Tonga envoy addresses climate change, feminism

From the Fiji Times Online (Fiji), a Tonga official emphasizes the link between adaptation and women’s rights: Climate change is a threat to the security of women and children in the Pacific and around the world. These sentiments were made by Mahe Tupouniua, deputy Permanent Representative Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Tonga to the United Nations on behalf of Pacific Small Island Developing States last week.

He said it was important for the Security Council to address issues such as climate change in relation to women's security. "Climate change is an emerging cross-cutting issue with serious security implications," said Mr Tupouniua. He said women and children accounted for an estimated 70 per cent of the world's poorest. "Women in the developing countries are responsible for an estimated 45 per cent to 80 per cent of household food production.

"Women are arguably much more dependent on agriculture for their livelihood and survival and thus far, the effects of climate change are mostly likely to erode women's capacity to be able to provide for themselves and their families because of the loss of their livelihood. "It is important to recognise gender differences not just in terms of differential vulnerability but also as differential capacity to adapt and to mitigate the effects of climate change. "Climate change is not gender neutral. Gender is an important determinant in climate change mitigation and adaptation….

Women voting in Bangladesh, USAID, Wikimedia Commons