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Featured Guests

Jose Guzman
Chief of the Population and Development Branch , United Nations Population Fund
Population dynamics, urbanization, aging, population and climate change, fertility transition; child and maternal mortality and health; population and gender, international migration; population and poverty linkages; natural disasters impacts; surveys/census and information systems
UNFPA
Karen Hardee
Vice President of Research, Population Action International
Population and development, family planning and reproductive health, HIV and AIDS, gender integration, and monitoring and evaluation
Population Action International
Laurie Mazur
Director, Population Justice Project
Population, women, environment
Population Justice Project
Robert Engelman
Worldwatch Institute, Vice President for Programs
Population connection to environmental change, economic growth and civil conflict, reproductive health, global public health, climate change, food security, how women's reproductive autonomy makes for environmentally sustainable populations
Worldwatch Institute
Sarah Craven
Chief, Washinton Office
World population, workers' rights, human trafficking
United Nations Population Fund
Tamara Kreinin
Executive Director , Women and Population at the United Nations Foundation
Sexual and reproductive health and rights, adolescent pregnancy, STD, HIV/AIDs, sexual abuse prevention, sexuality education, children in poverty, and advocacy
Women and Population at the United Nations Foundation
Vicky Markham
Center for Environment and Population, Director
Human population growth impact on environment; sustainable development, planned parenthood, Africa and Asia family planning, environment and population science, grassroots advocacy, public education and outreach
Center for Environment and Population

Women Hold the Key to Solving Climate Change

Adaptation Now and for the Duration
Issue Area:


Women Hold the Key to Solving Climate Change

On November 18, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will release The State of World Population 2009: Facing a changing world: women, population and climate. This report shows that climate change will affect women differently than the rest of the population here in the US and around the world. This is the first report to comprehensively demonstrate that climate change is more than an issue of energy efficiency or industrial carbon emissions; it is also an issue of population dynamics, poverty and gender equity.

While everyone is susceptible to climate change, women are most vulnerable. In third world nations women manage households, care for family and tend to have access to fewer income-earning opportunities. Drought and erratic rainfall force women to work harder to secure food, water and energy for their households, requiring daughters to drop out of school to help. This cycle of deprivation, poverty and inequality undermines the social capital needed to deal effectively with climate change.

UNFPA says that while using more green forms of energy will help, it would be more helpful to improve family planning, reproductive health care and gender relations. Progress from implementing these solutions will influence the future course of climate change and affect how humanity adapts to rising sea levels, more severe storms and droughts.

How does climate change impact women? Is population growth a major cause of climate change? What’s the best way to protect humanity from extreme weather and rising seas? Could better access to reproductive health care and improved relations between women and men make a critical difference in addressing this long-term global problem?