Exploring the interconnections between climate change-gender in adaptation and mitigation contexts

Abstract

Global human-driven climate change and its consequences are continuously transforming natural and socio-economic systems by altering the environment and posing threats to people’s health, well-being and livelihood stability. The population’s characteristics including geographical distribution, education, poverty and gender predefine to varying degrees individuals’ capacity and ability to overcome climate change challenges. In the light of the recent developments at the international arena, gender has been mentioned more often in the climate change-related context, compared to other characteristics. Interconnections between climate change and gender are characterized by complex synergies and dynamics, continuous development, and ongoing mutual impacts. The integration of these interconnections is among the factors that are expected to influence the development and implementation of effective global-scale adaptation and mitigation solutions. <br /> This PhD work explores some key aspects of the climate change-gender interconnections and sheds light on their interactions in a variety of contexts in different geographical regions including Central Asia (CA), Africa, and the Pacific. The work is structured around three main domains of climate change-gender interconnections: vulnerability, leadership/empowerment, and benefits, which are subject to thematic and geographical contexts, as well as level of application: regional, national or local. <br /> Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the topic including the objectives and scope of this work and discusses gaps in the climate change-gender interconnections landscape. Chapter 2 explores the overall developments of inclusion of gender/women’s issues in scientific contributions in climate change research. It also outlines the main themes that can be referred to the vulnerability, leadership/empowerment, and/or benefits domain(s) of climate change-gender interconnections. Chapter 3 examines the leadership/empowerment domain by analysing advances made towards attaining gender-balanced leadership/empowerment in climate change adaptation and mitigation in 12 African countries. Chapter 4 investigates the progress in addressing gender/women considerations by climate change-related areas in CA countries. Chapter 5 discusses climate change-gender interconnections by reviewing a feminisation process, its drivers, positive and negative outcomes, and associated challenges within the broader agricultural context in different geographical regions including Latin America and CA. Chapters 6, 7 and 8 explore the domains of climate change-gender interconnections, in the context of additional issue areas such as the partly successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), extreme events and mental health, and climate change-induced migration. <br /> The findings obtained during this PhD study reflect a new perspective under a unified umbrella of climate change-gender interconnections framework. The work provides innovative insights on the progress made towards taking into consideration men’s and women’s differences in handling climate change issues, and the potential added value that an improved understanding of these interconnections may bring from a climate change perspective, at meta level.