Climate Change
Climate change is increasingly recognized as a global threat to peace. Effective responses to conflict prevention and peacebuilding in affected countries and regions require strengthening social inclusion and leveraging the agency of women – especially local women – who are on the frontlines of climate change.
Climate change impacts people’s abilities to perform gender roles; in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, different forms of insecurity and violence can emerge when these gender roles are frustrated. At the same time, climate change can also contribute to social shifts that lead to new responsibilities and opportunities for women and men in economic decisions and activity, political engagement, community arbitration, and mediation.
Responses to climate change are also gendered. Decisions about or related to climate change are most often taken by (elite) males, and thus do not systematically consider how they may impact the security and livelihoods of other genders, and males who are less privileged. Furthermore, they rarely take into account how gender roles have been impacted by climate change or how opportunities to strengthen political and economic gender equity could be supported through climate-related decisions.
Until recently, however, significant gaps in our understanding of how gender, natural resources, climate, and conflict are linked have constrained effective responses. Over-simplistic analysis of gender has also been an obstacle, leading to important oversights in understanding how different identities – gender and otherwise – intersect and compound marginalization. These oversights have serious implications for understanding the security risks and implications of climate change and its responses, like preventing the outbreak, escalation, continuation, and recurrence of conflict.
Key Resources
The Women, Peace and Security Agenda and the Climate Crisis: Inextricable Links
This talk was presented as part of the research seminar, African Perspectives on the 20th Anniversary of UNSCR 325 - Gendering Peace and Security, The…Climate Change in Women, Peace and Security National Action Plans
This SIPRI Insights paper explores how the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) national action plans (NAPs) of 80 states frame and respond to climate change…Women and Climate Change: Impact and Agency in Human Rights, Security, and Economic Development
This report comes at an important time of international observance when new commitments to action will be made, coinciding not only with the fifteenth anniversaries…Gender and Environmental (In)Security: From Climate Conflict to Ecosystem Instability
For decades, scholars, policy makers, and the media have discussed the connections between security and climate change. These actors have utilized various discourses and narratives…Gender, Conflict, and Global Environmental Change
Gender has long been identified as an important variable in both conflict (de-)escalation processes and vulnerability or adaptive capacity toward global environmental change. We understand…Women’s Resilience to Disasters Knowledge Hub
The WRD Knowledge Hub brings together a network of people who support women and girls affected by disasters and climate change.We champion women’s agency and…
General Resources
Gendered Perception and Vulnerability to Climate Change in Urban Slum Communities in Accra, Ghana
Briefs & Development
Climate change is known to have differential impacts in the Global South, with gender and poverty being determining factors. In Ghana, both these factors come…
Gendered Impacts of Climate Change: The Zimbabwe Perspective
Library
Climate Change has been broadly defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as “any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability…
Female Leadership in Environmental Peacebuilding: Ievgeniia Kopytsia Speaks at British Academy Summer Showcase
International
On Thursday, July 11, 2024, the British Academy hosted its annual Summer Showcase Private View, offering an exclusive preview of their free festival of ideas. Among…
How to Advance Peace and Security Through a Climate and Gender Lens? Reflections From Youth at the UN Women’s GEN-Forum 2024
Blog
The unfolding triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution in the Asia-Pacific region has critical implications for human security, conflict, and inequality. Climate…
How to Make Locally Led Climate Adaptation Finance More Gender Responsive
Blog
Northern donors are making efforts to fund local actors more directly and enable greater local leadership, notably within climate adaptation programming aiming to promote gender equality. And…
Climate Change, Conflict, and Gender Inequality in the MENA Region
Blog
The Middle East and North Africa is one of the world’s most gender unequal regions; it will take an estimated 140 years for MENA countries to establish parity…
Climate Change: Women, Peace, and Security and the Climate Change Agenda
International
Climate change is a critical threat to 21st-century peace and security, with significant gender dimensions influencing how insecurity is experienced and managed by women and…
Colombia: Armed Groups Use Deforestation as a Bargaining Chip in Colombia
International
Guerillas once protected the forests that provided them with cover, but recently some factions see the trees, critical to the nation’s climate commitments, as leverage…
How Women and Girls in War-Torn Gaza Are Coping With Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Collapse
International
Deprived of adequate access to water, sanitation, and hygiene services, Palestinian women and girls in Gaza are bearing the brunt of the prolonged and deepening…
Remote: Consultancy: Gender, Climate Change, and Conflict (2016)
Job
Oxfam is looking to commission a briefing paper that will investigate existing frameworks, evidence, influencing and programmatic knowledge on the climate change-conflict-gender The paper will…
Persistent Gender Inequalities Hinder Climate Resilience, Say Women
International
Gender equality advocates are furious that decisions on climate change do not involve women despite their vulnerability.
