Women can play critical role in mitigating climate change

As climate change continues to impact human lives and health in different ways, women and girls, especially those living in rural areas, are bearing the brunt of the crisis.

According to the United Nations Women, the global champion for gender equality, women are more vulnerable to climate change than men because they constitute the majority of the world's poor and are more dependent on natural resources, which climate change threatens the most.

However, despite increasing evidence, there is still hesitancy in making the vital connections between gender, social equity and climate change.

With that backdrop, leaders and experts called for the involvement of women and girls in developing and implementing all facets of climate change mitigation and adaptation, as the world marked International Women's Day on Tuesday.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta underlined the need to enhance women empowerment and entrench gender equality as part of ongoing efforts to combat climate change.

"All the evidence underscores the vital link between gender, social equity and climate change; and recognizes that without gender equality, a sustainable future will remain out of reach," Kenyatta said.

The president said Kenya had established a strong platform for women to participate in climate sustainability.

"Actions we have taken to strengthen women empowerment improve their ownership of assets such as land and to increase their control of financial resources have consolidated the role of women as change makers," he said.

"We now need to harness that capacity by putting women and girls at the center of climate change initiatives. This includes initiatives on climate financing, new technologies as well as training."

Jeannette Kagame, Rwanda's first lady, said women make up 70 percent of the world's poor, with poverty rendering them vulnerable to the humanitarian consequences of natural disasters, drought and famine.

"Eighty percent of the people displaced by climate change are women. We must address the global indifference towards the issues of sustainability and climate change mitigation.

"Of the 176,000 jobs created by the Rwanda Green Fund, 60 percent have gone to women. This figure offers irrefutable proof mitigation, sustainability and gender equality are interdependent."

Valerie Guarnieri, the assistant executive director at the World Food Program, said a sustainable future is only possible when women and girls have what they need to adapt to the changing climate.