation and adaptation. Women\u2019s responsibilities to households and communities as stewards of natural and household resources position them well to contribute to livelihood strategies adapted to changing environmental realities (UN Women Watch 2017)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">women possess unique knowledge and experience, particularly at the local level, their inclusion in decision-making processes is critical to effective climate action. At primary level, women are directly involved in management of natural resources an attribute that places them in a better position to govern resources and enhance conservation outcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Climate change is accelerated by emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon(iv) oxide. Women are socialized as care-givers and in farm management. Therefore, expanding women\u2019s ability to access productive resources will increase agricultural production and further enhance food security. Increased yields enable women to sell the surplus produce. The resources generated decreases women\u2019s dependence on forests as sources of fuel and energy consequently decreasing the pressure to deforest more land.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The Effects of climate change on women.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Climate change is having greater impacts to the sections of the population that are most dependent on the stressed natural resources and who are least able to respond to natural hazards which often applies to women (IPCC 2015). The effects can be broadly classified into three: The economic effects, Social effects and Cultural effects.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The Economic Effects:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> These refers to the financial costs and impacts that women have experienced as a result of climate change. The women finances have been greatly affected by climate change in the following sectors:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Food and Livelihood security:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Women mainly plays the role of producers working in farms to produce food for subsistence and commercial purposes as their source of livelihoods. Climate change negatively affects the production, availability and accessibility of food. The devastating impacts of climate change such as floods, droughts, high temperatures and increased acidity and salinity of soils, erosions and environmental degradations negatively affects livestock and crop production. Low outputs consequently impact women finances reducing their economic abilities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Heath Implications and costs for treatments:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The potential climate change scenarios includes increased mortality and morbidity due to floods, storms, droughts, heat waves and fires. High temperatures increase risks of Mosquitoes bites and malaria transmissions while floods increase risks of outbreak of water borne and vector-borne diseases. The prevalence of these diseases will likely aggravate women\u2019s care-giving of family and community members. Care-giving affects women\u2019s productive time as a resource. Diseases also drains the family finances due to costs of treatments affecting women\u2019s economic abilities. They can also worsen other maternal and other neonatal outcomes such as miscarriage, premature births and Anemia. All these are capital intensive conditions that requires more resources and emotional capabilities to deal with.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Water Security and Energy Shortages<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Climate change has significant impacts on fresh water sources, affecting availability of water used for domestic purposes. This as a result of increased frequencies of floods and droughts. This affects women who have the responsibility of water management at the household levels. The Arsenic contamination of ground water causes health problems such as skin lesions. This drain family resources in seeking treatments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The Social Effects of climate change on women<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: These refers to the social factors that affects the social life of women. They include the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The impact on Women\u2019s Dignity and human rights<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Global warming is one of leading and greatest contributor to hunger, malnutrition, exposure to diseases and declining access to fresh water. Permanent displacements pose limitation to access to adequate housing and loss of livelihoods. These affects the dignity and social rights of women such as right to food, shelter and health.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The women\u2019s education and Health implications<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Displacements, Migrations, Floods and droughts affects the availability and distribution of social amenities like Schools and health facilities like hospitals. Women are more likely to go hungry when food supply is low. This makes them prone to certain diseases and malnutrition due to inadequate food and water supplies. This negatively affect the women\u2019s social life more so if a woman is pregnant or during the menstruation period. In extreme circumstances, cases of stillbirths are experienced. With learning and health facilities been unavailable, it becomes difficult to learn how to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change on their social life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The cultural Effects of Climate Change on Women<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: These refers to how the loss and damage caused by climate change extends to cultural factors significantly influencing the women\u2019s way of life. Example due to displacements and direct material losses as a result of environmental degradation leading to loss of local knowledge and local language elements hence leading to loss of cultural heritage. Also due to climate change, scientist and technological advancement have established various crops and animals\u2019 genetic varieties that adapts to changes in climatic and weather patterns phasing out the cultural practices where women were tasked with selecting various post-harvest practices of selecting the good crop varieties to be re-planted in subsequent seasons. Climate change has led to erosion of various cultural practices among women.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The role of women can play to reduce climate change<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women have knowledge and understanding on what is needed to adapt to changing environmental circumstances in order to determine practical solutions. This is through the following ways:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The participation of women in Decision-making<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Climate action empowers women to be part of the solution. The promotion of women\u2019s education and participation in decision-making are among the most effective ways of reducing future emissions of GHGs.This helps in reducing climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The integration of women\u2019s valuable knowledge &amp; practical experiences into policy making processes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This refers to need of incorporating women\u2019s ideas and insights when formulating zero carbon emission policies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Through Harnessing of Women\u2019s knowledge and capabilities<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: This is through provision of access to sustainable agricultural practices and resources. This is to help increase productions. With increased production coupled with excellent marketing capabilities and opportunities, this translates to more revenue\u2019s streams. This will help promote women as agents of change with unique perspectives and expertise in mitigation and adaptation mechanisms to climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The Involvements of women in developments of new technologies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: This is to ensure that technologies are user-friendly, affordable, effective and sustainable. This helps to reduce carbon emissions to atmosphere hence reducing concentration of atmospheric GHGs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although women are at the forefront leading efforts of global climate movement, the national climate change strategies barely consider women noble roles. The climate action without women\u2019s involvement will fail to tackle the climate change crisis today and shall create bigger challenges in future. Therefore, there is urgency in need of governments to recognize the economics and social impacts of climate change and responds to the risks faced by the most vulnerable majority been women<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Both the Effect and role women can play to reduce climate change Climate change is one of humanity\u2019s most significant global challenges in the twenty-first century. Climate change is a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89,92,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-responsibility","category-environmental-responsibility","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}