Inter Press News Service: When the United Nations concluded a two-day debate Wednesday on the potential devastation from climate change, it covered a lot of territory: deforestation, desertification, greenhouse gases, renewable energy sources, biofuels and sustainable development. But one thing the debate lacked, June Zeitlin executive director of the New York-based Women's Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO) told IPS, was a gender perspective.
"Women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men are during a disaster," she said.…
She argued that women make up the majority of the world's poor, and in particular the world's rural poor, and are largely responsible for securing food, water and energy for cooking and heating.
"These statistics beg the question: Why? And what can we learn from this to fashion more effective solutions to the climate change crisis," Zeitlin said. She told IPS that she was the only one at the panel discussion to provide a gender perspective about the crisis at hand.
…Meanwhile, in a report released here on "Energy and Gender", the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation said women have been largely absent in the decision-making process, and their roles in environmental management are often overlooked. "There has been little reference to gender in the international climate change discussions," the study said.
Zeitlin of the Women's Environment and Development Organisation said women have always been leaders in community revitalisation and natural resource management. "Yet women are so often barred from the public sphere and thus absent from local, national and international decision-making related to natural disasters and adaptation."…
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