What is the link between climate change and gender inequality? We use this train to show the link. Steam trains were developed during the industrial revolution – a time when humans started to burn more fossil fuels than ever before, leading to this ‘train of events’.
- Increased carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels accumulates in the atmosphere, forming a blanket around the Earth and causing global heating.
- Global heating is triggering more extreme and frequent weather events such as extreme heat, drought, fires, storms and floods.
- Extreme weather events are causing major social disruption as millions of people are displaced, many lose their lives and millions lose their livelihoods. In 2022, there were over 32 million climate refugees and this could rise to 1.2 billion by 2050.
- This social disruption magnifies any existing inequalities – including gender inequality. The poor get poorer and violence increases as societies break down.
Life for women and girls at the end of the train is dire.
The statistics are not good for women and girls. Studies have found that:
- A one degree Celsius rise in average temperature has been associated with a six per cent rise in violence against women.
- Every 10 per cent increase or decrease in average rainfall was associated with a one per cent increase in child marriage – when crops fail, families sell their daughters into marriage.
- In 2022, there were 32 million climate refugees and this could rise to 1.2 billion by 2050.
- One in five women who are refugees, or who have been displaced because of a natural disaster, has experienced sexual violence.
Zonta Says NOW stops the train by working at both ends of it. We advocate for governments to meet their obligations under the Paris Agreement and work to close the gender gaps in leadership, education, economic opportunity, health and safety.
The gains in gender equality made over the last one hundred years by Zonta International are at risk which is why Zonta International released its Statement on Climate Change: a Gender Equality Issue in 2021. The Zonta Says NOW campaign implements the recommendations in this Statement to seek climate justice for women and girls.
In August 2024, Zonta Says NOW founder, Carole Theobald featured in an interview with Ute Watermeyer and Susanne Tertilt who produce ‘ZONTA Teetied’ in Germany. In this 28 minute podcast, Carole shares her early life, how Zonta Says NOW began, and what is planned for the future.
Zonta Says NOW featured on Zonta International’s Women and Climate Change panel in September 2021. This ten minute video shows that there is something for everyone to do – but time is running out – which is why Zonta Says NOW!