Introduction
Marta Pompili Policy Officer
Gender equality and climate change mitigation are two of the most pressing global challenges of our time. While these issues may seem unrelated on the surface, a closer examination reveals that they are intricately linked. Achieving gender equality, and hence social justice, is a key driver of climate justice.
As a young woman coming from a Southern European country increasingly experiencing extreme climate events – including disastrous floodings, dramatic heat waves causing devastating fires, and acute thunderstorms – I have witnessed the catastrophic and deeply unequal impact of climate change, producing disproportionate effects on the most vulnerable and marginalized people for reasons related, inter alia, to socio-economic status, age, race and ethnic origin, disability, and gender.
In this blog post, I will explore the specific interconnection between gender equality and climate action, stemming from the basic assumption that the climate crisis is not gender-neutral: women and girls are particularly affected by it. I will analyse how social and climate justice are addressed within the European Union framework and how these goals must be met by building synergies between different fields and involving multiple actors, including Equality Bodies, to create a more sustainable and equitable future for all.
The Climate/Gender Nexus
While being systematic and pervasive in every field of life, gender inequality also arises in the context of climate change. Women and marginalized groups are disproportionately vulnerable to its effects due to social, economic, and cultural factors. This has given rise to the concept of climate-gender nexus, which emerges in different ways and contexts.
Women play a central role in agriculture and land management, sectors heavily impacted by the disastrous effects of climate change. This is particularly true in many developing countries where agriculture is the most important employment sector for them, even though research indicates that in 123 countries (i.e., in about two-thirds of all the States in the world), traditional, religious or customary laws and practices limit women’s freedom to claim and protect these assets.
The health sector is not immune to the climate-gender nexus: women are more vulnerable to the health-related consequences of climate change. Especially in developing countries, increased prevalence of vector-borne diseases, food insecurity, and water scarcity disproportionately affect women’s health, particularly during pregnancy and childbirth. Limited access to healthcare exacerbates these challenges, perpetuating gender-based health disparities.
Climate change may also impact individuals’ access to energy, resulting in cases of increased energy poverty, which disproportionately affects women and girls across the globe. Expanding access to clean energy and renewable technologies can be a powerful tool for climate change mitigation. Gender-inclusive energy initiatives can reduce energy poverty and promote economic development. By ensuring that women have access to clean energy sources, gender equality and climate change action can be advanced simultaneously.
Climate change can disrupt educational systems, with women and girls facing unique barriers. Natural disasters and extreme weather events often force school closures, disproportionately affecting girls’ access to education. Moreover, increased responsibilities for water and resource collection during climate crises may further limit girls’ time and opportunities for schooling.
Climate-induced displacement is also a growing concern and a gendered phenomenon. Women often bear the brunt of forced relocations or, especially in developing countries, are more likely to be stuck in places while male family members migrate. Refugee camps and relocation centres may lack proper facilities for menstrual hygiene and reproductive health, compounding the challenges faced by displaced women.
Climate change is hence a threat multiplier, as it escalates social, political, and economic tensions globally and especially within fragile settings. Research shows that climate change even directly fuels violence against women and human trafficking.
The Nexus in the EU Framework
Since women constitute the majority of the poor in the European Union, they are amongst the worst affected by climate change. The economic and social inequalities between men and women across the Union influence a wide variety of fields, including climate policies. To cite a few examples, the decarbonisation of vehicles and buildings that the EU needs to meet must not further disadvantage women and girls because they are less likely to be able to afford newer, more expensive technologies.
The European Union aspires to be a proactive player in the fight against climate change as well as gender inequality. However, the opinions regarding the concrete linkages between climate and gender in EU policies and the holistic understanding of these challenges are controversial. Despite growing awareness and attempts to integrate both goals into the Union’s policy and legal framework, EU climate policy remains largely gender blind.
The 2030 Climate and Energy Framework, including EU-wide targets and policy objectives for the period from 2021 to 2030, and the European Green Deal – a long-term strategy by the European Union to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 – reflect a formal commitment to transition towards a sustainable, low-carbon economy. Within this framework, there is a growing acknowledgment of the need to address the equality dimension of climate change. For example, the section of Fit for 55 titled “A socially fair transition: tackling inequality and energy poverty through climate action” has strong potential as it states: “The transition towards climate neutrality can be a unique opportunity to reduce systemic inequality”, but gender inequality is specifically ignored.
Different EU institutions have taken this stance. For instance, the European Parliament has been particularly engaged and elaborated multiple declarations and recommendations on the matter. In 2018, it adopted a report on Women, gender equality and climate justice, in which it importantly “recognises that gender equality is a prerequisite for sustainable development and the efficient management of climate challenges”. In 2022, the European Committee of the Regions adopted an opinion on Gender equality and Climate change: towards mainstreaming the gender perspective in the European Green Deal, calling for the inclusion of gender budgeting and gender mainstreaming in the EU Green Deal and other EU policies. The European Institute for Gender Equality also devoted a special focus on the EU Green Deal to its annual work on the Gender Equality Index. In 2023, the index indeed revealed that, although women in the EU display a higher tendency than men to opt for environmentally friendly choices, they are significantly underrepresented in decision-making.
