The triple planetary crisis – climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss – does not affect everyone equally. Women and children face disproportionate impacts. Often because women make up the majority of the world’s poor, who are highly dependent on local natural resources for their livelihood. 

In many rural communities, it is women who bear the burden of securing food, water, and fuel. When droughts strike or rainfall patterns become unpredictable, it is women who must walk farther, work harder, and spend more time securing basic necessities. 

Droughts, floods, and food shortages also directly correlate with higher rates of child marriage and adolescent pregnancies. When families struggle to put food on the table, they are often forced to make impossible choices. For some, this means marrying off their daughters at a young age to reduce the number of mouths to feed. 

When disaster displaces communities, it makes access to education, healthcare, and security even harder for young girls. And disaster shelters, which are meant to provide protection, too often become dangerous places where women and girls face an increased risk of gender-based violence and exploitation. 

As climate shocks intensify, women and girls’ vulnerabilities will only grow unless we integrate gender-responsive policies into climate action. But we must go further. We need gender-transformative approaches—ones that dismantle the power structures fueling inequalities to ensure that women’s voices are heard and catalyze lasting change. 

Research by UN agencies and others identifies 3 reasons why empowering women and girls is key to climate action and to addressing environmental degradation.   

1. Women are stewards of nature

Women are responsible for half of the world’s food production. In developing countries, they produce even up to 80 per cent of food. As farmers, they have learned how to adapt to climate change. Indigeneous women, for instance, bring invaluable ancestral knowledge and practices that build resilience in a changing climate and have been in many countries at the forefront of environmental conservation. 

But women have less access to a range of resources, from land rights and credit to education and technology. According to the FAO, if women had the same access to productive resources as men, farm yields could increase by 20–30 per cent, feeding an additional 100 to 150 million people globally. This would reduce the pressure to cut down trees for more agricultural land – one of the biggest drivers of climate change. 

2. Women are the backbone of resilience

Women carry out at least two and a half times more unpaid household and care work than men. When climate disasters hit, women take on additional burdens.

They are often the first responders, rescuing children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, and other community members.

After a disaster, women will likely be responsible for caring for the sick and injured, providing support for their families and helping communities recover and rebuild. And yet, they are largely excluded from shaping policies, strategies, and programmes to address disaster risk and resilience.

Fully utilizing women’s capacities, knowledge, and skills when preparing for and recovering from disasters can help strengthen families and communities’ resilience.

3. Women are agents of change

Women and girls have been leading global and national climate movements. They also play a key role in driving change as consumers, workers, political and business leaders.

Women are more likely to recycle, minimize waste, buy organic food and save water and energy in the household. By leading behavior change and consumer attitudes, women can drive change across sectors.

At the political level, research shows clear linkages between women’s leadership and action to tackle climate change. Studies have found that countries with higher proportions of women in parliament are more likely to ratify international environmental treaties and have stricter climate policies.

In business, gender-diverse firms tend to have better environmental reporting and climate governance than their peers, and make more investments in renewable power generation and energy efficiency improvement.

In Lao PDR, the Lao Women’s Union is actively advocating for women’s empowerment. A woman, H.E. Mme Bounkham Vorachit, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, is leading national efforts in climate adaptation and biodiversity conservation. Women, who make up 22% of the National Assembly, are helping to pave the way to ensure that gender perspectives are included in policies. 

In terms of ambitions, Lao PDR’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan set a clear target: by 2030, at least 30% of leadership roles in biodiversity governance must be held by women. 

These are significant achievements, but major gaps remain. In rural areas, only 3.8% of village authorities are women. This means that women’s voices are missing from local climate adaptation and resilience strategies. Women still face barriers to land ownership, education, and economic opportunities—barriers that leave them disproportionately vulnerable to climate shocks. 

The reality is that women's perspectives are too often ignored when policies are made about land use, conservation, pollution, and climate action. 

We cannot afford to leave half of the population out of the conversation. The fight against climate change cannot be won without the full participation of women. 

We at UNDP are committed to working alongside the Government of Lao PDR, the Lao Women’s Union, and our national and international partners to address gender inequality in all its forms.  We have produced several analyses in recent years to identify gender gaps in various sectors and provided recommendations and trainings to reduce those gaps.

On this International Women’s Day, let us reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that women’s voices are not just heard but valued, that their leadership is not just acknowledged but prioritized, and that their rights are not just protected but actively championed. The fight against climate change is also a fight for equality. And we cannot afford to lose either battle. 

Thank you. Khop Chai.