The threats of climate change are not gender-neutral. Gender analysis on climate change over the past three decades has brought tolight the disproportionate effects of climate change and environmental degradation on women’s lives – particularly those of low-income women in global South settings. In countries where there is marked gender inequality, four times as many women as men die in floods. In some cases during natural disasters, women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men.16 This phenomenon will grow more frequent with global warming. Research has also shown that women often have a smaller carbon footprint than men, regardless of whether they are rich or poor.17 Therefore, a greater understanding of how gendered identities affect men and women’s roles, activities and subsequent contributions to carbon emissions is essential if mitigation politics and programs are to achieve their desired effect.
This discussion paper presents the need for a more nuanced analysis of boys’ and men’s multiple roles vis a vis climate change. The purpose of such an investigation is to contribute to a more complete understanding of the gendered root causes, impacts and solutions to climate change adaptation and resilience and to further strengthen the call for social, economic and environmental justice for all. Boys and men must be seen as part of the solution to achieve gender-informed climate justice, as they are in different capacities in the fields of gender-based violence prevention, unpaid care work, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and peace and security. This paper seeks to outline these multiple roles to identify possible ways forward to engage boys and men as agents of sustainable, positive change alongside girls and women.