* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
As climate change worsens and forces more people to leave their homes, women are likely to feel the heaviest consequences of displacement
Sofia Sprechmann Sineiro is the secretary general for aid and development agency CARE.
This year’s superstorms, which have already been linked to climate change, give us a hint of what climate breakdown feels like.
Although the impacts of climate change are being felt by almost every person on the planet, for some populations - usually those who have produced the least emissions - these impacts are even more severe.
For some, climate breakdown changes the course of their life by forcing them away from home. A complex combination of extreme weather, rising sea levels, food insecurity, socio-economic factors and conflict is making parts of the world virtually impossible to live in.
As climate change worsens, the scale of that displacement will increase to levels never seen in near history.
This week’s warning from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s climate scientists was the starkest yet about what the future holds, drawing what U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called “an atlas of human suffering.”
The World Bank estimates that without major efforts to slow climate change, 216 million people will be displaced within their own countries by 2050.
But what isn’t widely understood are the profound gender dimensions of climate impacts. The vast majority - 80% - of those affected by this phenomenon are women.
As secretary general of the aid and development organisation CARE International, where I have worked for almost three decades, I know only too well that women are also most likely to feel the heaviest consequences of displacement.
Deep-rooted inequalities often make it harder for women to find the resources they need to help them withstand climate impacts, and to adapt and stay in their homes.
Women, when forced from home by the impacts of climate change or conflict, are also often at risk of gender-based violence and various forms of exploitation and abuse in precarious displacement settings, with no access to safety nets, social networks, communities, services and economic opportunities.
We can’t face the climate crisis by leaving these women, girls and other minorities behind. Our response needs to put women and girls at its heart, acknowledge that climate change exacerbates gender inequality and avoid treating women and girls as passive victims.
Yes, they are at greater risk but they also have unique capacities to respond to the challenge, if supported.
The solution lies in two parts. First, we must aim at preventing forced displacement in the first place. When displacement is the only choice, it must be planned and well prepared in a gender-responsive manner and with the contributions of affected women and girls in planning efforts.
Part of this means acknowledging that many women are already using smart and resourceful adaptation strategies to survive, believing that if you can’t change the wind, you can adjust the sails.
That’s women like Kien Quang Thi in Vietnam who works in cooperation with meteorologists, local authorities and farmers to better prepare communities. Or Josiane Ramaroson in Madagascar who founded her own tree nursery to reforest the northern coastal regions.
We must invest more in women like Kien, Ramaroson and the myriad of other women-led groups and initiatives that work tirelessly to help their homes, neighbourhoods and countries be safer from climate change, and more resilient to shocks. That would go a long way to help women and their communities stay safer at home.
These interventions must offer entire communities the opportunity to break out of harmful gender norms, including by ensuring women on the front lines of the climate crisis are in leadership positions.
Ramaroson, Kien, and the countless other climate heroines that CARE works with show that when women lead in crises, more effective, innovative and sustainable solutions are found that benefit entire communities.
But until practices like these are widely adopted, women will continue to be displaced and face huge risk.
The second part of the solution is to protect the women unavoidably displaced by climate change.
The factors that force people to leave won’t always look the same. Some come as a slow creep - like food insecurity brought on by drought - while other climate disasters happen overnight.
For those who have no choice but to flee, the right gender-responsive legal and policy frameworks can help to minimise the impact of forced migration on the lives of women and girls.
Climate change means things will shift for all of us, especially in big emitting countries. But for a growing number of women, it also means assessing whether the place they grew up, started a business, or raised a family remains safe to live.
More people on the move is the new norm, but according to the latest IPCC report, reducing future risks of involuntary migrations and displacements is possible. We must continue to support women and girls when they are forced to flee, but equally, we must also enable women and girls to overcome the barriers they face at home.
