Opinion: Women in the Face of Climate Change

• by Renee Juliene Karunungan (bonn)
• Wednesday, September 02, 2015
• Inter Press Service

Climate change has become one of the biggest threats of this century for women. But these ‘secondary impacts' of disaster events are rarely considered, nor are the amplifying impacts of economic dependence, and lack of everyday freedoms at home.

At the Road to Sendai conference held in Manila in March, women's leaders shared their traumatic experience. For many affected by Typhoon Haiyan, simple decisions such as the freedom to decide when to evacuate could not be made without their husbands' permission.

Renee Juliene Karunungan

When typhoons come, women's concerns rest with their children, but they remain uncertain of what to do and where to go. These are some of the crushing realities poor women live with in the face of climate change.

"We must recognise that women are differentially impacted by climate change," according to Verona Collantes, Intergovernmental Specialist for UN Women. "For example, women have physical limitations because of the clothes they wear or because in some cultures, girls are not taught how to swim."

"We take these things for granted but it limits women and girls and affects their vulnerability in the face of climate change," she noted, adding that these day-to-day threats of climate change are only set to increase "if we don't recognise that there are these limits, our response becomes the same for everyone and we disadvantage a part of the population, which, in this case, is women."

Women's groups have been active in pushing for gender to be included in the negotiating text of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and according to Kate Cahoon of Gender CC, "we've seen a lot of progress in negotiations in the past decade when it comes to gender."3

However, this week in Bonn, where the UNFCCC is holding a series of meetings, there has also been growing concern that issues central to supporting vulnerable women have been side-tracked, and may be left out or weakened by the time the U.N. climate change conference takes place in Paris in December.

"We want to make sure that gender is not only included in the preamble," said Cahoon, explaining that this would amount to a somewhat superficial treatment of gender sensitivity. "We want to ensure that countries will commit to having gender in Section C ."

Ensuring that gender is included throughout the Paris agreement is essential to ensure that there will be a mandate for action on the ground, especially in the Philippines. This is the only way to ensure that Paris will make a change in women's lives at the grassroots level.

"We want a strong agreement and it can only be strong if we account for half of the world's population," stressed Cahoon.

Meanwhile, Collantes noted that UN Women is working to ensure that women will not be seen as vulnerable but rather as leaders. She believes that we now need to highlight the skills and capabilities that women can use to support their communities in moments of disaster.

"Women are always portrayed as victims but women are not vulnerable," said Collates. "If they are given resources or decision-making powers, women can show their skills and strengths."

In fact, according to an assessment by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), "women play a key role in adaptation efforts, environmental sustainability and food security as the climate changes."

The women most affected by Typhoon Haiyan could not agree more.

"We are always seen as a group of people to give charity to. But we are not only receivers of charity. We can be an active agent of making our communities more resilient to climate change impacts," a woman leader from the Philippine women's organisation KAKASA said during the Road to Sendai forum.

What does a good climate agreement for women look like?

According to Collantes, it must correct the lack of mention of women in the previous conventions, and it must also be coherent with the goal of gender equality, the Post-2015 Agenda, Rio+20, and the Sendai Disaster Risk Reduction Framework.

"Without gender equality, the Paris agreement would be behind its time and will not validate realities women are facing today," says Collantes.

For the three billion women impacted by climate change, we can only hope negotiators here in Bonn won't leave them behind.

Edited by Phil Harris   

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, IPS - Inter Press Service. 

© Inter Press Service (2015) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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