A new IIASA study shows why gender equality trends should be central when planning how societies adapt to and mitigate climate change. A society where women have little access to decision-making or finance or have less education, will be ill-equipped to find and implement solutions, ranging from concrete measures like irrigation or crop rotation, to behavior shifts and engineering the energy transition. We need to ask the "what-if" questions related to progress towards equality or deterioration of inequality. One thing is clear: gender inequality will have a high price, if neglected.
Published in Nature Climate Change, the study takes a deep dive into the scenarios that underpin our understanding of climate risks and shows how understanding trajectories of gender equality is integral to understanding societies' development pathways under climate change. The findings highlight that equal access to education, jobs, and financial services is key for effective implementation of solutions.
"The link between gender equality and climate action is so far reaching but has traditionally been neglected in mainstream climate research, especially in relation to mitigation," said lead author Marina Andrijevic, a researcher in the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program. "Ensuring that women have equal opportunities in decision-making, labor force and higher education across all disciplines makes the energy transition easier and more just."
A key aspect of the study focuses on the link between climate change mitigation and gender inequality. The shift away from fossil fuels has different effects on different groups. For example, industries like coal mining have been male dominated, with women playing supportive roles in unpaid or informal labor. Moving towards renewable energy presents an opportunity to change this dynamic. With well-planned policies, more women can enter the workforce, and care work can be more evenly distributed, ensuring fairer working conditions for everyone in a cleaner economy.
"Our work was inspired by growing evidence that when women lack opportunities, from access to primary schooling to having a say at top levels of government, it weakens the ability of entire societies to respond to crises, such as climate change," Andrijevic says. "By exploring different possible futures, we highlight how social progress plays a crucial role in shaping climate resilience."
The authors point out how social norms can also lead to specific challenges for adaptation. For example, women face unique challenges, such as risks to maternal health, undernutrition during droughts, and exposure to diseases while collecting water. At the same time, they are deprived of access to different resources that hamper their adaptive capacity. Meanwhile, men are more likely to suffer from floods and storms, experience work-related heat stress, or face depression and suicide due to drought-related economic hardship.
Understanding the relationship between these differential risks and gender inequality is crucial for understanding how hotspots of vulnerability to climate-related risks could be best targeted.
The authors emphasize that to fully understand the challenges ahead and what societal capacity is for responding to crises such as climate change, we must study how societies will evolve. They highlight the importance of imagining different possible futures: both those where fairness and opportunity are central, and those of deepening inequalities.
The authors have received funding and support from the SPARCCLE project (grant agreement no. 101081364) under the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme and the European Research Council Consolidator Grant POPCLIMA (grant agreement no. 101002973), also funded by Horizon Europe.
Reference
Andrijevic, M., Zimm, C., Moyer, J.D., Muttarak, R., & Pachauri, S. (2025). Representing gender inequality in scenarios improves understanding of climate challenges. Nature Climate Change DOI: 10.1038/s41558-024-02242-5
