Climate Policies Must Allow Women to Control their Bodies and their Fates

Apr 14, 2022 | Zainab Yunusa
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Links between women’s sexual and reproductive health and the impacts of climate change are made clear in the recent Working Group II report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). For the first time, the authors note the risks pregnant women face in a changing climate. They also cite increased access to reproductive health and family planning services as contributing to climate change resilience.

Though slow-moving, this is welcome progress: Conversations around global climate policy have long paid little attention to the connection between sexual and reproductive health and climate change. Policymakers often do not see such links, resulting in policies that fail to consider the realities and needs of women, girls, and other marginalised populations.

Yet there are reasons to be wary as sexual and reproductive rights gain more attention in the climate debate. We need to steer clear of policies that seek to control and police women’s reproductive health in the name of curbing emissions.