ASHENEWS reports that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says that climate change is disproportionately affecting the incomes of rural women, people living in poverty, and older populations.
This is because their capacity to react and adapt to extreme weather events is unequal, the FAO said in a new report.
The report which examines how various climate stressors impact people’s incomes, labor, and adaptation strategies, differentiating based on their wealth, gender, and age observed that each year in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), female heads of households in rural areas suffer significantly greater financial losses than men.
“On average, female-headed households lose 8 percent more of their income due to heat stress and 3 percent more due to floods compared to male-headed households.
“This translates to a per capita reduction of $83 due to heat stress and $35 due to floods, totalling $37 billion and $16 billion respectively across all LMICs,” the FAO said.
“If the average temperatures were to increase by just 1°C, these women would face a staggering 34% greater loss in their total incomes compared to men.”
The study therefore recommends that policymakers and other stakeholders work towards addressing the significant existing differences in agricultural productivity and wages between women and men.
“if not addressed, climate change will greatly widen these gaps in the years ahead,” the report said.
It also suggested targeted interventions to empower various rural populations to engage in climate-adaptive measures.
“Agricultural policies also miss the opportunity to address gender equality and women’s empowerment and intersecting vulnerabilities such as climate change.
“Among several policy highlights, the report calls for investing in policies and programmes that address the multidimensional climate vulnerabilities of rural people and their specific constraints, including their limited access to productive resources.
“Gender-transformative methodologies that directly challenge discriminatory gender norms, could also tackle the entrenched discrimination that often prevents women from exercising full agency over economic decisions that impact their lives,” the report suggested.
