Climate change with a gender perspective – El Sol de México

The recent Conference of the Parties on Climate Change, COP 28 in Dubai, is already on the list of meetings that have achieved significant agreements for the sustainability of the planet. Not without resistance, the pacts explicitly mention the need to gradually eliminate the use of oil, coal and gas, triple the production capacity of renewable energies in 2030 and reach zero emissions in 2050. Once again reiterates the goal of limiting global temperature rise to less than 1.5°C, which was the result of the Paris Agreement in 2015.

Climate change has left the entire planet vulnerable and, in particular, new generations and women have borne the brunt. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that “individual livelihoods have been affected, for example, by the destruction of housing and infrastructure and the loss of property and income, human health and food security, with adverse effects on social equity and gender.”

Within the framework of the Climate Summit, UN Women presented the study “Feminist Climate Justice, a framework for action” which in its 60 pages offers an extremely bleak diagnosis on the subject. It points out that in 2050, climate change will cause 158 million more women and girls to be in poverty and 236 million more to face food insecurity. It argues that the climate crisis is the catalyst for economic inequality and that both have disproportionate impacts on girls and women.

The first section of said report bases feminist climate justice on recognizing that women can offer knowledge; proposes redirecting funds to care for people and the planet; integrate women into environmental policy formulation and respond to the climate crisis by addressing existing inequalities.

The year 2023 that is about to end is considered the hottest since records have been kept. The temperature reached in July was 1.1 degrees warmer than the average recorded between 1951 and 1980. And in Mexico we can prove this. “The era of global warming is over. The era of global boiling has arrived,” such a statement is made by the Secretary General of the United Nations himself, who warns about it.

It is positive that Dubai has agreed to gradually move away from fossil fuels, however, renewable energies are not the only way out of the current crisis. Technology plays a relevant role here. The massification of electric cars, the digitalization of systems to optimize resources such as water and the detection of areas susceptible to reforestation are examples of this.

For now, at COP28 a historic agreement was reached that the less polluting nations but most affected by natural disasters had been demanding, such as the creation of the loss and damage fund.

Women once again face in a differentiated way the consequences of the climate crisis that also arises from economic inequality and its solution belongs to everyone. For us, for ourselves and for those who follow us, we must take action.

#COP28

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