Climate change affects women’s livelihoods

Daily Graphic, pg. 11 Sat. Oct 11/08

Article: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho

GATHERED around a small pot of boiling maize in a remote village in Ghana is Ruby, a peasant farmer, as well as her four children who are waiting to cook their last cereal.
Life has not been easy for the family and many other farmers in and around their village as their crop yield has been poor due to bad weather.
Ruby and farmers in other parts of the world are among people in the global community who are experiencing the negative impact of climatic change, as a result of human activities.
Those seriously affected by the change are women and children who constitute the most vulnerable group in society and environmentalists say the global community is living on a time bomb that can explode at any time.
According to the preamble of the Women’s Manifesto of the United Kingdom (UK), “climate change is the single greatest environmental threat to life on earth. It not only impacts on our environment physically and economically, it also affects us socially and culturally.”
The issue of climate change has become dicey as the environment has for centuries been polluted and the end result is the numerous natural disasters such as flooding, cyclones, rising sea levels, heat waves and hurricanes which are currently being experienced throughout the world.
However, all is not lost yet as propounders of the manifesto believe that women have a key role to play in tackling the issue of climate change as consumers, educators and ‘change agents’ in homes, by encouraging the adoption of lower carbon lifestyles and passing on green values to the next generation.
According to the originators of the manifesto, women are also far more concerned about environmental issues than men but, “unfortunately, our importance is not matched by our representation. Women are significantly under-represented in decision-making positions on environmental issues, industry and the scientific community. We are also insufficiently empowered in taking action in our own homes to mitigate the effects of climate change.”
Globally, women are said to be more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to their different social roles and status. In the developed world, increasing costs for energy, transport, health care, and nutrition are likely to affect women, including single mothers, more than men. In developing countries, women are already suffering disproportionately more as a consequence of climate change.
The manifesto estimates that 70 per cent of the world’s poor, who are far more vulnerable to environmental damage, are women. It states further that 85 per cent of people who die from climate-induced disasters are women while 75 per cent of environmental refugees are also women. It adds that women are more likely to be the unseen victims of resource wars and violence as a result of climate change.
Women are believed to be more environmentally aware than men, more likely to be doing something about climate change but also more likely to suffer from its effects. They spend more time shopping than men and make the majority of purchases that have a direct impact on climate change, including food, clothing and household goods. As household managers, women are believed to hold the key to controlling household carbon emissions across the world.
However, due to the feminisation of poverty, other existing gender inequalities, and the gendered roles of men and women in society and in the division of labour, there are gender differences in climate change impacts.
At its 46th session in 2002, the Commission on the Status of Women took up climate change issues when it addressed environmental management and the mitigation of natural disasters. The agreed conclusions adopted by the commission called for action to mainstream a gender perspective into ongoing research by the academic sector on the impact of climate change, including the root causes, and to encourage the application of the results of this research in policies and programmes.
It is widely acknowledged that the negative effects of climate change are likely to hit the poorest people in the poorest countries hardest. In other words, the poor are most vulnerable to climate change.
Since women form greater part of the population of the poor in developing countries and communities that are highly dependent on local natural resources, women, again, are likely to be disproportionately vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Moreover, because of gender differences in property rights, access to information and in cultural, social and economic roles, the effects of climate change are likely to affect men and women differently.
Chapter 24 of Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) therefore calls for a global action for women towards sustainable and equitable development and it recognises the impact of environmental problems on the lives of women and children.
It also calls for urgent measures to avert the ongoing rapid environmental and economic degradation in developing countries that generally affects the lives of women and children in rural areas suffering drought, desertification and deforestation, armed hostilities, natural disasters, toxic waste and the aftermath of the use of unsuitable agro-chemical products.
The chapter says that in order to reach these goals, women should be fully involved in decision-making and in the implementation of sustainable development activities.
In Ghana, the impact of climate change on women is no different as the global phenomenon puts women's livelihoods at stake.
This is because women constitute about 51 per cent of the nation’s population and about 30 per cent of them are heads of households. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, women also constitute 52 per cent of the agricultural labour force and produce 70 per cent of subsistence crops and play major roles in production and distribution.
Incidentally, a lot of Ghanaian women depend on the natural environment to provide food, energy, water and medicine; and it is this ecosystem that is under threat. Women’s income from their livelihoods and other economic activities has been affected, thus making them poorer.
The low income levels of Ghanaian women can be said to be leading them to compounding the issue of environmental degradation, since most of them do not have the resources to adhere to environmentally sound practices such as the use of gas instead of firewood.
Also due to inadequate resources, most middle class women go in for second-hand electrical gadgets such as fridges and microwaves which is not healthy for the environment because these emit more carbon than necessary.
The harm of global warming which is leading to climate change, according to environmentalists, has already been caused generations ago and the only solution now is for people especially women to change their attitude towards the environment.
Women such as Ruby mentioned in the introduction of this article should be empowered to adopt a more environmentally friendly approach to generate and make a living, focusing on the need for sufficient food, water, cooking fuel, a climate-proof asset base to prevent poverty, protection against climate-induced floods, famine, drought and conflict, and the education on climate change.