WUNRN
By William Lacy Swing, Director General, International
Organization for Migration
First published in the UNA-UK publication: "Climate 2020: Facing the Future"
We live in the era of
greatest human movement in recorded history. One in every seven people is a
migrant and more people are moving today in the context of climate change. The
consequences of climate change further highlight how, if well governed,
migration is inevitable, necessary and even desirable.
Three points are worth noting. First, trends show that migration will rise due to climate change, and that many more people will be vulnerable if they cannot move. Second, there are significant accomplishments around the world to make environmentally related migration dignified, orderly and humane. And third, all actors need to promote a coherent, coordinated, effective and sustained approach to climate change-related mobility by integrating migration concerns into climate change, disaster risk reduction, response and development policies at all levels.
Direct Link to Full Document:
http://e59114bec18f33b2ba6d-67d853478b97815e7adb8b9373d7dc7d.r53.cf2.rackcdn.com/CLIMATE2020.pdf
Document – Page 46 - Empowering
women - Climate change impacts women more than men. The new climate
agreement must redress the balance.
By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
Empowering Women & Climate Change
Climate change impacts women
more than men, yet the issues women face and their potential
contribution to community
response often go ignored. The new climate agreement must redress
the balance and place gender
equality, women’s empowerment and human rights at its core
By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN
Under-Secretary-General & Executive Director, UN Women
Women have an enormous capacity for
transformational leadership. Many women and girls already play key – but unsung
– roles in the protection and management of natural resources and are at the
forefront of actions aimed at reducing human contributions to global warming.
However, their experience, and their potential to increase resilience against
shocks from climate change, remains largely untapped. This is particularly
important in planning the role of women and in integrating a gender perspective
in disaster risk reduction, climate action and the post-2015 development
agenda.
Demand for food is growing while
land and water resources are becoming ever more scarce and degraded. Climate
change will make these challenges yet more difficult. Now, more than ever, when
UN Member States are expected to adopt a new climate agreement at the
Conference of the Parties in Paris (COP21) in December 2015, we need decisive
global action that recognises and optimises the role of women and girls in a
world where the climate is
changing and where lives and
livelihoods are at stake.
In March 2015 at the Third UN World
Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan, participants called for
a strong human rights-based approach
to climate action that takes into
account not only women’s vulnerability to climate change but also their crucial
capability as leaders in disaster preparedness and management. We know that
climate-related hazards magnify gender inequalities and widen the existing
socio-economic and political gaps between women and men. These are compounded
by the intersecting issues of poverty and a lack of control over land and
productive resources. Droughts, extreme weather events, sea level rise, ocean
acidification and flooding hit women and girls harder than men and boys.
Yet gender stereotypes negatively
define and limit women’s and girls’ responses to natural disasters. Estimates
by Oxfam suggest that around three times as many women as men perished in the
Asian tsunamis. Typhoon Haiyan, which displaced four million people in the
central island regions of the Philippines, resulted in a death toll of 6,300.
64 per cent of those who died were women.
Although they could be active
responders and rescuers if included in early warning systems, without inclusion
women become vulnerable and limited in agency. Increasing participation While
traditional conceptions of women as weak or incapable limit their mobility,
voice and space to take leadership or
developmental roles, the actual
needs of women and girls are not always considered or met. For example, the UN
Population Fund estimates that following Cyclone Pam in March 2015 there were
roughly 56,000 women and girls of childbearing age in the island nation of
Vanuatu that required support such as hygiene supplies and reproductive health
services.
An estimated 5,000 women
experienced sexual violence losses experienced by women are invisible. The
economic impact recorded relates to damages to productive resources and losses
in the formal employment sector, both of which are predominantly owned and
controlled by men. Women’s activities in the informal sector, their
participation in subsistence fishing and farming, and the greater burden of
care-giving placed upon women after disasters are most often not captured in
formal accounting, resulting in substantial under-valuation. This reinforces
the overall underestimation of women’s contribution and perpetuates
stereotyping.
In fact, in many parts of the
world, women are leading climate action. Women heads of state and governments,
CEOs, heads of international organisations,
grassroots and community activists,
young women and household managers are all making strides on climate issues,
inspiring action and benefiting entire communities. For example, a study of
women’s participation in forest management in India found that their
intervention brought a corresponding fall in illicit grazing and felling, with
significantly increased reforestation and regeneration of forest goods,
enhancing forest carbon stocks. Women’s increased participation also in the
month following Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
These issues cannot be solved until
women’s contributions, as well as men’s, are fully considered and until women
can voice concerns about gender-based violence, and advocate for proper
infrastructure, resources and safe spaces during and after disasters. In
addition, the reality of women’s roles in the economy and in sustaining
communities is not captured in the current methods of accounting and reporting
of climate change impact. Consequently, the
resulted in greater involvement in
decision making processes, economic independence and improved household income
levels. Rural Women Light up Africa, a partnership between UN Women and the
Barefoot College of India, enables women in villages in developing countries to
learn to become solar engineers, and to install and maintain solar equipment
for their communities. Beyond introducing a renewable and sustainable source of
energy, the programme’s benefits for women and girls include increased
community status.