[ 19 November 2009, Ulaanbaatar ]

Women bear the disproportionate burden of climate change, but have so far been largely overlooked in the debate about how to address problems of extreme weather, concludes The State of World Population 2009, released today by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

“Poor women in poor countries are among the hardest hit by climate change, even though they contributed the least to it,” says UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. 

The poor are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and the majority of the 1.5 billion people living on $1 a day or less are women. The poor are more likely to depend on agriculture for a living and therefore risk going hungry or losing their livelihoods when droughts strike, rains become unpredictable and hurricanes move with unprecedented force. The poor tend to live in marginal areas, vulnerable to climate change. The report draws attention to populations in areas that are vulnerable to climate change and calls on governments to plan ahead to strengthen risk reduction, preparedness and management of disasters and address the potential displacement of people.

The State of World Population 2009 argues that the international community’s fight against climate change is more likely to be successful if policies, programmes and treaties take into account the needs, rights and potential of women. The report shows that investments that empower women and girls—particularly education and health—bolster economic development and reduce poverty and have a beneficial impact on climate. Girls with more education, for example, tend to have smaller and healthier families as adults. Women with access to reproductive health services, including family planning, have lower fertility rates that contribute to slower growth in greenhouse-gas emissions in the long run. 

The 15th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be held in December 2009 in Copenhagen to hammer out a new international agreement that could lead to cooler planet in the long run. This agreement will aim to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, build resilience to a changing climate, especially in those countries that have contributed the least to climate change but are most vulnerable to its impacts, and mobilize public and political will. Negotiations will also address the need for financing and technology transfer to developing countries.