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Women's Status and Carbon Dioxide Emissions: A Quantitative Cross-national Analysis
Abstract
Global climate change is one of the most severe problems facing societies around the world. Very few assessments of the social forces that influence greenhouse gas emissions have examined gender inequality. Empirical research suggests that women are more likely than men to support environmental protection. Various strands of feminist theory suggest that this is due to women's traditional roles as caregivers, subsistence food producers, water and fuelwood collectors, and reproducers of human life. Other theorists argue that women's status and environmental protection are linked because the exploitation of women and the exploitation of nature are interconnected processes. For these theoretical and empirical reasons, we hypothesize that in societies with greater gender equality there will be relatively lower impacts on the environment, controlling for other factors. We test this hypothesis using quantitative analysis of cross-national data, focusing on the connection between women's political status and CO(2) emissions per capita. We find that CO(2) emissions per capita are lower in nations where women have higher political status, controlling for GDP per capita, urbanization, industrialization, militarization, world-system position, foreign direct investment, the age dependency ratio, and level of democracy. This finding suggests that efforts to improve gender equality around the world may work synergistically with efforts to curtail global climate change and environmental degradation more generally.
... By contrast, women are taught to value relationships with others and connections to their surroundings (Chodorow 1974;Gilligan 1982). In their stereotypical roles in society as caregivers, women may be more likely to be worried about environmental issues because: (1) they are more vulnerable to the consequences of environmental degradation, especially in the Global South (Ergas and York 2012;McKinney and Fulkerson 2015;Norgaard and York 2005), (2) they are concerned about their family's health and safety (Ergas and York 2012;Mohai 1997), and (3) they are socialised to develop nurturing attitudes not just about their family but more generally, including about the environment (Mohai 1997). Past research also suggests women may value altruism more than men (Dietz, Kalof, and Stern 2002), especially when altruism is costly (Andreoni and Vesterlund 2001), and concern for the environment can be viewed as a form of altruism (Stern, Dietz, and Kalof 1993). ...
... By contrast, women are taught to value relationships with others and connections to their surroundings (Chodorow 1974;Gilligan 1982). In their stereotypical roles in society as caregivers, women may be more likely to be worried about environmental issues because: (1) they are more vulnerable to the consequences of environmental degradation, especially in the Global South (Ergas and York 2012;McKinney and Fulkerson 2015;Norgaard and York 2005), (2) they are concerned about their family's health and safety (Ergas and York 2012;Mohai 1997), and (3) they are socialised to develop nurturing attitudes not just about their family but more generally, including about the environment (Mohai 1997). Past research also suggests women may value altruism more than men (Dietz, Kalof, and Stern 2002), especially when altruism is costly (Andreoni and Vesterlund 2001), and concern for the environment can be viewed as a form of altruism (Stern, Dietz, and Kalof 1993). ...
... Findings regarding the relationship between female political status and efforts to protect the environment are mixed too. A few studies indicate greater female political status improves environmental outcomes (Ergas and York 2012;McKinney and Fulkerson 2015;Norgaard and York 2005) but others find no impact on policymaking in this area (Hiselius et al. 2019;Magnusdottir and Kronsell 2015;. Female political status is measured in various ways in this research, such as by the percentage of women serving in legislative bodies or committees affiliated with those bodies, the percentage of women in administrative policymaking positions, and the time that has elapsed since women were granted the right to vote in a jurisdiction. ...
Most research examining factors associated with local government adoption of sustainability practices focuses on the impact of community characteristics. Little is known about whether adoption is also related to the characteristics of the leaders in these jurisdictions. To address this gap in the literature, this exploratory study uses data from a national survey of U.S. local governments (n = 1,672) to examine the potential correlation between adoption of certain sustainability practices and the gender of a jurisdiction's highest elected official. Our regression models find that jurisdictions led by women were more likely to have adopted redistributive programmes and practices encouraging community-based energy conservation. But, there is no correlation between a local government's adoption of measures promoting government energy conservation and its leader's gender. Future research should explore whether female leaders’ greater openness to citizen involvement in the policymaking process and women's socialisation to focus on communal rather than individual interests help account for our findings.
