Call for involving women to tackle climate

Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman has said climate emergency should be declared in Pakistan as it was at the frontline of climate change.

Speaking at a seminar organised by the Aurat Foundation, she said that “women were better consumers of nature, they have very little to work with and have very low disposable incomes and it is the women who make the wheels of our agriculture and economy turn.”

She said that women were responsible for running a household but yet these numbers do not show up in the official data. The seminar included representation from all the major political parties as well as participation from the disabled and transgender community.

Aurat Foundation Executive Director Naeem Mirza said that climate change was actually global warming. He said that we should aim to focus our energies on combating climate change. He said that major contributors towards carbon gas emissions come from two countries, 29% from China and 31% from the USA.

Dr Aliya Hashmi Khan, a retired professor of economics and former dean faculty of social Sciences, Quaid-e-Azam University, said that climate change is not being taken seriously in the context of gender.

She cited the labour force statistics and said that if the total employed women in Pakistan then 68% work in the agriculture sector. Agriculture was not a homogenous sector but it also includes livestock as well.

“Women were not recognised as agriculture workers in the labour force statistics and they do not receive their due social protection due to this. It is even more important for Pakistan to recognise the women who work in the agriculture sector,” she said.

She also called for collecting periodic and updated information and data, especially on women working in agriculture and related activities. They said that labour force classifies women as an employee but there was no chamber for agricultural self-employed people and there is no women representation to speak about this fact.

She said that “we cannot solve the issues of injustice without looking at a holistic picture and this report is very important in this regard since it talks about inter-government partnerships, partnerships with the donor community and also of the movements women are engaged in.”

Simi Kamal, a researcher and an environmentalist presented the key findings of the research report titled ‘Women at the Forefront of Climate Action’.

She said that the report was more of a think piece and aims to highlight major factors.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2023.