Climate Funding Gap Requires Greater Emphasis on Women

While the world is lagging in its promises to slow global warming, a new report finds that there is not only a problem with meeting goals set by the Paris Agreement, but that there is also major gap — between $194 billion and $366 billion per year — in the finances required to hit important climate targets. On top of that, women remain on the losing end of this chasm as some of the most vulnerable people in the world when it comes to climate change.

The United Nation’s 2023 “Adaptation Gap” report says that “progress on climate adaptation is slowing when it should be accelerating to catch up with these rising climate change impacts.” This rift is much, much larger in the developing world than previously thought, with the adaptation finance needs of developing countries 10 to 18 times as big as what the report calls “international public finance flows.” Previous estimates were more than 50 percent lower.

“Lives and livelihoods are being lost and destroyed, with the vulnerable suffering the most,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said in a statement. “Yet as needs rise, action is stalling.”

And, as some of the most susceptible people in the world when it comes to climate change — particularly in developing countries — women are suffering disproportionately from this funding gap. Usually responsible for the home, which means obtaining water, managing domestic finances, and providing food, women are more and more tasked with the impossible as food and water become scarcer or salinized from erosion. Women also make up 43 percent of the world’s farmers, despite owning little land or livestock, so as global agriculture takes a hit, so do those who work within it.

Climate change is inherently gendered. The U.N. report acknowledges that this is the case at various stages of the fight against global warming, saying that “there is a need for greater transparency and consistency in the reporting of gender equality markers.” And after markers comes the consideration of specific funding needs. Throughout the assessment of gender iniquities and climate change, women must be included at all levels, the report makes clear.

The 2023 findings show that 71 percent of 197 countries assessed showed signs of considering gender in their climate adaptation plans.

Still, the “way countries report on gender considerations continues to vary considerably,” the report authors write, “from generally emphasizing the differential vulnerability of women and men, boys and girls to identifying gender equality as a principle or cross-cutting theme in adaptation action, using gender as a platform to highlight other vulnerable populations, or developing adaptation options that explicitly address gender equality.”

They also consider the need for “alternative models of finance disbursement” to make sure that money “reaches affected communities with urgency and purpose, with its utilization being locally driven, people-centered and gender-responsive.”

“Climate finance providers could also increase their funding of gender- and social inclusion-responsive adaptation projects to support equitable and effective adaptation, as this also contributes to equality by considering the unique needs and capacities on the basis of gender and social identity,” the authors write.

The report clarifies that the definitions of gender inclusivity and responsiveness to climate crises around the world is varied, and that women’s needs are underfunded. As long as funding for climate adaptation ignore the experiences and voices of women, a fully realized response to global warming will never become reality.