Women and Climate Change Resilience

The climate catastrophe is already happening everywhere. We are at war with our planet and the Earth system, creating a new kind of war widows and vulnerability in a time of rapid change and social disintegration. But unlike refugees fleeing war or persecution, climate displaced persons have no legal status or recognition. The recent International Court of Justice advisory opinion on climate responsibility has called for this legal gap to be addressed.

Widows and single women with children are among the most vulnerable groups to the multiple impacts of climate change, both in urban and rural areas. The poor have limited resources, face systemic barriers, and lack access to sustainable options. Rising food prices are often the result of climate change, making it harder to meet their family's needs. Whether attempting to feed their families with smallholder agriculture, or artisanal crafts or trading, they live a precarious existence. Excessive heat, extreme weather events that may alternate long periods of drought, and heavy rainfall with flooding and mudslides, can ruin crops. An Indian NGO recently reported that a successful project for 20 years to help poor rural women support themselves with sustainable agriculture was recently wiped out overnight by unusual heavy rainfall and massive flooding.

Makeshift lodgings are easily destroyed by cyclones, floods and strong winds. Such vulnerable women can easily become climate displaced persons. If you thought there were problems now with rejection of migrants and refugees, imagine the much greater flow of desperate people as heat and drought make large areas uninhabitable and sea levels rise. A report to the UN Security Council estimated that 900 million people will lose their homes permanently from rising sea levels. Some island nations will disappear completely. Tuvalu recently saw the coral reefs that built their atoll nation decimated by an excessively hot ocean. Imagine what it would be like to lose not only your home but your country and culture permanently to the rising sea. In Africa, conflict, which may be aggravated by climate change impacts, is often a cause of food insecurity and displacement.

Poverty and environmental degradation are intimately connected. The poor seldom have either the knowledge or the time for environmental restoration or more regenerative agriculture. With global warming, invasive species and disease-carrying insects spread to new areas, threatening traditional practices and family wellbeing. The urban poor often live in highly polluted areas with few waste disposal options, with major impacts on their health, especially of women and children.

On the other hand, women are more likely than men to adopt more environmentally friendly behaviours when given the opportunity, so there is potential through training to help them to cope more effectively. In a poor remote Indian village with increasing drought, the villagers terraced their sloping farmland, with an upside trench to hold rainwater and recharge groundwater, and trees on the outer edge to control erosion and provide a windbreak.

Where there is community solidarity, the burden of supporting single women and their children can be shared within the community. The Bahá'í process for community education for children, pre-adolescents, youth and adults based on spiritual principles builds cooperation and solidarity. In particular, after devastation in conflict, when the proportion of war widows may be high, old barriers may drop, and close collaboration among the survivors may be the key to effective reconstruction, while adapting to climate change and restoring resilience.

Presentation to an all day seminar on 17 October 2025 at the Palais des Nations during Geneva Peace Week, organised by Widows Rights International on Widows and peace: The role of war widows in striving for peace.