Women, Climate, and Justice — A Shared Struggle, A Shared Solution

Authors: Vansh Mittal, Dr Salineeta Chaudhuri, Dr Lakshay Sharma

Women, if empowered as climate leaders and decision-makers, societies unlock deeper resilience, innovative adaptation, and equitable progress—proving that advancing gender equity is essential to achieving meaningful climate action for a sustainable world. There lies interrelations of the two specific field of gender and climate. Focussing to highlight the mentioned areas and day-by-day increasing vulnerability and risk in both fields. Revisiting the records of international organisations, World Banks repository, SDG data and case studies done on the countries like Jordan and Sudan, and aiming to address challenges like gender disparities, gender- responsive policies, social equity motive to be fixed by the year 2030 and the intersectional approach to climate change.

The two globally pressing topics of our world are Climate change and Gender inequality. At first glance, these issues do not feel interconnected or even relatable. Still, it proves certainly time to time that both are having a significant impact on our daily lives (personal and professional). Every citizen and policymaker must interconnect and correlate the factors. Recent studies find that there was a disproportionate burden borne by the women and young girls of the marginalised communities and the vulnerable economies because of climate change and factors like social, economic and legal inequalities. Addressing gender inequality and climate change today is ethical, vital, and necessary for developing a sustainable life for the future generations. It is also justified by the latest research of the United Nations under the title of UN’s Gender Snapshot 2024 and a report titled ‘Gender and climate-related migration in Jordan and Sudan’.

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Where do we stand in the so-called Index: Gender Equality!

Developmental parameters like education, health, decision-making, and economic participation, gender inequality exists at the global level. World Bank (2023),women earn, on average, just 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, highlighting a persistent global gender pay gap that undermines both economic growth and social equity. World Bank 2024 has featured, the world has a total workforce of 3.7 billion people, of which female workforce participation rate is 41.2 %. Ending poverty is a considerable motive of the world’s elite organisations, but ending poverty for all women and girls in the world will take 137 years (UN 2025) more, if we see the current rates, 24.3 million more females live in extreme poverty compared to males UN Women, 2025).  Every one in four girls gets married before even turning into an adult stage of life, and women are only getting one out of four seats in parliament at the global stage

Climate Change: An unequal threat

47.8 million women are facing food insecurity, compared to men. Destabilisation of food and water resources and an increase in hazardous health issues are the significant causes of climate change, which accelerates the extreme weather events happening from time to time. It has highlighted by the UN and World Bank, 2024, that by 2050 over 158 million girls and women going to be trapped in the cycle of poverty and over 232 million of the females will be facing the food insecurity as compared to the males owing to climate change.

In vulnerable climate zones, women are still collecting fuel and water, and because of the present climatic conditions, posing significant danger, it is harder to handle environmental stresses. According to UNFPA, 2022, women are carrying a hard burden of responsibilities because of the water scarcity and the hard life in rural areas. However, climate-induced migrations disrupt their livelihoods and cause them to be unemployed. Because of climate change, the risk of gender-based violence, female trafficking, child marriages, hygiene-related issues, several physical diseases and reproductive health complications had accelerated.  80% of women and girls globally were forced to migrate under the tag of climate change and being a victim of several types of exploitation and violence (UN, 2024).

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Official data and policy responses

Gender barriers in sectors like education, finance and land rights are vulnerable, but if we fail to address these issues, the vulnerabilities will deepen. It can also undermine the climate adaptation across regions (IMF, 2021,2024).

In India, the female workforce participation rate is 24%, and it is assumed that this will stagnate without societal and political norms (MoSPI’s “Women & Men in India 2023”).

The RBI’s currency and finance report (2023), which emphasized on the climate fiscal policy and the importance of “just transition”, it was found that in our economy, women are deliberately pushed towards household chores so their engagement mostly is inclusive of unproductive work and is been heavily marginalised in the economy.  

Gender equality is also a smart economics; survey conducted by NFHS, revealed, by boosting India’s gender parity, India’s GDP could be raised up to 30%.

In 2025, every country is updating their national climate action plans, and the United Nations urges them to set gender integrity at every stage. The Enhanced Lima Work Programme on Gender and Climate Change (COP29) calls for the mainstreaming of gender climate adaptation, technological changes or development and to some extent, for finance also. In this programme, it was urged that women’s participation in every sector of the economy be recognised through the lens of climate solutions (UNFCC, 2025).

Gender and climate change crises flow like a rotating circle or a vicious circle of motion: climate vulnerability is getting worse due to gender differences, and climate change is one of the most critical factors in the increase of the deep social divides. On careful examination of the global data, failing to address gender inequality will undermine the very foundation of effective climate change.

Every decision taken in the economy, whether of national policy, local adaptation projects or financial flows, must incorporate gender equality. Only 25% of the women hold parliamentary seats worldwide, but giving leadership to women in the parliament is not the limit; women are equally able and have the right to break the barriers of their society’s set limits and gain access to resources, finance and new opportunities.  Over 119 million women worldwide are deprived of the education that directly aims at the future of women leaders and policymakers, who are much needed to find climate solutions and build resilience (UN 2024).

In the final word of verdicts, the need to break the glass ceiling is essential, mainstreaming Gender in all climate policies is not just a formality, but it is the need of today’s time. As the deadline of the Sustainable Development Goals approaches soon and an immediate as well as a comprehensive action is needed, placing gender equality as the epicenter centre of climate action, picking from the roots to the top global institutions: can we create a secure, free and sustainable future for all?