Responses to climate change tend to focus on scientific and economic solutions rather than addressing the vitally significant human and gender dimensions. For climate change responses to be effective thinking must move beyond these limited approaches to become people-focused, and focus on the challenges and opportunities that climate change presents in the struggle for gender equality. This cutting edge pack advocates for a transformative approach in which:
Climate change is increasingly being recognised as a global crisis, but responses to it have so far been overly focused on scientific and economic solutions. How then do we move towards more people-centred, gender-aware climate change policies and processes? How do we both respond to the different needs and concerns of women and men and challenge the gender inequalities that mean women are more likely to lose out than men in the face of climate change? This report sets out why it is vital to address the gender dimensions of climate change. It identifies key gender impacts of climate change and clearly maps the global and national policy architecture that dominates climate change responses.
The report maps pathways for making climate change responses more gender aware and – potentially –
transformative, arguing that gender transformation should be both a potential end goal and an important
condition of effective climate change responses and poverty reduction.
The report provides inspiring examples of locally relevant, gender-aware innovations from diverse global
regions and contexts. Recommendations include:
This Supporting Resources Collection - part of the BRIDGE Cutting Edge Pack on Gender and Climate Change- showcases existing work on gender and climate change. It presents summaries of a mix of conceptual and research papers, policy briefings, advocacy documents, case study material and practical tools from diverse regions. Examining why a focus on gender and climate change is important, the resources look at the human and gender impacts of climate change, the global and national responses to climate change and locally relevant gender aware responses to climate change. They seek to address a wide range of questions including:
Climate change is increasingly being recognised as a global crisis, but responses to it have so far been overly focused on scientific and economic solutions. How then do we move towards more people-centred, gender-aware climate change policies and processes? How do we respond to the different needs and concerns of women and men, and also challenge the gender inequalities that mean women are more likely to lose out than men in the face of climate change? This In Brief sets out why it is vital to address the gender dimensions of climate change. It maps pathways for making climate change responses more gender aware and – potentially – transformative and suggests promoting a rights based approach to climate change. This is to ensure that climate change policies and processes draw on human rights frameworks as well as finding alternatives to market-based approaches. When market-based approaches are used to address climate change mitigation they should benefit women equally and not exclude or further disadvantage them. Another recommendation suggests learning from people focused gender – transformative approaches at the local level and apply these lessons to national and international policy. In this respect, the In Brief includes inspiring examples of local, gender-aware innovations in Colombia and India. The case studies have been produced collaboratively through participatory workshops, semi-structured interviews and site visits with FUNDAEXPRESIÓN in Colombia and the Community Awareness Centre (CAC) in India. FUNDAEXPRESIÓN plays a key role in promoting strong local networks to create resilience to climate change and CAC engages women and men in developing relevant solutions that empower women.
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