Climate & resilience
Climate Change Threatens to Push up to 141 million Women into Extreme Poverty by 2050
UN Women warns that rising temperatures could drive up to 141 million women and girls into extreme poverty, while gender gaps in income, energy access and climate decision‑making widen.
American Impact Alliance News Desk2 minute read
Gendered Exposure to Climate Hotspots
More than one in three women and girls worldwide—about 1.5 billion people—live in climate hotspots where frequent cyclones, droughts and floods intersect with insecure livelihoods and entrenched gender inequality. The UN Women fact sheet presented at COP31 notes that those living in the countries least responsible for greenhouse‑gas emissions bear the greatest burden. While 73 percent of national climate‑action plans acknowledge the specific risks to women and girls, just over one in three actually address those risks in a comprehensive way, leaving a large policy gap. These overlapping threats exacerbate existing disparities, limiting women's ability to recover from disasters and to participate in climate solutions.
Economic and Social Impacts of Warming
Data from 24 countries show that a one‑degree Celsius rise in average temperature could cut women’s total income by 34 percent more than men’s, reflecting limited options to shift away from farm work or migrate when harvests fail. At the same time, warming intensifies unpaid care duties, such as fetching water and fuel, and heightens the risk of gender‑based violence; prolonged extreme drought is linked to a 21 percent increase in the odds of sexual violence against adolescent girls and young women. Child marriage rates are higher in arid regions, and 326 million women and girls still lack access to electricity, compounding their vulnerability.
Policy Gaps and Calls for Action
Women hold just 12 percent of energy‑sector portfolios and only four percent of climate‑focused Official Development Assistance is earmarked for gender equality, underscoring the scarcity of resources directed toward women’s climate leadership. Environmental defenders who are women face harassment, intimidation and even lethal attacks for protecting their communities. UN Women’s Executive Director Sima Bahous calls for equal rights, resources and decision‑making power for women and girls, arguing that their full participation will drive the systemic change needed to meet the 1.8 °C warming trajectory projected for 2050. The agency urges governments to embed gender equality in all climate policies and to safeguard women activists.