... Ecofeminism emphasizes the shared structural patriarchal oppression of both women and the environment, where the same logic that rendered nature conquerable does the same to women whose bodies are likewise subjugated (Eaton and Lorentzen 2003;Gaard 2017;Warren 1990). Tangible social structures set in place simultaneously make women more dependent on the environment while also compromising environmental integrity and sustainability, itself, as well as women's access to necessary environmental resources (Ergas and York 2012;Harlan et al. 2015;Shandra et al. 2008). Moreover, and crucially, the logic of domination that undergirds the shared oppression of women and the environment render both expendable (Terry 2009). ...
... For instance, women in less-developed nations who are especially dependent on environmental resources are denied land ownership and land inheritance (Frank and Unruh 2008), and, during times of instability, men's access to food and sustenance is prioritized over women's access (Dunaway and Macabuac 2007). Ecofeminist perspectives also point out that women's roles in being stewards of the environment mean that women are more likely to support policies that protect the environment and promote sustainability (Ergas and York 2012;McKinney 2014;Norgaard and York 2005). ...
... Ecofeminist thought thus incorporates multiple intersecting identities and statuses yet still uplifts gender as a key determinant in shaping relationships to the environment and corresponding socially constructed expectations. Certainly, women in less-developed nations are not a monolithic group; however, an ecofeminist approach speaks to the direct dependency of women in these locations upon the environment due to social roles that dictate women's use and reliance upon environmental resources daily and throughout life (Denton 2002;Ergas and York 2012;McKinney and Austin 2015;Shandra et al. 2008). Specifically, women are primarily responsible for obtaining food, clean drinking water, firewood, and other resources from their natural surroundings (Denton 2002;Oglethorpe and Gelman 2008;Rocheleau et al. 1996). ...
Environmental change and climate-related disasters are an under-examined factor impacting women's health, globally. Drawing on ecofeminist theory, we conduct analyses examining if the HIV burden among women is higher in nations that experience suffering from droughts. Specifically, we posit that droughts, which typically impact more people and for greater lengths of time than other climate-related disasters, have a unique impact on women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. We use a cross-national dataset of less-developed countries and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to explore and compare relationships between suffering from drought and total HIV prevalence and suffering from drought and women's proportion of HIV cases. Overall, the results demonstrate that while droughts have an inconsistent impact on total HIV prevalence, suffering from drought significantly increases the proportion of HIV cases among women in comparison to men, net of the impact of common economic, social, cultural, and political predictors. The findings suggest that suffering from drought differentially impacts women's health in less-developed countries, where a number of mechanisms, such as transactional sex or displacement, likely underlie the associations identified.
... In what follows, we explore the concept of gender equality as a force of environmental change. Prior research has focused either on a single measure of gender equality [8] or treated it as a multidimensional construct with a singular socio-ecological impact [9]. In this study, we take an alternative but complementary perspective. ...
... Findings from research on gender and the environment offer insights into the significance of gender inequality, in particular, on environmental outcomes. This research demonstrates that nations where women have a larger share of parliamentary seats are more likely to ratify international environmental treaties and tend to have lower CO 2 emissions per capita [8,19]. Additionally, increases in women's educational attainment, access to health care, and paid labor force participation lead to declines in fertility rates. ...
... In this section, we focus on women's influence in decision-making. As the evidence suggests that women express more environmental concern than men, researchers have hypothesized that women would make different decisions when placed in positions of political power [8,19]. Moreover, women's participation in decision-making has positive effects on maternal and child health outcomes, as well as on female and male life expectancy, across scales (e.g., the household, community, and nation) [44]. ...
