women, developing countries, climate change

In Poznan, Poland, national representatives, intergovernmental organizations, and various nongovernmental organizations are meeting to discuss strategies to collectively combat climate change. These United Nations-led talks started on December 1 and will last until the 12th.

Interestingly, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has pointed out something we often forget. Climate Change will impact some people quite differently from others. I've blogged before about how the developing world is disportionately affected by climate change. But now the IUCN is saying that the women of developing countries are especially affected.

From their website:

Women are more likely than men to be killed by natural disasters such as cyclones, hurricanes, floods and heat waves, which are on the rise as a result of climate change. A sample of 141 countries from 1981 to 2002 found such disasters kill more women than men or kill women at an earlier age than men.

Girls and women are responsible for collecting water and fuelwood. In the poorest areas of the world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls can spend three to four hours a day on these tasks.

Flooding, drought and desertification can extend these burdens geographically, forcing more girls in more communities to abandon their education. Of the 115 million children in the world who do not go to school, three-fifths are girls, and women constitute 75 percent of the world’s illiterate population.

Various bodies are also calling on the international community to consider the ways in which, as well as the reasons for which, women of the developing world can contribute to the fight against climate change. South Africa's deputy minister for environment and tourism, Rejoice Mabudafhasi, said this:

As women, we look for water and firewood -- we understand the environment better. And as women, we believe gender issues must be incorporated in all decision making on climate change.

The suggestion is that the negotiations is Poznan, and all future talks on climate change, should be a lot less "gender-blind", a lot more inclusive of varying perspectives.