As a matter of fact, despite declaratory aims, lacking actions and challenges persist. Implementation gaps, political will, institutional resistance, insufficient intersectional and sex-disaggregated data on gender-specific impacts of climate change, and the need for capacity building initiatives are amongst the hurdles that must be overcome.
Ways Forward and What Role for Equality Bodies
The multidimensional links between gender equality and climate change mitigation action need to be investigated further through interdisciplinary research, avoiding siloed solutions, and considering more comprehensive sex-disaggregated data as well as gender-sensitive benchmarks and indicators. Only such informed, interdisciplinary approach may lead to truly gender-transformative sustainable policies, in addition to considering an intersectional understanding of the phenomenon, with the final aim of implementing policies that suit specific contexts and diverse identities.
A fundamental way forward concerns the equal participation and leadership of women in climate decision-making processes. Gender-balanced representation is key. Studies show that diverse teams make more informed decisions. When women are actively involved in climate policy, the outcomes are more comprehensive, reflecting the needs and priorities of both men and women. And even in cases where laws and policies do incorporate gender equality, they often treat women as vulnerable groups rather than as agents of change, restricting their ability to fulfil their leadership potential. A re-thinking of women’s role and of the diversity of women’s subjectivities and structural inequalities within and in connection to climate crises is, in fact, essential, thereby applying an eco-feminist perspective.
Additionally, empowering women and girls – especially those most in need – through education and awareness programs is fundamental to building climate resilience. Educated women are more likely to make informed decisions about health, nutrition, and environmental practices, thus reducing the ecological footprint and contributing to climate mitigation efforts.
The European Union, among other actors, must leverage its role in the international arena to foster international cooperation on gender-transformative climate action, and therefore contribute to the development of a global framework that recognizes and addresses the intersectionality of climate and gender. By mainstreaming diverse, context-specific gender considerations into broader climate strategies, they can contribute to more effective and sustainable solutions and to build bridges between climate and gender experts.
Alongside international organizations, however, the role of academia, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations and other interest groups is equally essential, in order to bring the voices of experts and conscious citizens into the discussions and negotiations. Among these actors, Equality Bodies may play a crucial role in carrying out equality and specifically gender assessments of climate policies, using their expertise to advocate for the interests of disadvantaged groups when allocating funds, contributing to the local decision-making processes, and bridging the gap between individuals and institutions.
In consideration of the growing importance of climate change mitigation and the disproportionate effects of climate crises on the most vulnerable and marginalized, Equinet included this as one of its strategic work areas and, in 2022, it commissioned a research study titled Preliminary assessment of the EU Green Deal’s impact on equality. Survey of current practices and needs of European Equality Bodies. The paper focuses on four specific sectors of the EU Green Deal that are particularly relevant to concerns of equality: energy consumption, circular economy, environment and land use, and road transport. In examining the impact of these sectors on equality, the report focuses on various grounds of discrimination, including gender, by – for instance – shedding light on heatwaves disproportionately affecting women, who own lower relative wages in Europe compared to men, or on the persistence of gender stereotypes that make it difficult for women to fully participate in certain areas of life. For example, women in STEM experience barriers in their education and jobs, while it is precisely these STEM jobs that will be on the rise in many climate adaptation and technology projects, favoring instead white, healthy, young, non-migrant, middle-class men.
The publication was recently launched within the Equinet Roundtable The EU Green Deal’s impact on equality. Exploring the role and potential of Equality Bodies. On this occasion, several initiatives developed by National Equality Bodies were presented and discussed. For example, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) recently launched a campaign titled Climate Change is a Human Rights and Equality Issue, thereby calling for a just – both social and environmental – transition in Ireland. Through a Policy Statement and a video published in April 2023, IHREC formulated 15 key policy recommendations, called for the immediate establishment of the promised Just Transition Commission, and recommended that human rights and equality are explicitly included in the Just Transition Commission mandate and embedded in the functions, expertise and diversity of its governing body and staff. Other examples are the work undertaken by the Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities (UNIA), which developed 10 recommendations for inclusive mobility measures in Belgium favoring the most disadvantaged groups, or the conference organized by Estonian Gender Equality and Equal Treatment Commissioner titled Whose Green Transition?, which highlighted the need for (gender) equality to be at the core of the green transition in Europe, by focusing on key policy areas such as accessible mobility, inclusive language in climate debates, and the need for an intersectional lens to ensure a fair transition for all.
In the upcoming future, Equinet will continue to work on this equality trend and further shed light on the potential function that Equality Bodies – together with multiple actors – can have in shaping, advising, and implementing non-discriminatory policies regarding climate change in Europe.