The project's key messages on gender and climate change are now also available in English. A more extended version, as well as further outcomes of the project GenderNETCLIM are published in German only.
Download the key messages (in English)
Download the full publication of the outcomes (in German only)
The conference "Climate needs change: fostering the potential of gender research" took place on March 1, 2016 in Berlin, Germany.
It presented the project's core messages and discussed them with experts from science and practice in the fields of climate change and gender equality as well as with the audience. We debated how climate mitigation and adaptation can become more (gender-)equal, where and how findings from Gender Studies research can be made useful for political strategies on climate change and what need for action for the integration of gender in climate mitigation and adaptation there is. We discussed the development of (gender-)responsive climate policies and politics and the respective implementation.
See the full program here. For more information and selected presentations take a look at the project's website www.gendernetclim.de/tagung (go to "Das Programm" to view the presentations, some are in German only).
Background: Why address gender and climate change at the same time?
As climate change is anthropogenic, ie. caused by humans, climate-related changes, individual behaviour and social conditions interact in a range of ways. People’s socio-economic status, background, age and also gender are all factors that influence their consumption and mobility patterns, as well as their access to jobs and their political influence. Climate change therefore has different impacts on different groups of men and women, as well as on gender relations. Women are underrepresented in all levels of climate politics and climate research, which distorts the perspective of mitigation and adaptation measures. Equal access to new fields of employment is also not assured. At the same time, studies show that gender relations are linked to gender-specific consumption and mobility patters, resulting in differing ecological footprints for women and men. For example, there are considerable differences in the amount of meat and dairy consumed by men and women on average (a factor which is not to be underestimated in the context of climate change), whether they take public transport, and how often they use electronic devices. The effects of climate change also have an impact in different ways: more (unpaid) care work is required, for example, when the health impacts of more frequent extreme weather events or natural disasters increase. Other important questions include considering possible gender-related differences in terms of how the problem of climate change is seen, what kind of solutions are favoured (eg. technical solutions vs. life style changes), and how the risks involved with climate change are perceived.
Project aims
The project will contribute to the development of strategies for climate protection as well as to climate change adaptation, integrating the aim of promoting equitable opportunities. This will involve:
What will the project involve?
Project duration
01.04.2015 to 31.03.2016
Carried out by
University of Bremen, Sustainability Research Center (artec), in collaboration with GenderCC - Women for Climate Justice e.V., Berlin
Contact
University of Bremen: Melanie Böckmann (m.boeckmann(at)uni-bremen.de); Karin Fischer (fischerk(at)uni-bremen.de)
GenderCC: Ulrike Röhr (u.roehr(at)gendercc.net)
The project is supported by funding from the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) with the grant number 01FP1425.
Visit the project website (in German)