The annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Party is at its 27th edition- COP 27, and several concerns have been highlighted with proposed viable solutions. On the 8th day, November 14th 2022, the theme was Gender and Water. The discussions analyzed the necessity of having clean water and why gender gaps need to be closed, they emphasized why women need to play more leadership roles in the climate action space seeing that women and children are at more risk of suffering the dangers of climate change.
Ecofeminists have always argued that women are closer to nature and understand nature better than men. Therefore they need to be at the heart of decision-making for climate action. They also believe that gender biases intersect with the environmental crisis, proposing that the elevation of women in society will contribute immensely to reducing carbon emissions.
In Africa, women and children suffer the most from Household Air Pollution due to the emissions from unclean cooking methods, mining and other local carbon-emitting activities. According to a 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) report in Kenya, about 23,000 people died from household air pollution, with a very high percentage of the death toll being women and children. Also, menial jobs are mostly given to women at industrial levels, like cleaning waste material and having almost direct contact with hazardous substances that could contribute to health risks and challenges. Ecofeminism debates against these situations, demanding that equal seats at the table of climate action will reduce the masculinized social constructs, and the society will be able to see the discrepancies needed to be addressed at microlevels than the broad scale being discussed at all times.
Why is it necessary to have women in Environmental Policy-Making?
- Social activities and issues are directly linked to environmental impacts. The lawmakers need to understand that ecological crisis does respect social class or gaps, yet could adversely affect more people than others. This implies that women are a massive part of societal biases and are at more risk than men. Women are needed at the decision-making table because they at the ones who understand these problems the most and would be the ones to know how to solve them where they are being affected.
- Regarding energy consumption and climate change, women are said to be the most users of domestic energy consumption. In third-world societies, the sources of these energies are mostly carbon-emitting, which is very dangerous to their health. These issues can also be transferred to their family members. Women being in policy and decision-making could help in the understanding of the precise needs of women’s energy consumption and with proffered solutions to tackle the highlighted problems.
- The sustainable development goals being co-dependent makes it swifter for the environmental gaps to close. Including women in policy and decision-making for environmental activities, not just gender-related issues, gives room for decent economic growth. The maximum utilization of the workforce at all levels will be increased.
In conclusion, the more women at the policy-making table in all sectors, the closer we get to closing the societal gaps which encompass every part of our well-being as humans. This could start with sensitization of women at all social levels and encouraging women, especially young adults, in STEM. Other sectors, like lawyers, political scientists, data analysts and many other industries, would be needed to create the society we want to live in.