Climate change is becoming more widely acknowledged as a serious societal issue in addition to an environmental one. The UN Spotlight Initiative recently released an issue brief claiming that climate change fuels gender-based violence (GBV) globally. Rising global temperatures are exacerbating existing disparities, more frequent extreme weather events, and greater resource scarcity, making women and girls more susceptible to violence.

Almost one in three women worldwide has been a victim of sexual or physical abuse, usually at the hands of intimate partners. Experts caution that as poverty, displacement, and violence deteriorate due to climate change, this number may increase significantly. With an estimated 4.7% increase in violence for every 1°C increase in temperature, 10% of occurrences of intimate partner violence by 2090 may be directly related to climate change.

The UN study highlights a disturbing reality: although climate change may not be the direct cause of violence, it exacerbates already-existing disparities, providing an environment that is conducive to abuse, exploitation, and institutional oppression.

How Does Climate Change Exacerbate Violence Against Women and Girls?

According to the UN research, there are several ways that climate change fuels gender-based violence; climatic pressures increase the hazards that women and girls face. Long-term environmental changes and extreme weather exacerbate preexisting vulnerability.

• Economic insecurity: Crop losses, floods, and droughts lower livelihoods and frequently force families to make dangerous survival choices like child marriage.
• Resource scarcity: Intimate partner violence and household conflicts are exacerbated by limited access to food, water, and shelter.
• Displacement: Following natural catastrophes, forced relocation exposes women to abuse in camps or shelters, sexual exploitation, and human trafficking.
• Conflict and instability: Rape and sexual assault are employed as weapons in resource wars brought on by climate change, which disproportionately affect women.
• Entrenched inequalities: Women’s rights and safety are restricted by patriarchal norms and marginalization, which deteriorate as communities experience crises.

These factors produce a vicious cycle whereby women and girls experience violence more frequently and find it more challenging to escape vulnerability as climatic stress rises.

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What Real-World Examples Show This Link in Action?

Narratives from many locales demonstrate how climate change fuels gender-based violence.

• Horn of Africa (2020–2023): Families were forced into extreme poverty as a result of agricultural and livestock failures brought on by recurrent climate-induced droughts. To obtain dowries or lessen the number of mouths to feed, some turned to marrying off girls as young as twelve to men who were decades older.
• Hawaii (2023): Filipino migrant women were among the most vulnerable, following the thousands of people who were displaced by the Lahaina wildfires. According to research, more than half reported an increase in personal violence, and one in six said they had engaged in sexual activity in return for food, cash, or housing.
• Heatwaves globally: According to a UN research, intimate partner violence can rise by as much as 28% during heatwaves, which reflects the financial, emotional, and psychological costs of high temperatures.

These instances demonstrate that climate disasters are not gender-neutral; instead, they put women at risk and exacerbate already-existing disparities.

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Why Are Women Human Rights Defenders at Higher Risk?

In times of crises, women journalists, political leaders, and environmental defenders are specifically targeted. Such actions are frequently intentional attempts to suppress women who question damaging social norms or traditional gender roles, according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.

• Defamation and harassment: To damage their reputation, female activists are regularly subjected to offline and online attacks.
• Sexualized violence: To reinforce subordination, intimidation frequently takes on sexist or sexualized forms.
• Exclusion from policy spaces: Responses to gender-based violence are weakened since many female leaders are excluded from climate decision-making.

When Indigenous women advocate for environmental conservation, they are considerably more vulnerable to femicide, harassment, and abuse. The urban poor, smallholder women farmers, and women who experience intersecting kinds of discrimination due to age, sexual orientation, or disability are additional susceptible groups.

Societies lose critical voices for justice and inclusive climate policy when women defenders are excluded.

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How Can Climate and Gender Policies Work Together for Solutions?

The UN Spotlight Initiative emphasizes that climate solutions must include measures to alleviate gender-based violence. However, gender equality only receives 0.04% of climate-related development finance, which is still a startlingly low amount.

Essential remedies consist of:

• Mainstreaming GBV prevention: Make sure that dangers to women and girls are taken into account in all climate projects.
• Investing in women-led initiatives: Give local female leaders the tools they need to create community-specific climate solutions.
• Protecting women defenders: Develop safeguards for female human rights advocates and hold those responsible for violence against them accountable.
• Cross-sector coalitions: Establish initiatives that combine clean energy with protection, education, and health services, such as the “Energy and Opportunity Coalition” that has been proposed.
• Representation in decision-making: At the local and global levels of climate negotiations, women must have equal seats at the table.

Pakistan’s Romina Khurshid Alam stressed that women’s contributions to climate action “cannot be ignored.” Building resilience and making sure that justice is at the forefront of climate policy depend on their involvement.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. Why does climate change disproportionately affect women and girls?

The effects of resource shortages, displacement, and social instability are more likely to affect women, as they often bear the burden of providing care, food, and water. In times of crisis, they are more likely to encounter violence due to pre-existing gender inequality.

Q2. Is gender-based violence a direct result of climate change?

No. Violence is not a direct result of climate change. Instead, it exacerbates patriarchal norms, inequality, and socioeconomic pressures that raise the likelihood and intensity of violence against women and girls.

Q3. What can the international community do to address this crisis?

The international community needs to make sure women are equally represented in climate negotiations, safeguard human rights defenders, boost funding for women-led projects, and incorporate gender-based violence prevention into all climate policy.

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