This as impacts of climate change continue to ravage…
Don’t Forget Women in New UN Climate Fund, Policymakers Urged
International
The loss and damage fund’s success hinges on women’s participation and recognising their uneven climate burden, rights groups say.
Nigeria: Foundation Moves to Curb Impact of Climate Change, Insecurity in Northwest
International
Worried by the continued effects of climate change in the world and Nigeria in particular, the Building Blocks For Peace Foundation (BBFORPEACE) has launched a…
Afghanistan: This Forestry Project in Afghanistan is Pushing Women to the Forefront of Climate Action
International
Zahra remembers what it was like to have predictable agricultural yields. The mother of six, who lives in Afghanistan’s Bamyan province, farms barley, potato and…
Liberia: Stakeholders Unite to Integrate Climate Change Action into Land Formalization Framework
International
Stakeholders have reached a consensus to incorporate climate action within the framework of land rights, aiming for a sustainable and inclusive approach to land formalization.
Liberia: ForumCIV, Partners Hold Policy Dialogue to Secure Land Rights for Women and Rural Communities
International
With support from the European Union (EU), ForumCIV and MAP Liberia have ended a day-long policy dialogue to secure land rights for women and rural…
Liberia: Landesa, Partners Rally Support for Inclusive Climate Action and Land Rights
International
Landesa, a global advocate for land rights and women’s empowerment, in collaboration with the Rights and Rice Foundation, has commenced a groundbreaking conference titled “Land…
Afghanistan: Drought-Affected Kabul Residents Queuing for Hours to Fetch Water
International
War-torn Afghanistan has suffered years of drought. Local residents say the drought was also felt in the capital Kabul in the ongoing harsh winter, with…
DRC: Rise of the ‘Mother Boss’: How Female Miners Are Taking Control in DRC
International
Half of the workers in the Congolese artisanal pits are women, and for years they have faced inequality and sexual harassment. Now a grassroots movement…
Another Layer of Misery: Women in Gaza Struggle to Find Menstrual Pads, Running Water
International
Heba Usrof, a young woman in Gaza, is running out of options to deal with her menstrual cycle. Pads have disappeared from pharmacies and stores.…
Israel/Palestine: Emissions from Israel’s War in Gaza Have ‘Immense’ Effect on Climate Catastrophe
International
The planet-warming emissions generated during the first two months of the war in Gaza were greater than the annual carbon footprint of more than 20…
How 3 Indigenous Women are Leading the Way on Climate Change
International
These profiles showcase the efforts and expertise of the land's original stewards who are working, in one capacity or another, to address climate concerns.
Afghanistan: Severe Drought and Climate Change Impacts Ravage Afghanistan, Reports UN Agency
International
Afghanistan faces its most severe drought in 30 years, impacting various sectors across the country. Rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns exacerbate the crisis, leading…
Gender in Civil-Military Climate Security and Disaster Response: Co-Creating Gender-Transformative Approaches amid the Global Climate Crisis
Library
With the growing frequency, intensity, and severity of climate crisis events and disasters, defense and security institutions will be increasingly called upon to provide humanitarian…
Exploring Environmental Violence: Perspectives, Experience, Expression, and Engagement
Briefs & Development
The contributors to this book represent a wide breadth of scholarly approaches, including law, social and environmental science, engineering, as well as from the arts…
Be a Man: A Theory of Climate Change, Masculinities and Violence
Briefs & Development
Experts increasingly agree that the impacts of climate change are likely to create new violent conflict risks and exacerbate existing ones. However, the extent of…
Leveraging Livelihood Diversification for Peacebuilding in Climate- and Conflict-Affected Contexts
Briefs & Development
Livelihoods are central to the relationship between climate change and conflict. Despite the recognition that climate change related livelihood deterioration is associated with conflict, livelihood…
Addressing Gender Inequalities and Strengthening Women's Agency to Create More Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Systems
Briefs & Development
The body of literature on gender and climate change has grown substantially over the past decade.
Tackling Gender Inequality in Community- Based Organizations: The Contribution of Cacao Cooperatives to Environmental Justice for Women in Peru
Briefs & Development
Persistent gender inequalities challenge theory and praxis of community-based collective action. Here we adopt an innovative approach which integrates environmental justice, value chain inclusion and…
Breaking the Silence: The Complex Nexus of Gender and Climate Change in Nepal
Library
Nepal recognizes climate change as a significant threat to its economy, communities, and environment. Climate variability is one of the major causes of food insecurity,…