11/11/2021

(AU The Conversation) COP26: Why Education For Girls Is Crucial In The Fight Against Climate Change

The Conversation -  | 

Carrying water.

Authors
  •  is a PhD Candidate, Monash University
  •  is Associate Professor of International Relations, Monash University  
The Glasgow climate change conference is in its second week, with Tuesday November 9 dedicated to recognising gender equality, and the empowerment of women and girls in climate policy and action.

Gender inequality means women and girls will experience climate change in unique and different ways. They are more likely to die in extreme weather events than men. And as climate change brings about forced migration, loss of housing and income, they are vulnerable to gender-based violence. Child marriage is a common coping mechanism for many families facing climate stress. For example, in 2016 a 15-year-old girl in Mozambique was married in exchange for 2,000 Mozambican Metical (approximately A$42) to forestall her family’s climate-induced poverty.

There is also strong evidence regarding the impact of climate change on girls’ education. In particular, it will exacerbate the already existing barriers girls face. These include learning disruptions due to inadequate funds for school fees, as well as food, water and menstrual hygiene products. During natural disasters girls experience an increase in care work and disruptions due to forced displacement or migration.

The Malala Fund estimates the climate events of 2021 will prevent at least 4 million girls from completing their education. Similarly, a new report from NGO Plan International shows if current trends continue, by 2025 climate change will be a contributing factor in preventing at least 12.5 million girls each year from completing their education. The report states:
Even though girls are significantly impacted by climate change, they are also powerful agents of change, capable of strengthening a country’s response to climate change.
Why education for girls is crucial

In describing the COP26 summit as “a two-week long celebration of business as usual and blah, blah, blah,” activist Greta Thunberg summed up the attitude of many young people protesting around the world. That is, political leaders are protecting their own interests at the expense of future generations.

The growing youth activism is acknowledgement this damaged planet is theirs to inherit and fix. Young people in our region will endure an increase in severe weather events, a rise in food insecurity, challenges to their health from poorer air quality and pollution, and the impact of species’ extinction and biodiversity change.

In the face of these challenges, education for all young people is crucial. But in particular, education, empowerment and leadership of girls and young women is the key to climate resilience.

Project Drawdown, a global research project which identifies and assesses solutions to climate change, notes that education
shores up resilience and equips girls and women to face the impacts of climate change. They can be more effective stewards of food, soil, trees, and water, even as nature’s cycles change.
Young people in our region will endure an increase in severe weather events, and girls are particularly vulnerable. (Children in a school in Papua New Guinea) Shutterstock

Education for girls can be a pathway for fighting the climate crisis in three key ways:
  1. education in both the sciences and social sciences is necessary to address climate change. Girls’ participation in these fields will drive innovation in green technologies as well as a social approach to resilience built on equality

  2. formal education can build on women and girls’ existing community-based knowledge regarding disaster risk reduction and help them respond to climate emergencies

  3. education creates pathways to more independent decision-making for women and girls around work, family planning and community engagement. It also creates opportunities for leadership and participation in formal decision-making.
Girls and young women are already leading the way in climate responses in the region. For example, 17-year-old Anjali Sharma led a landmark class action – with seven other teenagers – in the Australian Federal Court against Australia’s environment minister Sussan Ley. The group was seeking an injunction to prevent Ley approving a coal mine expansion, arguing it would contribute to climate change which endangers their future.

The Malala Fund also iterates the importance of investing in girls’ education in the fight against climate change. It argues such investment increases social resilience and strengthens adaption and mitigation efforts.

Australia can do more

The Plan International report shows that in 2019, Australia spent A$516 million of its official development assistance on projects which targeted action against climate change.

That represents just 25% of Australia’s development assistance, putting Australia in 12th place among the OECD’s 30 development committee donors.

Plan International’s report also shows climate education is absent in Australia’s recent development policies and education strategies. For instance, Australia’s Partnerships for Recovery: Australia’s COVID-19 Development Response’ policy — launched in May 2020 — fails to mention climate change among the three pillars of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Young people are demanding change from those in power, organising in their communities to educate one another, engaging in activities to protect the environment and adapt to its changes, and demanding to be heard.

Australia must be more ambitious in ensuring youth and young women are prepared for the challenges ahead. By prioritising girls’ education in its funding and partnerships for regional development, Australia can promote gender equitable climate leadership.

Political leaders have a responsibility not only to engage and respond to young people, but also to build their capacity to face climate change, now and in the future.

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(AU ABC) Australia Scores Zero On Climate Policy In Latest Climate Change Performance Index

ABC News - Michael Doyle

Despite the Prime Minister announcing a commitment to net zero by 2050, Australia's climate policy has been ranked the worst by the CCPI. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)
Key Points
  • The CCPI is released every year and ranks countries in four categories
  • Overall, Australia was ranked as one of the worst-performing countries
  • Australia received a rating of "very low" in all four categories, the worst ranking
Australia's latest climate policies are failing to "take advantage of its potential" and rank last among nations in the latest Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI).

The annual rankings — published by German-based advocacy group Germanwatch — rank the performance of 63 nations and the European Union on greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy use and climate policy.

The performance index is measured by consulting experts in each country, according to the organisation, and evaluates each country's progress working towards goals in the Paris Agreement.

Australia ranked 55th, overall, but was dead last in climate policy, the only country to receive no score in that category.

