investment-6 Created with Sketch.

Invest in Girls and Women to Tackle Climate Change and Conserve the Environment

Gender equality is critical to improving the environment and fighting for climate justice.

Overview   Evidence   Ripple Effect   Policy Asks   Solutions in Action  

The first step toward tackling the challenges of climate change is to create a backdrop against which girls and women are empowered to safeguard the environment. Climate change and environmental degradation represent a great threat to poverty reduction, gender equality, and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Given many girls’ and women’s roles in agricultural production and in the collection and use of household resources, they are not only well suited to find solutions, they have a vested interest in doing so.

4 Million
An estimated 4 million people die prematurely from household air pollution each year.
3 Billion
Approximately 3 billion people still use polluting fuels like wood, coal, and charcoal.
150 Million
Up to 150 million fewer people would go hungry if women farmers had the same access to resources as men.
$123 Billion
Continuing to use solid fuels equals $123 billion in annual costs across health, environmental, and economic sectors.

Investing in girls and women creates a ripple effect that yields multiple benefits, not only for individual women, but also for families, communities, and countries. Evidence suggests that when women are included in climate change mitigation, they will prioritize clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food, and secure shelter for future generations.

Download the Infographic
Group 2 Created with Sketch.
Accelerate Access to Resources – Land, Clean Energy, Water, and Sanitation
Group 2 Created with Sketch.
Accelerate Access to Resources – Land, Clean Energy, Water, and Sanitation
Improve girls’ and women’s access to resources ― land, clean...
Find out more
Group 3 Created with Sketch.
Meet the Demand for Modern Contraception and Reproductive Health
Group 3 Created with Sketch.
Meet the Demand for Modern Contraception and Reproductive Health
A woman’s access to modern contraception, reproductive healthcare, and the...
Find out more
Group 14 Created with Sketch.
Ensure Health For All
Group 14 Created with Sketch.
Ensure Health For All
Healthy girls and women are the cornerstone of healthy societies.
Find out more
Group 9 Created with Sketch.
Dramatically Reduce Gender-Based Violence and Harmful Practices
Group 9 Created with Sketch.
Dramatically Reduce Gender-Based Violence and Harmful Practices
Eliminating the threat of gender-based violence and harmful practices is...
Find out more
  • Ensure female involvement, including indigenous women and grassroots groups, in climate change negotiations and resource management.
  • Strengthen opportunities for women’s participation in climate change mitigation and adaptation processes.
  • Develop policies to address climate change that recognize gender-sensitive impacts, provide women with access to resources, and give them opportunities to participate in mitigation and adaptation processes.
  • Ensure key decision-makers understand how environmental degradation and climate change affect women differently than men.
  • Promote gender-responsive approaches to climate financing.
  • Invest in technologies and initiatives to enhance sustainable and renewable energy sources that reflect women’s knowledge, needs, and roles, while incorporating indigenous expertise and traditional practices.
  • Integrate environmental conservation strategies within family planning and women’s health programming and vice versa.
  • Prioritize the accessibility of clean energy and distribution of fuel-efficient cookstoves for refugee and displaced girls and women, including in camp settings.
  • Invest in research and program evaluations to better understand the links between cookstove and/or clean energy interventions and prevention of gender-based violence, particularly in humanitarian settings.
  • Include women in the creation of policies and strategies around environmental protection including disaster response; building resilience; securing land and inheritance rights, food, and resources; and ending energy poverty.
Explore the Policy Brief
Empowering Today's Young People to Create the Future We Want to See Tomorrow: A Q&A with Carlos Alvarado Quesada, President of Costa Rica

Empowering Today's Young People to Create the Future We Want to See Tomorrow: A Q&A with Carlos Alvarado Quesada, President of Costa Rica

Women Deliver Young Leader and Country Operations Manager at Raleigh International Nepal, an International Sustainable Development Organization, Jyotir Nisha and the 48th President of Costa Rica, H.E. Carlos Alvarado Quesada discuss the links between climate change and gender equality, reinforcing the need to position young people, particularly girls and women, at the heart of decision making to power progress for all.

Read this story

Read this story

Resilient Women: Improving Health and the Environment Simultaneously

Resilient Women: Improving Health and the Environment Simultaneously

As Bill and Melinda Gates so accurately asserted in their 2020 annual letter: “The best...

Read More
Women are Rising for Climate Justice

Women are Rising for Climate Justice

We stand at a point of great choice, a crossroads. To one side, our current...

Read More
Harnessing the potential of Indigenous and community women to provide climate solutions

Harnessing the potential of Indigenous and community women to provide climate solutions

Stories from the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) Coalition and beyond illustrate how indigenous and...

Read More
Using technology to help farmers adapt to climate change

Using technology to help farmers adapt to climate change

Hellen Mary Akiror’s livelihood relies on the right amount of rainfall coming at the right time.  

Read More