The Nexus Between Gender Equality and Climate Change

May 3, 2019 | Edwin Mumbere
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Over the past four years, we have had the highest temperatures in human history, almost 1°C higher than at the beginning of the industrial revolution. Polar caps continue to melt, coral reefs are bleaching and dying, and ocean levels rise. A growing number of places are experiencing water scarcity and decreases in crop yields, while natural disasters are growing in number and intensity.

It may seem that such issues are strictly environmental, but they are linked to a carbon-based economic business model. This is one in which the richest one percent of the population appropriates 33 percent of the wealth, where approximately half of the working-age women are left out of the labor market, and there are 122 young women for every 100 young men living in poverty. Meanwhile, less than five percent of the largest companies’ boards are women, and for every dollar that men earn on average, women earn about 80 cents.