In its assessment, Australia received a "very low" rating across the board and was "trailing many developed economies".

"The government does not have any policies on phasing out coal or gas, but CCUS [carbon capture, utilisation and storage] and hydrogen are being promoted as low-emissions technologies," the report said.

"Even though the renewables electricity is growing, the experts believe that Australia has failed to take advantage of its potential, and other countries have outpaced it."

The CCPI report notes that Australia's climate policy does not phase out coal nor gas. (Reuters: Jason Lee)
Last month Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Australia would commit to net zero by 2050, after negotiating with the Nationals.

Mr Morrison said the federal government would invest more than $20 billion by the end of the decade developing low-emissions technologies.

The plan prioritises "clean" hydrogen, "ultra-low-cost solar", battery storage of renewable power and carbon capture and storage, however there are questions around the viability of these technologies.

Australia dropped four places in its overall ranking, compared to 2020, and was ranked as "very low" in every category in the CCPI.
The plan for net zero
The government has committed to reaching net zero by 2050, and says it is on track to beat its 2030 emissions targets. But what will it take to turn Australia green? Read more

Renewable energy was Australia's best-performing category, ranking 49th, one spot ahead of the United States, but was still failing to promote new technologies according to the report.

"The country's lack of domestic ambition and action has made its way to the international stage," the report said.

"The experts describe that the country's international standing has been damaged by climate denialism by politicians, refusal to increase ambition, and refusal to recommit to international green finance mechanisms.

"Australia has fallen behind its allies and its inaction even attracted public criticism in the run-up to COP26."

No country in the report received an overall rating of "very high", which led to the report not ranking any counties first, second or third.

Denmark received the best overall score, climbing two places from the 2020 report, and replacing Sweden in the top spot.

The Netherlands and Greece were the greatest improvers over the previous 12 months, both climbing 10 spots to be ranked 19th and 24th respectively.

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(Al Jazeera) COP26: Obama Criticises China And Russia For ‘Lack Of Urgency’

Al Jazeera

Former US president says national plans of China and Russia on the climate crisis show a ‘dangerous lack of urgency’.

Obama also criticised members of the US Republican Party for their hostility towards climate science [Paul Ellis/AFP]
Former United States President Barack Obama has criticised Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin for not joining other global leaders at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow.

“I have to confess. It was particularly discouraging to see the leaders of two of the world’s largest emitters, China and Russia, decline to even attend the proceedings, and their national plans reflect what appears to be a dangerous lack of urgency,” Obama said during an address at the summit on Monday.

He added that their plans indicated a “willingness to maintain the status quo on the part of those governments. That’s a shame.”

The Glasgow summit is Obama’s first since the 2015 Paris climate accord, when nations committed to cutting fossil fuel and agricultural emissions fast enough to keep the Earth’s warming below catastrophic levels. Delegates from some 200 countries are in Glasgow to come up with a deal to meet the Paris Agreement goals of limiting temperature rises to between 1.5 and two degrees Celsius (2.7F-3.6F).

Obama said while “advanced economies” like Europe and the US needed to lead on climate change, so did nations like Russia, China and India.

“We need Russia leading on this issue, just as we need Indonesia and South Africa and Brazil leading on this issue – we can’t afford to have anyone on the sidelines.”

The former US leader said that while he acknowledged international cooperation had “waned” due to several reasons including the pandemic and “nationalism”, climate change was one issue that should transcend “our day to day to politics and geopolitics”.

Obama also took a shot at members of the US Republican Party saying both he and current Democratic President Joe Biden had been “constrained in large part by the fact that one of our two major parties has decided not only to sit on the sidelines but express active hostility toward climate science and make climate change a partisan issue”.

“For those listening back home in the US, let me say this: It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or a Democrat if your Florida house is flooded by rising seas, or your crops fail in the Dakotas or your California house is burning down.

“Nature, physics, science, do not care about party affiliation,” he said.

Moreover, Obama asserted that pressure from voters could help force governments to commit to more ambitious climate plans.

“The cold hard fact is we will not have more ambitious climate plans coming out of governments unless governments feel some pressure from voters,” he added.

‘Get busy’

Obama told young people “you are right to be frustrated,” but then relayed the advice his mother gave him when he was young.

“’Don’t sulk. Get busy, get to work and change what needs to be changed,’” he said. “Vote like your life depends on it – because it does.”

Meanwhile, online activist group Avaaz released a video showing Obama had made the same call for action, not words, to help poor nations as long ago as 2009, but with few results in the ensuing years.

Former US President Barack Obama, wearing a face-covering due to COVID-19, leaves after attending a meeting at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow on November 8, 2021 [Paul Ellis/AFP]
At a UN climate summit 12 years ago in Copenhagen, when Obama was president, rich nations promised to hand developing countries $100bn a year by 2020 to help them adapt to climate change.

The target was missed, and at COP26 richer nations have said they will meet the goal in 2023 at the latest, with some hoping it could be delivered a year earlier.

Scientists have said the urgency of global warming is as great as the dire speeches at Glasgow have conveyed, with the planet only a few years away from the point where meeting the goals set in the Paris accord will become impossible due to mounting damage from coal, petroleum, agriculture and other pollution sources.

The last few days have seen huge demonstrations in Glasgow and around Europe, demanding faster action in fighting global warming.



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