JOIN USA year after much-touted climate change summit in Copenhagen, country negotiators from around the world are together again to work out an international response to climate change. While many believe we should lower our expectations for this year’s climate change summit underway in Cancun, this would be a mistake. As global temperatures rise, so do the challenge’s for the world’s poorest citizens — women, especially those living in developing countries.
Women are living on the frontlines of climate change, and are ready to be active partners in dealing with climate change. The negotiations in Cancun should be an opportunity to empower women and make concrete commitments that will turn some promises of earlier negotiations into a fair, binding, and legal document.
From food shortages to forest degradation and new and more complex health risks, as well as an increased likelihood of conflict over resources, the impacts of climate change threaten to further jeopardise the lives of women and girls. But just as many women are bearing the greatest burden of climate change because of their role as providers for their families, it is women who are developing the solutions that will save our world from the impacts of global warming.
Re-using solid waste
Through its green technology initiative in India, the Self-Employed Women’s Association has helped provide over 1,50,000 women with microcredit and training required to take advantage of new green technology. While the developed world talks about action, women from the poorest sectors of India’s economy are cutting carbon emissions by ending their reliance on coal, re-using forms of solid waste and promoting the merits of alternative energy.
Similarly, in regions where women are able to be decision-makers over land use and resources, they are proving to be a positive force for sustainable change. But it is not just women in the developing world who are taking on the challenge of climate change. As the research from North America, Europe, and India demonstrates, women around the world demonstrate greater scientific knowledge of climate change, show more concern, and are more willing to adopt policies that are designed to address global warming. Internationally, women leaders are at the forefront of a global civil society network working to hold government, international institutions, and the private sector to account for their promises on climate action.
Yet despite their willingness to take political and individual action, entrenched inequality between men and women continues to pose a critical obstacle to global efforts to address climate change.
The most fuel-efficient stove ever produced will do little to bring an end to deforestation or reduce carbon emissions if women do not have access to the training required to use it, the micro-credit needed to buy it, or the financial freedom to control household expenditure.
In many parts of the world women do not own collective or individual title to the land from which they live. This lack of control means they are less able to implement sustainable agriculture or adapt forest management strategies that contribute to climate change mitigation as their voices are not heard when decisions are made. It also impedes their ability to participate effectively in programmes such as REDD+, which offers financial incentives for reducing emissions from deforestation.
REDD+ will only work if policy makers are willing to learn from grassroots level women. One of the key lessons is that focusing on carbon as the sole measure of the success of a climate change project has the potential to derail international efforts to combat climate change. Moving forward, we need to also take into consideration community rights to land and carbon, the livelihoods of people in communities, and issues related to governance.
In March this year, when UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced a climate finance panel expected to mobilise $100 billion a year to help those most affected by climate change, the 19-person panel did not include a single woman.
Not only should women be represented on a climate change finance panel. Every effort possible must also be made to ensure that women have access to the education, training, and finances needed to adopt sustainable technologies and participate in the green economy. Women and girls also need the land and resource rights to implement progressive forestry or agricultural practices. Last and certainly not least, women need the basic democratic rights that will enable them to vote for and promote green policies at the local, national, and international level.
If the international community is serious about addressing climate change, it must recognise women as a fundamental part of the climate solution.
(The writer is a winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 2004)
IPS