Female Mayors Step Up Against Climate Change
- Susan Price
- Mar 17, 2017
- 1 min read
We tend to think of climate change as gender neutral, but women, particularly in low-income countries, are disproportionately impacted. Women are more likely to be hurt or die in natural disasters. Droughts and deforestation affect how women collect water for their families and can reduce or wipe out the incomes of women who work in agriculture. And women often lack the resources to adjust to the changing environment.
One group of powerful women--fifteen mayors from major cities around the world—are stepping up the fight for the climate and for women. With a March snowstorm as a fitting backdrop, mayors from cities including Paris, Durban, Cape Town and Caracas gathered for the first Women4Climate conference in New York. The mayors are part of the C40 network, a group of leaders of 90 of the world’s biggest cities who are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks.
Through the Women4Climate initiative, the mayors, joined by corporate partners L’Oreal, Johnson and Johnson and SUEZ, aim to increase the limited amount of research on the interplay of gender, cities and climate change, and to create a global mentoring program to bring more women into leadership roles. As women are more likely to prioritize protecting the environment than men, encouraging more women to run for political office is crucial. According to data from Crowdpac, the strongest congressional advocates for legislative action on climate change are women.
The Democratic Alliance
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