WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IS KEY TO REDUCING CLIMATE CHANGE
Empowering women and girls in developing countries ranked second among 76 solutions for curbing global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, according to a new report by the climate research organization Project Drawdown. Drawdown estimates that girls’ education and family planning would reduce carbon by 85 gigatons by 2050.
Gender equality in health and education hasn’t received much public attention as a climate solution, even though it’s been on the global sustainability radar for years.
In 2015, the United Nations included “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” in its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
How does gender equality reduce emissions?
With access to education, family planning and birth control, women have the ability to choose how many children to have and when they have them. The report shows that with this access, women have less children and have them later in life. In both rural and urban areas, slower population growth relieves stress on ecosystems, allowing resources to recover from overuse without compromising local food access.
With these additional resources, women also earn more money, achieve career goals and face fewer health issues. Rural women see higher crop yields, providing better nutrition and financial stability for their families.
Unique contributions of women
But slowed population growth isn’t the only sustainable benefit to empowering women. Women also hold valuable knowledge for adapting to climate change.
It’s not only a human right, it’s to be intelligent. Because if 50 percent of the population is underperforming, the economy is not going to flourish. Women’s economic empowerment is empowering society.
Source: https://bit.ly/3elSVWV