Why Gender Matters in Climate Change Adaptation UN Women 21 April 2025 Effective climate change adaptation recognizes that women, men and children experience impacts differently depending on where they live, how they sustain their livelihoods, and the roles they play in their families and communities. Climate change is the most critical challenge facing humanity today. Experts are raising the alarm about this crisis with increasing anxiety. Clearly, urgent action is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit the global temperature rise over the coming years. But what about the people who are experiencing the impacts of climate change now, today? And those who will experience worsening impacts for the foreseeable future? 

For the first time, in 2015, the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change established a global goal for adaptation to climate change. This was a recognition that we are committed to a certain amount of climate change and that investment in adaptation is both necessary and increasingly urgent. Climate change is inherently a justice issue—those who have contributed least to its causes will suffer most from its effects. At the global level, such as in the Paris Agreement, this is already recognized. 

How gender inequality and climate change are interconnected 21 April 2025The climate crisis is one of the most pressing issues of our times. It threatens to reverse progress on human rights and sustainable development and worsens gender inequality – posing specific risks to the ways of life, livelihoods, health, safety and security for all women and girls around the world. As more data and research reveal the connections between gender, social equity and climate change, it’s time to talk about how climate change impacts women and girls, why gender equality is key to global climate action, and how we must support solutions for women, by women. 
How does climate change impact women and girls?  The climate crisis is not “gender neutral”. Women and girls bear the brunt of its impacts, which amplify existing gender inequalities and pose unique threats to their livelihoods, health and safety.   Feminist climate justice brings a gender lens to the fight against climate change, acknowledging how the drivers of the climate crisis are also the drivers of gender inequalities.   The Gender Snapshot 2024 report indicates that by 2050, climate change may push up to 158 million more women and girls into poverty (16 million more than the total number of men and boys). Even today, 47.8 million more women face food insecurity and hunger than men. 
 
Women depend more on, yet have less access to, natural resources.......In many regions, women bear a disproportionate responsibility for securing food, water and fuel for their families. When these resources become scarce due to the changing climate, women must work harder and travel farther. This also puts added pressure on girls, who sometimes have to leave school to help their mothers manage the increased burden.  “Women are the ones to face and respond to the effects of climate change, but their role is not understood, much less made visible,” says Miriam Jemio, an environmental journalist from Bolivia. “Extractivism and the climate crisis have profound socio-environmental impact on Indigenous populations, but these impacts affect women differently.” She gives the example of Indigenous women in the Chiquitanía (a region in eastern Bolivia), whose traditional care responsibilities for their families include fetching water. “Water is increasingly scarce... In the Chiquitanía, there are seasons when women have to travel to another community or even to the nearest city.” Gender-responsive climate and environmental action Across the Rio Conventions, UN Women is working towards achieving gender equality and a safer, healthier, more sustainable planet for all. The triple planetary crisis – climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution – has very real and very unequal impacts on women, girls and gender-diverse people.

This year, 2026, is a pivotal opportunity to advance gender equality in the global environmental agenda. In August, October and November, three major Rio Convention Conferences of the Parties (COPs) will convene: COP17 on desertification in Mongolia, COP17 on biodiversity in Armenia, and COP31 on climate change in Türkiye. We are convening in a global context of escalating conflicts, attacks on women’s rights, and environmental degradation. It has never been clearer: Climate change, biodiversity loss and desertification are making our economies, our health, and progress on gender equality more precarious. There is a path forward: just transitions away from economies and societies dependent on fossil fuels and harmful environmental practices – and towards greater sustainability and gender equality......read on    https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/in-focus/women-and-the-environment