If unchecked, climate change will significantly increase women’s vulnerability to poverty and hunger, undermining hard-won development gains, according to a UN report.
Globally, by mid-century, under a worst-case climate scenario, climate change may push up to 158.3 million more women and girls into poverty (16 million more than the total number of men and boys). Food insecurity is projected to increase by as much as 236 million more women and girls, compared to 131 million more men and boys,” said the “Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2023,” the latest edition in the annual series produced by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), launched in Abu Dhabi.
Investments in a comprehensive SDG stimulus package would help mitigate this effect, reducing the number of women falling into extreme poverty from 158.3 million to 43.3 million. But the impact will still be less than what could be achieved if the world abates climate change now, before it gets exponentially worse.
