For every degree of global warming, violence against women is predicted to increase by 4.7%. This doesn’t have to be our future, writes Michelle Higelin, Executive Director of ActionAid Australia.
Preparations are underway for the usual International Women’s Day celebrations, including morning teas and fancy lunches featuring high-profile speakers. As much as these acts of solidarity are important, I can’t help but wonder what women around the world really need right now.
This summer, hundreds of thousands of hectares burned across Victoria as extreme heat and violent winds forced people to flee their homes and cut their holidays short. While Australia burned and sweltered through record‑breaking temperatures, cities across the United States were plunging to their coldest lows in 150 years. And in the Philippines, communities are still reeling from back-to-back typhoons that displaced millions of people.
What doesn’t get spoken about on International Women’s Day is that, in every crisis, impacts are not evenly shared, with women too often bearing the burden. With every degree of global warming, it is women who are paying the highest price. Every degree deepens inequality.
I’ve just met a group of women in Poso, Indonesia, who are supported through an ActionAid project to adapt to climate change. They told me that climate change is wiping out their livelihoods. The seasons have changed, and rainfall is more erratic, frequently destroying crops before they’ve had time to harvest. It’s affecting the food they have for their families, the money they can earn from crop sales, and increasing tensions at home. Families are being forced into debt to survive and when they can’t pay off loan sharks, their daughters are sold off into a life of early marriage, where they face increased risks of violence.
Every degree that global temperatures rise, it’s women who lose their livelihoods. It’s women who lose access to food and clean water. It’s women who face increased violence.
In fact, by 2090, 10% of all cases of intimate partner violence are expected to be caused by climate change. It’s predicted that with every degree of global warming, violence against women will increase by 4.7%.
This doesn’t have to be our future.
We know that the growing pollution caused by coal, oil and gas – fossil fuels – is the main driver of climate change, which is threatening to roll back the decades of progress we’ve made on gender equality. And if we stop further extraction, we stand the greatest chance of keeping temperatures below two degrees of global warming.
We also know that women are not sitting around waiting for climate change to destroy our homes and future.
The women I met in Poso are already taking steps to adapt to climate change. They are planting climate-resistant crops on higher land, where they will be less impacted by flooding. They are collectively building savings that can help them withstand erratic weather events, and they are building a network of paralegals who are intervening in cases of violence against women and children in the community.
We can turn this situation around. Because if every degree deepens inequality, then every climate action we take can help empower women.
This International Women’s Day, I want to see Australians go beyond the cupcakes and the speeches and get behind campaigns for climate action – the ultimate act of solidarity with women around the world right now.
For every big polluter that pays for its damage, more women will be spared from climate induced drought and famine.
For every bank that stops investing in fossil fuels, more women will be safe from domestic violence caused by the stress that comes with climate disasters.
For every rich, polluting country that starts paying its fair share of climate finance, more women will thrive with their livelihoods and crops safe from climate disasters. We know who is responsible and what every action can mean.
Millions of women around the world are already leading climate action in their communities, just like the women of Poso, and we urgently need to get behind them.
The more of us there are, the more we can do, and the more impact we make in women’s lives.
Every climate action empowers women.
Every degree counts for gender equality.
Michelle Higelin is the Executive Director of ActionAid Australia, a global organisation that works with women on the frontlines of the climate crisis, conflicts and emergencies in 70 countries worldwide. She is also the Vice President of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) and Co-Chair of the Australian Civil Society Coalition on Women, Peace and Security.