The carbon intensity of well-being (CIWB) (a ratio measuring the amount of CO2 emitted per unit of life expectancy at birth) is an increasingly popular way to measure the ecological efficiency of nations. Although research demonstrates that economic development typically reduces this efficiency, little research has explored the extent to which social equality improves it. This study uses panel data for 70 nations between 1995 and 2013 to assess how various aspects of gender equality affect the ecological efficiency of nations. We estimate a series of Prais-Winsten regression models with panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE) to assess how increases in the percentage of women in parliament, expected years of education for women, and the percentage of women in the labor force independently affect CIWB. Our findings indicate that across all nations, increases in the percentage of women in parliament and expected years of schooling reduce CIWB; however, increases in the percentage of women in the labor force increase CIWB. Our results further show that the relationship between different dimensions of gender equality and CIWB differs between more developed and less developed nations. Finally, we find that increases in the number of women in parliament and women’s education attenuate the relationship between women’s labor force participation and CIWB. We discuss the variation in our results by reviewing relevant eco-gender literatures and feminist economics.
... The present study explicitly expands on Ergas and York (2012) finding that nations with higher proportions of women in parliament have lower CO 2 emissions. In this study, the authors suggest that their findings are due in part to the historical legacy of women's oppression, which has relegated women to roles such as reproducers of life, subsistence laborers, and caregivers of children and the elderly (Denton 2002). ...
... As a result, the increasing number of women in parliamentary systems is often an indicator of reduced social and environmental inequality, as women are more likely than men to have strong concern for the environment (see Briscoe et al. 2019;Boyd 2002;Eisler, Eisler, and Yoshida 2003;Kalof et al. 2002;McCright 2010). Here we expand on Ergas and York (2012) findings by 1.) emphasizing a broader measurement of gender inequality; 2.) exploring how gender inequality moderates the relationship between economic growth and emissions; 3.) articulating the nuances of reproductive justice and economic growth. Our analysis is framed around the theory of critical ecofeminism and critical environmental justice (Pellow 2016(Pellow , 2017Gaard 2017). ...
... Specifically, GII captures the multitude of ways that reproductive labor is exploited and expropriated. Thus, where as Ergas and York (2012) demonstrate that women's empowerment in the political sphere reduces environmental degradation, our study seeks demonstrate, in addition to the political sphere, how women's empowerment in terms of health and access to economic benefits reduce environmental degradation. ...
Understanding how carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) can be decoupled from economic growth is an important part of planning for climate change mitigation. A variety of critical environmental theories contend that the oppression of marginalized groups is interconnected with the mistreatment and destruction of nature. As a result, social equity, or the removal of barriers of structural inequality, often coincide with environmental quality and reduced environmental degradation. To date, there is limited research on the dialectical relationship between inequality, economic growth, and the environment. The present study seeks to further understand the relationship between social inequality and the environment by assessing how gender equality decouples economic growth from CO2 emissions. We construct a fixed-effects panel regression model with robust standard errors that accounts for clustering in 140 nations to assess how gender inequality interacts with GDP per capita to influence CO2 emissions per capita. Our findings indicate that in nations with more gender equality, the association between GDP per capita and CO2 emissions is much lower than in nations with higher levels of gender inequality.
... Even though gender equality is proven to be an important accelerator in achieving the environment-related SDGs, the econometric literature on environmental issues is still nascent in integrating gender perspectives. The handful of studies on the environment are mainly limited to fuel choices (Ergas & York, 2012) and connections to political empowerment (Grard Lv & Deng, 2019;Tchouassi, 2012). Increased representation of women at the decision-making level is confirmed to be curtailing the climate change effects (Ergas & York, 2012;McKinney & Fulkerson, 2015). ...
... The handful of studies on the environment are mainly limited to fuel choices (Ergas & York, 2012) and connections to political empowerment (Grard Lv & Deng, 2019;Tchouassi, 2012). Increased representation of women at the decision-making level is confirmed to be curtailing the climate change effects (Ergas & York, 2012;McKinney & Fulkerson, 2015). A panel study on the relationship between CO 2 emissions and women's political empowerment in developing countries shows a decreased level of emission in the long term (Lv & Deng, 2019). ...
... Previous studies have highlighted that ensuring gender mainstreaming in environmental policy frameworks will catalyze better environmental outcomes . Men and women experience environmental change differently due to the existing power dynamics in gender relations (Ergas & York, 2012). Therefore, understanding the gender dynamics of the environmental discourses will pave the effective implementation of the SDGs (Buckingham, 2020). ...
Economic development may have distinct implications for the environment based on
gender-diferentiated employment in various sectors of the economy. This is the frst
major attempt to incorporate gender in environmental modeling using sector-wise female
employment status and gender parity index. In this study, we investigate the environmentgender nexus through the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in 36 Asian
countries for the period 1991–2017 by panel data estimations. We fnd in all estimations
through panel FMOLS that (a) per capita GDP positively afects CO2 emissions and (b)
per capita CO2 is afected by per capita GDP squared negatively, thus confrming EKC
for panel Asian data with 971 observations. The estimations of the paper also confrm the
EKC hypothesis through panel data models in which GDP and GDP squared variables.
Our fndings suggest male and female labor market participation impacts the environment
diferently, particularly in the agricultural sectors. We also fnd that an increased schooling ratio (gender parity index) negatively impacts environmental degradation. The fndings
of the present study are expected to give insights into policymakers for understanding the
theoretical and statistical association between environmental quality and male/female labor
force in agricultural and industrial sectors for 36 Asian countries.
... However, the link between women and the environment saw the limelight around the early 1970s thanks to birth of ecofeminism advocating the need to empower women on environmental issues (Rao, 2012). A number of recent studies have been concerned with women's political empowerment and industrialisation (Nchofoung et al., 2021a) and vulnerability to climate change (Ergas and York, 2012;Asongu et al., 2021). With regard to female economic empowerment, emphasis has been on its nexus with globalisation (Tseloniet al., 2011;Asongu et al., 2020a), inequality, financial access and government revenue (Asongu et al., 2020b. ...
... Thus, very few studies have ventured into the nexus between women's economic empowerment and environmental sustainability. Nevertheless, Ergas and York (2012) argue that highly politically empowered women contribute to environmental sustainability through abatements in CO2 emissions. ...
... The dependent variable is environmental sustainability, proxied by "Total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions", which are composed of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and various human-induced (anthropogenic) GHGs, notably: methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). The use of GHGs emissions in this study is due to the fact that most women in Africa are subjected to traditional routine tasks (water, fuelwoods and biomass collectors for cooking; subsistence food producers) and these activities result in the release of anthropogenic GHGs which together with CO2 emissions negatively impact the environment (Achudume, 2009;Ergas and York, 2012). However, given that most environmental studies employ CO2 as a proxy for environmental quality (Nchofoung et al., 2021b), CO2 emissions is later introduced as an alternative dependent variable in order to check the robustness of the total GHGs emissions employed in this study as a proxy for environmental sustainability. ...
This study examines the effect of women's socioeconomic empowerment on environmental sustainability in Africa over the 1996-2019 period. Results of the system Generalised method of Moments (GMM) estimator reveal that women's socioeconomic empowerment is environment enhancing. Moreover, the findings reveal that the environmental impact of women's socioeconomic empowerment is modulated through GDP per capita and Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), leading to respective net effects of 0.002055 and 0.003478. These positive net effects are offset beyond respective threshold values of 9.513889 and 9.611398. These thresholds of GDP and FDI are critical for complementary policies relating to the link between women empowerment and environmental sustainability. Consequently, for women empowerment to effectively contribute to environmental sustainability in Africa, various governments, either through individual or concerted efforts should endeavour to create enabling business environments capable of attracting substantial FDI necessary to propel sustainable growth. Moreover, the nexus is not linear and hence, governments should also be aware of critical levels of FDI and GDP per capita at which, complementary policies are needed for women's socioeconomic empowerment to maintain a positive influence on environmental sustainability.
... Moreover, the involvement of women in governance in the sense of Ergas and York (2012) has a positive impact on environmental results. However, these analyzes are limited to theoretical assertions. ...
... Other authors point out that more than 60% of members of organizations committed to the cause of climate change are women. They also state that women are more educated than men in terms of vulnerability to climate change and consider climate shocks to be consequences of an expansive nature in the future (Brú &Cabo, 2004;McCright, 2010;Ergas & York, 2012). ...
The objective of this article is to analyze the effect of the political empowerment of women on vulnerability to climate change in 169 countries for the period 1995-2017. The empirical evidence which is based on panel fixed effects regressions shows that: i) the political empowerment of women as well as its components (i.e. civil liberties of women, participation of women in civil society and participation of women in political debates) reduce vulnerability to climate change. ii) The underlying effect is most pronounced in upper middle income, Latin American, small and fragile countries. iii) Public spending on education, the effectiveness of governance and education are the real transmission channels through which vulnerability to climate change is affected by women's political empowerment. The findings are robust to alternative estimation methods such as the Tobit, the dynamic fixed effects, and the generalized method of moments regressions. Policy implications are discussed, inter alia, the need for sampled countries to encourage women's political empowerment in order to reduce risks linked to climate change.
... The global environment has changed sharply with the contribution of human beings to global warming (Vitousek et al., 1997;Tubiello et al., 2013;Ergas and York, 2012). Since the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has changed the chemical composition of the atmosphere, a wide global consensus has emerged on the anthropogenic accumulation of GHGs in the atmosphere (IPCC, 2007;Houghton et al., 2001). ...
... Women have a vital role in agriculture 213 (World Bank, 2009;Team and Doss, 2011), but the gap in gender-based studies on the significant effects of agriculture on carbon emissions through the production and release of GHGs (Ergas and York, 2012) has not yet been filled. A detailed analysis of how the gender factor affects GHGs emission is essential. ...
... In particular, the literature stated that gender-related factors show environmentally friendly effects, and have potential effects on embodied carbon emissions. Existing evidence suggested that female politicians or CEOs tend to be more active in mitigating climate change, turning out to make environmentally friendly decisions [27,28]. For example, Ergas and York [27] proved that countries with the higher political status of women turn out lower CO 2 emissions per capita. ...
... Existing evidence suggested that female politicians or CEOs tend to be more active in mitigating climate change, turning out to make environmentally friendly decisions [27,28]. For example, Ergas and York [27] proved that countries with the higher political status of women turn out lower CO 2 emissions per capita. Additionally, Li et al. [29]; Liobikiene et al. [30] confirmed that gender equality enhances environmental behaviors. ...
With the steady growth of CO 2 emissions embedded in trade, the driving forces of emissions have attracted extensive attention. Most of the literature has verified a bundle of the influential factors; however, further analyses are necessary to understand the predominant and heterogeneous driving factors in different economies and/or industries. Accordingly, by applying the multiregional input-output (MRIO) model, this article firstly evaluates the embodied carbon emissions of China's export from 1992 to 2020 in total volumes and by 14 industries. Then, the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) estimations allow us to discover that urbanization, technology update and gross domestic product (GDP) are the leading three prioritizing factors in generating China's export emissions. Interestingly, this paper discovers that raising the proportion of female parliamentarians contributes to an abatement of emissions. Furthermore, the empirical results suggest that the heterogeneities of those factors do exist among industries. For example, the percentage of females in parliaments turns out to have a larger effect among labor-intensive industries only. In facing with rapid globalization and economic development of China, this paper provides important policy implications towards specific industries in terms of mitigating trade emissions. It guides policy-makers to achieve "carbon neutrality" by avoiding carbon leakage in net-export countries such as China.
