This article is written by María Sofía Muratore, Sustainability and Social Impact Consultant – Master in International Development and Cooperation at Comillas University.

  • The problem: Women are more vulnerable to climate change. However, they are essential to mitigate climate change.
  • Why it matters: According to UN Women, if rural women had the same access to opportunities and productive resources, their agricultural production would increase between 20 and 30%.
  • The solution: Increase gender bonuses to encourage education plans where technical tools are provided, and the digitisation of tasks is promoted.

The first time the concept of ‘climate change’ was heard about was in 1896, and it came from the mouth of Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish scientist, who used this term to allude to how fossil fuels could accelerate global warming. Arrhenius stated that human activities could cause an increase in temperature by adding carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere, causing a link between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and temperature.

Just under a hundred years later, climate change became a global problem. By 2015, 197 countries agreed on the need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the global increase in temperature to 2 degrees Celsius, with the aim of limiting the rise even more, to 1.5 degrees. It was the first universal and legally binding agreement on climate change, conceived at the Paris Climate Conference (COP21).

However, concrete actions are still being worked on in order to respond to this global problem. Last year at COP27 in Egypt, the need to create a fund was determined to cooperate with the countries most affected by climate change, and those that have not contributed to its consequences. Up to now, it has not been determined how this fund will be executed, nor which countries will benefit.

Economy and climate change: climate justice or paradigm shift?

Global warming affects the economic development of different societies but has a greater negative impact on those populations that rely on their natural resources.

Many girls spend between four and five hours a day fetching drinking water instead of going to school. In many societies, women are responsible for providing energy, food and water, and caring for children and the elderly in the home. In developing countries, the consequences of climate change may increase the burden on women and girls, for example, making them travel further for daily supplies, leaving less time for paid work, and potentially exposing them to a greater risk to their personal safety.

We do not need to eliminate men from the table, we need to seat more women to listen to their needs.

This increased risk to women and girls is further impacted by the lack of meaningful adaptation to climate change, economic instability and existing gender inequalities. All of these factors further the lack of gender equity and work against the development of women's situations in rural areas. For example, In Latin America, 60 million rural women are still highly dependent on natural resources but lack the means to face these challenges (BBVA, 2022).

It is also pertinent to highlight the migrations that occur as a result of environmental catastrophes, or climatic consequences, making it impossible to develop a vital economic activity. According to UNHCR, every year more than 20 million people are forced to leave their homes.

We need to invest in women to solve climate change

In order to solve these problems, it’s essential to consider innovative solutions for vulnerable women so that they can implement climate change adaptation measures and benefit from technical assistance digitisation. This could increase their performance by 30% and lift 150 million people out of poverty (BBVA, 2022).

If rural women had the same access to resources as men, agricultural production in developing countries would increase by 2.5-4%, and the number of people in the world would decrease by approximately 12-17%.

How we could promote gender and climate justice?

  1. Invest in gender bonds to develop their projects.
  2. Educate in technical skills and digitalisation.
  3. Conduct field analysis to gain a deeper understanding of issues and make evidence-based decisions.
  4. Measure the impact of decisions, to look for possibilities for improvement.

Why is investing in gender bonds the answer?

Impact investing is vital to promote gender bonds that stimulate economic development. Financing is essential to facilitate the production of inclusive businesses run by women in the rural sector. This support, with access to teaching programmes and credit tools, would strengthen and build the confidence of women and their ability to transform and overcome limitations.

For this to happen, it is valuable for the public sector, as well as international entities, to establish spaces to promote alliances with the financial sector (investors, microfinance institutions, multilateral and development banks, commercial banks, and asset and fund managers).

At the same time, it is important to highlight that the educational system must provide technical assistance and digitisation tools to increase productivity.

Lastly, it is important to measure every decision made and collect data to make evidence-based data.

On the other hand, it is essential to consider women throughout the decision-making process and co-create with them. If we look at the photo of COP27, the number of women was lower than the number of men. We do not need to eliminate men from the table, we need to seat more women to listen to their needs, co-create the solution and finance development actions.

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(Image Credit: Unsplash)