The year 2024 is on track to be the warmest on record. According to the World Meteorological Organisation, the past ten years have been the warmest decade on record and global warming is quickly increasing climate extremes, impacts and risks. The resulting climate catastrophe is threatening human health, safety and livelihoods, and is widening pre-existing inequalities especially related to gender. Climate change is putting the health and livelihoods of women at risk while adding to the systemic inequalities faced by them.

According to the Global Gender Gap 2024 report of the World Economic Forum, climate crisis is impacting women’s reproductive health outcomes and pushing millions of women and girls into abject poverty. According to one UN estimate, women and children are 14 times more likely to be fatally impacted during extreme weather events. This is attributed to women and children having limited access to information, mobility, decision-making and resources. A 2022 UNICEF report titled “Bring in the Girls” informs that four out of five people displaced by climate change are girls and women.

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Despite these startling figures, there is little effort to address the disproportionate impacts of climate change on women. Women form part of the invisible work force, are expected to provide unpaid care responsibilities and have reduced access to education which are some of the factors preventing recognition of gendered vulnerabilities to climate change. Moreover, women’s participation in decisionmaking and climate leadership is wanting. Women are de facto providers and procurers of water, food and fuel wood in many regions of the world – scarcity of these resources due to climate change significantly increases their daily workload. The rising impacts of climate change are exacerbating the gender gap, making it more visible than before.

According to the ASEAN Gender Outlook 2024 report, increased droughts, unpredictable rains and rising temperatures correlate with higher rates of child marriage. These factors also become accessibility barriers to clean water and cooking fuels affecting women’s unpaid work. Climate-driven disasters are displacing more and more women and girls from their homes. This is disrupting women’s conventional support systems and putting family planning clinics, maternal healthcare and safe spaces out of their reach. The need for closing the gender gap due to increasing impacts of climate change has never been felt more. This requires innovative approaches backed by political will because past efforts in this direction have been inadequate, to say the least.

The more recent UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have also recognized this need; gender equality is fifth among the 17 UN SDGs that need to be met by 2030. However, a recent progress report on the SDGs has informed that the world is off track to achieve SDG 5 by 2030. As a result, climate change may push 158 million women and girls (16 million more than men and boys) into extreme poverty by 2050. At the current progress rate of the SDGs, it will take 137 additional years to end extreme poverty among women. There are currently 47.8 million more food-insecure women than men and the time spent by women and girls in collecting water is three times that spent by men and boys. The gender gap is far from closed.

The Unjust Climate 2024 report of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warns that femaleheaded households experience 8 per cent income losses due to heat stress and 3 per cent due to floods, relative to male-headed households. Far from being addressed, the pre-existing gender gap is widening due to climate change. Climate action plans and policy makers must take note of this and be gender-sensitive in their approach and implementation. Empowering women must be at the heart of climate action due to the increased vulnerabilities faced by them. Women often have unique knowledge of natural resources and resilience which makes them natural climate leaders who can drive sustainable solutions. Women and girls are not only experiencing greater hardships but are also responding to it with leadership despite societal limitations.

A 2024 report by FAO on Women-led Solutions for Drought Resilience highlights 35 global practices driven by women for mitigating drought and conserving water. Empowering women is not just about climate equity, it is a climate solution in itself. There is increasing reference to gender in the voluntary climate action submissions made by nations to the UN. What is needed along with this is an increase in women leadership at all levels of climate action and decision-making.

According to UN Women, about 35 per cent delegates at the recently concluded COP29 in Baku were women, a marginal increase of 1 percentage point from COP28. Almost 50 per cent of the world’s population is female and a similar representation in global climate negotiations must be ensured. This will create more inclusive climate strategies and will pave the way for long-term environmental resilience. (The writers are, respectively, associate professor at Jindal School of Environment & Sustainability, and a research assistant at Center for United Nations, O.P. Jindal Global University, Haryana.)