Women suffer more financially than men from climate change: UN – 2024-03-09 09:38:21

According to the United Nations, women in developing countries are suffering more financially than men due to climate change. Recent research by the organization suggests that this gap in the calculation of losses between men and women is likely to increase in the future.

According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on March 5, the income of female-headed households in rural areas has decreased by eight percent more than the income of male-headed households due to heat. In case of flood also, the financial loss of women is about three percent higher than that of men.

This gap means that women in the world’s low- and middle-income countries lose $3.7 billion more to heat and $1.6 billion more to floods than men.

The researchers estimate that with a 1°C increase in long-term average temperature, the income of female-headed households will decrease by about one-third compared to male-headed households.

According to the report, women and children have to work harder than men even in extremely high temperatures. In such an environment, rural children work an average of about one hour extra a week.

Lauren Phillips, FAO’s Deputy Director for Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality and co-author of the report, said governments around the world are failing to address the causes of women’s disadvantages. Climate aid is also not designed in a way that will address the gender equality gap. He said, for the first time in this report, the financial loss gap has been clearly measured.

Three Panamanian women are working in front of the house. Photo: AFP

This gender gap can have a dramatic impact on GDP growth, Phillips said. If we can reduce the insecurity of 4.5 billion people by focusing on women, it can increase the global GDP by one percent.

How women are affected
One of the reasons why women are affected more than men by the climate crisis is that its effects exacerbate existing gender inequalities in society; For example, unequal rights to land tenure, lack of economic opportunities for women, etc. Women also shoulder more of the burden of providing water, fuel and food.

Less than two percent of global climate finance is estimated to go to small-scale food producers.

Governments and donors can address this problem by better targeting aid, Phillips said.

He said, women should be targeted in such a way that their empowerment is more profitable. Targeting climate finance to women has multiple benefits and advantages. We need to look at these things to get a much higher return on investment.

Source: The Guardian

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