WUNRN
18 November 2009
STATE OF WORLD POPULATION 2009 -
UNFPA
FACING A CHANGING WORLD - WOMEN,
POPULATION AND CLIMATE
Direct Link to Full 104-Page Report:
Women Central to Efforts to Deal
With Climate Change
LONDON - Women bear the
disproportionate burden of climate change, but have so far been largely
overlooked in the debate about how to address problems of rising seas,
droughts, melting glaciers and 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 floods, rising seas and storms.
The report
draws attention to populations in low-lying coastal 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.
Research
cited in the report shows that women are more likely than men to die in natural
disasters—including those related to extreme weather—with this gap most
pronounced where incomes are low and status differences between men and women
are high.
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.
“With the
possibility of a climate catastrophe on the horizon, we cannot afford to
relegate the world’s 3.4 billion women and girls to the role of victim,” Ms.
Obaid says. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to have 3.4 billion agents for
change?”
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