Opinion Why women must have a seat at the climate change decision-making table

Women rely heavily on natural resources yet face major obstacles in accessing them. In low and middle income countries especially, women work harder to secure food, fodder, and water during extreme weather events, often leading to girls dropping out of school to support their mothers. If women in developing countries had the same access to resources as men, they could increase agricultural yields. However, due to legal and cultural constraints, less than 20 per cent of landholders are women, with even fewer in North Africa and West Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Women are also less likely to survive during crises due to long-standing inequalities vis-a-vis information-access and mobility creating a vicious cycle of vulnerability to future disasters.

Climate disasters worsen women’s health by limiting access to healthcare and increasing risks related to maternal and child health. Emergent research reveals that women are more likely to experience deaths from heatwaves in France, China, and India, and from tropical cyclones in Bangladesh and the Philippines. According to the UN, 60 per cent of the world’s hungry and malnourished are women. The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that climate change could lead to an additional 1.2 million stunted children by 2050. Girls are expected to be disproportionately affected due to gender disparities in access to food, health care, and education. Extreme heat increases the incidences of stillbirth, and the rampant spread of vector-borne diseases worsens maternal and neonatal outcomes. Therefore, to ensure effective and equitable solutions to climate change, it’s essential to recognise the disproportionate impact on women and provide them with a seat at the decision-making table.

Women have played a major role in the conservation of agrobiodiversity. In fact, the Equator initiative award was won by Komala Pujari in 2003, a tribal woman from Odisha, for conserving local land races of paddy and getting farmers in Jeypore in Koraput district to shift to natural farming methods.

Women farmers play an important role in the protection of environment and biodiversity as well as in taking care of the health and nutrition needs of their families. So, it is important for women’s voices to be included, and those from indigenous communities who have practical experience of living in harmony with nature. But, women are not in decision making positions as they have limited land owning rights and almost no financial resources.

Unfortunately, women continue to face barriers that impede their advancement into leadership positions. But when women are involved in decision-making, it positively impacts the environment. Countries with higher female representation in parliament are more likely to endorse international environmental agreements, and have more stringent climate policies. At workplaces too, women’s leadership has shown a positive correlation with greater transparency regarding environmental footprints and disclosure of emissions.

A gender-intentional response to the climate crisis will result in sustainable economic growth, taking care of climate spillovers. However, elevating women leaders is not just about gender equality, it’s about deploying our full resources to an urgent crisis. In addition, we must also invest in infrastructure that is sensitive to gender concerns to cope with the climate crisis. At the workplace particularly, women’s leadership has shown a positive correlation with increased transparency regarding environmental footprints and the disclosure of emissions. One-fifth of major corporations have pledged to go net-zero by 2050 but do not proactively include women at the board level.

Sabarwal is South Asia Director, WomenLift Health and Swaminathan is Chairperson, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation