Women neglected by debate on climate change

WOMEN IN developing countries are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but their plight has been largely overlooked in the debate over how to tackle the issue, according to a United Nations report published yesterday.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) report, Facing a Changing World: Women, Population and Climate Change , details how climate change threatens to widen the gap between rich and poor and amplify gender inequalities. Slower population growth in both developed and developing countries may help “ease the task of bringing global emissions into balance with the atmosphere in the long run and enabling more immediate adaptation to change already under way”, the report argues.

“For many people – especially poor women in poor countries – climate change is here and now,” said UNFPA director of human resources Sean Hand at the Irish launch of the report in Dublin yesterday. “Poor women in poor countries are among the hardest hit by climate change even though they contributed the least to it.”

Outlining a “cycle of deprivation”, the study notes that women in developing countries shoulder a larger share of agricultural work and had less access to income-earning opportunities.

Source: Africa World News

(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)

Szóljon hozzá ehhez a cikkhez