Gender, Climate Change and Transportation
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The transport’s contribution to the worldwide carbon dioxide emissions counts for about 24,5% in Annex I countries, 14,5% in Non-Annex I countries. In the EU-countries for example, transport is the second largest sector of GHG emission. Road transport is the biggest transport emission source (74%), followed by shipping (14%), aviation (11%, increasing) whereas rail accounts for only 1%.
The need to be independent from oil price and oil exporting countries, as well as an increasing awareness of the urgency to mitigate climate change, have led to the recent boom in agrofuel production worldwide. The production of agrofuels often leads to negative effects such as monocultures, increased use of pesticides and illegal deforestation with negative impacts on the poor and indigenous people, who depend on their natural environment. Because of the fast growth of greenhouse gases caused by transportation, the transport sector will probably be part of the Post-Kyoto negotiations.
Gender Dimension
Due to economic, cultural and societal factors women’s access to mobility is limited in most regions of the world. This applies to individual means of transport as well as to public transport services.
In developing countries, women and girls bear most of the burden of transport in rural areas. Walking remains a predominant mode among rural and poor urban populations, with typically women accounting for a disproportionate share. Women are almost entirely responsible for all domestic travel, which is by far the most energy and time consuming category in rural areas. Often they spend over 65% of household time on transport.
In industrialised countries, it is also the low income groups which are twice as likely to use the public transport systems as the higher income groups. Additionally, transport patterns of women and men differ. Women’s trips are significantly more complex than those made by men, especially when employment activities are added to the family care activities. Due to their intense travel patterns and use of individual cars, males energy consumption and thereby carbon emissions are much higher than females.
Carrying heavy loads over long distances, inadequate road safety for pedestrians, contamination by air pollution, sexual violence against women in transport systems and in remote areas, high speed in car driving, each of these aspects has gendered impacts on human health.
Urban planning has increased distances and encouraged ever more remote destinations, even for getting every day necessities. Concepts of spatial segregation in functional areas (living, working, shopping) are producing mobility needs and higher dependency to transport possibilities. Speeding cars, narrow walkways, worries about the safety of children, all affect women while they walk or in the care work and forced them to adopt to male patterns of mobility.
Gender differences in transport use, patterns and means of transportation are mostly not considered in the development and planning of transport systems. Women’s share of employees in the transport sector is low. Male domination in particular in decision making positions leads to marginalization of women’s interest and needs.
Response
It is evident that women’s lack of access to mobility and different means of transport have a positive effect of low carbon emissions. Theses differences are so large that they cannot be ignored in the ongoing work for reducing carbon emissions.
Gender and transport is a well developed issue compared to most of the other areas of action, at least in industrialised countries. Nevertheless, there is no systematic implementation of existing knowledge in policies, programmes and measures.
Additionally, there has been no systematic attempt by any development agency to incorporate women's experiences and knowledge of the transport system through the development of user groups with appropriate gender representation.
It should be assessed carefully how the interests and needs of women can be met without catching up to an unsustainable development as regards to means of transport. Respectively in industrialised countries, a crucial question is how to make women’s more environmentally friendly behaviour a benchmark for all, how to support it instead of hampering and forcing to adopt to male behaviour.
Transport systems both in urban and rural areas must be oriented towards women’s needs and transport demands to improve their economic situation and support sustainable livelihoods. Therefore, grass roots women and women’s organisations should directly be involved in design and operationalisation of transport solutions.
Although there are similarities in gender issues in transport between regions, countries or cities, gender-sensitive transport strategies need to be developed individually for every settlement because they are strongly connected to cultural, social, economic and topographical conditions.
