Women will suffer more in climate change, says Temu

WOMEN and children will be the most affected members of communities from the effects of climate change, Deputy Prime Minister Sir Puka Temu said yesterday.
Speaking at the launch of the UNFPA’s report, Sir Puka said the increasing world population had direct links to the current trend in weather patterns, and this posed serious threats to lives and undermines livelihoods.
He said with the increase in population, the natural resources were used up more quickly, which causes more socio-economic challenges such as land disputes, rural urban migration, unemployment, increased health problems and lawlessness.
Sir Puka said when these things happened, girls dropped out of school due to stringent poverty condition and assisted in the care of the households.
He said PNG had faced its share of climate change-related problems such as frosts, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, floods, droughts and rising sea levels which affected human lives and displaced populations.
These also had serious implications on the Government’s ability to addresses them.
Sir Puka said the women then would be most affected because in natural disasters, they were forced to work harder to care for families since they make up a larger share of the agricultural workforce.
The UNFPA report, “Facing the changing world: Women, population and climate change”, said women faced additional challenges because of their economic productivity and their disproportionate burden in reproduction and child-raising.
Sir Puka said all these needs had to be met and could be done through the involvement of governments in shaping policies and programmes and how best to effectively mitigate effects of climate change.