Women Key in Climate Change Debate

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When world leaders convene to discuss climate change in Copenhagen this December, they'd be wise to discuss the role of women, the United Nations Population Fund announced this week.
 
It's well-known that global warming disproportionately affects the poor, and women make up 70 percent of those living below the poverty line. Women also have less access to disaster-prevention resources and are more likely to be bound to the home when a disaster strikes. And yet they are routinely left out of the climate change discussion and its contribution to natural calamities.
 
Take the case of Bangladesh: Recently identified by the NGO GermanWatch as the country most impacted by global warming (pdf), it also  has the highest disaster mortality rate in the world. (See the UNDP Vulnerability Profile for Bangladesh here.) Women in the country are heavily involved in rural and agricultural work, which makes them especially vulnerable to disasters such as cyclones and floods. A report following a catastrophe-heavy year in 1991 found that the death rate among females was 71 per 1000, compared to 15 per 1000 for men. Beyond fatality, disasters also have more of a lingering impact on women in the country—they destroy both the agricultural landscape and the homes in which they work.
 
So what are the solutions? More gender parity, more education and more development (Bonus: These will assist developing countries in many other ways as well--such as increasing their economic productivity.) The Women's Environment and Development Organization is a good place for more information: They do studies and outreach in low-income countries throughout the world, including Bangladesh.
 
The UN is right: In the debate about climate change, women cannot be ignored.
 
Primary source for statistics: WEDO's Gender, Climate Change and Human Security Report.
 
For more information on climate change and Copenhagen: Mother Jones' Climate Countdown Special Report
 
(Image by IRRI Images; floods caused by Typhoon Ketsana in low lying areas near the Laguna de Bay around 60 km south of Manila.)
 
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