A healthy climate

Establishing genuine gender equality is an important part of fighting climate change, argues Piroska Östlin

On 7 April we celebrated world health day under the sponsorship of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The theme of this year’s world health day was ‘protecting health from climate change’, in recognition that environmental change has adverse health effects and threatens global health security. The WHO, on its website, encourages government agencies, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organisations, industry and professional groups and local communities to collaborate across sectors, such as urban planning, transport, energy supply, food production, land use and water resources, in order to “find the innovative and effective solutions that will stabilise climate and protect health”.

Because women and men play different social roles, differ in their knowledge of, access to, and control over natural resources, and they have different opportunities to participate in decisions regarding the use of natural resources, gender concerns need to be integrated in environmental planning. Moreover, due to biological and social reasons, women’s and men’s health is differently affected by climate change and degradation of natural resources, such as water scarcity and exposure to organic pollutants. For example, women are less able to tolerate heat stress, because they sweat less, have a higher metabolic rate, and have thicker subcutaneous fat that prevents them from cooling themselves as efficiently as men. In August 2003, when the heatwave struck France, excess mortality was almost 15,000; in all age groups female mortality was 15 to 20 percent higher than male mortality. Disasters caused by climate change may also affect men and women differently. For example, during the 2005 Asian tsunami, many more women than men were killed, in part because men ran to safety while women stayed behind to rescue children and the elderly; more men than women had been taught to swim; and women stayed indoors because of social prohibitions against leaving home unaccompanied. There is also evidence of increased domestic violence against women during and after natural catastrophes. 

Because of the unequal power relationship between men and women, women’s knowledge, experiences and ideas about solutions are seldom incorporated in the formulation, planning and execution of environmental policies at all levels. In those cases where women have contributed to environmental management, mainly at the local level, the results have been excellent. For example, in Ukraine and Russia, women’s groups were able to mobilise communities and resources to address environmental problems in industrial areas, as well as to help to protect their supplies of clean water.   

One effective solution to tackle the adverse effects of climate change is to promote gender equality, as Amartya Sen suggests. “Advancing gender equality, through reversing the various social and economic handicaps that make women voiceless and powerless, may also be one of the best ways of saving the environment.” As coordinator of the women and gender equity knowledge network (WGEKN) of the WHO commission on social determinants of health, I could not agree more. Our recent review of the scientific literature regarding health policies and programmes from a gender equity perspective suggests that “taking action to improve gender equity in health and to address women’s rights to health is one of the most direct and potent ways to reduce health inequities and ensure effective use of health resources”.

Many of the WGEKN recommendations to policymakers, such as “increase women’s participation in political and other decision-making processes from household to national and international levels so as to increase their voice and agency” or “take action to make organisations at all levels function more effectively to mainstream gender equality and equity and empower women for health by creating supportive structures, incentives, and accountability” have great relevance for and can be easily adapted to the field of climate change and health protection. The WGEKN recommendations are also in line with the recent policy recommendations on climate change and gender equality developed by the women’s environment and development organisation (WEDO), the council of women world leaders (CWWL) and the Heinrich Böll foundation on the occasion of the UN secretary general’s high-level climate change event and the high-level roundtable, ‘How a changing climate impacts women’ in September 2007. The recommendations have been endorsed by more than 40 organisations from all around the world

Most countries in the world have committed themselves to promote gender equity through international agreements. There is a steadily forward movement by the European commission and European governments to bring national laws, policies and practices into line with the provisions of ratified conventions and agreements on gender equality.  This is good practice: by doing so, they will not only ensure equitable, fair, efficient and effective policies and programmes, but also contribute to saving the environment and more effectively tackling the negative health consequences of climate change.