... The moderation results found a U-shaped relationship between renewable energy and women's autonomy in a given period. The results are in line with the earlier studies of Terry [69], Ergas and York [70], Jerneck [71], Wang et al. [72], and McGee et al. [73]. These studies mainly provoked in favor of women empowerment that's resulting impact on tackling climate change issues. ...
... Thus, carbon mitigation strategies would be designed as gender-specific to cope with adverse environmental externalities that help compliance with international standards and protocols that improve air quality. Ergas and York [70] found that carbon emissions were substantially lower in those countries where women have greater freedom of political autonomy. Women are more likely to care for the environment than men due to their instinct to simultaneously manage the household and corporate affairs. ...
The role of women in economic development and the global environment is vital for progressing them towards the United Nations sustainable development goal (SDG-5) that emphasized the need to empower women in every walk of life. The study examines women’s autonomy in the sustainable development agenda under China’s open innovation system from 1975 to 2019. The study employed an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, vector autoregressive (VAR) Granger causality, and innovation accounting matrix to estimate parameters. The existing data are summarized and collated in the context of China to explain as a correlational study. The results show that women’s autonomy moderated with technology spills over to decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and substantiate the hump-shaped relationship between them. The increased spending on research and development (R&D) activities, patent publications, and renewable energy consumption empowers women to be equipped with the latest sustainable technologies to improve environmental quality. The pollution haven hypothesis verifies a given country, where trade liberalization policies tend to increase polluting industries to set up their plants that engaged in dirty production that exacerbate GHG emissions. The causality estimates confirmed that technological innovations and renewable energy consumption leads to women’s autonomy. In contrast, females’ share in the labor force participation rate leads to an increase in renewable energy consumption. Thus, it is evident that there is a positive role of women in the country’s sustainable development.
... In general, female participates in the less technologyintensive manufacturing and service such as education, health, and public administration, which are low-carbon industries compared with male-intensive sectors such as mining and automobiles (Erten and Metzger 2019). The research of Ergas and York (2012) shows that carbon emission is negatively associated with the political status of female. Mavisakalyan and Tarverdi (2019) argue that the representation of females in parliament could lead to the reduction of CO 2 emissions. ...
... As the female's political participation increases, their influence over environmental protection also increases. Ergas and York (2012) analyzed the measurement indexes of the female's political status, and believed that an increase in the female's political rights was positively correlated with the reduction of carbon emissions. McKinney and Fulkerson (2015) further found that an increase in parliamentary seats occupied by female could reduce the deterioration of the climate. ...
This study innovatively investigates the impact of female labor share on trade-related embodied carbon based on the idea of ecofeminism. Regression results show that an increase in the female labor share contributes to a reduction in emissions embodied in trade, and that this effect is more significant after the control variables, education level and female political participation, are included. More specifically, in developed countries, higher female labor force participation would reduce the embodied carbon related to imports and exports only in the service sector. However, in developing countries, increases in female labor force participation are conducive to reducing the embodied carbon of exports and imports in the service and industrial sectors, respectively. This study provides new evidence for policy makers to reduce trade-related emissions embodied in trade by encouraging female employment.
... The former seek to identify the country-level drivers of CO 2 emissions, which can be summarized as follows: economic growth (Coondoo and Dinda, 2008;Ergas and York, 2012;York, 2008); population growth (Dietz and Rosa, 1997); urbanization and industrialization (York et al., 2003); foreign direct investment (Jorgenson, 2007); military development (Jorgenson and Clark, 2009); and income inequality (Ravallion et al., 2000). Firm-level studies focus on either carbon disclosure practices or actual emissions reduction. ...
... This result is in line with the literature analyzing the relationship between women's political empowerment and CO 2 emissions, which points to a negative and statistically significant association between the number of ministerial posts held by women and reductions in CO 2 emissions (Ergas and York, 2012). In fact, either because of women's "green" attitude, which may be crucial for successful environmental policymaking, or because of the general effect that more gender equality at the political level may have on the way people value the environment, having more female ministers helps promote gender equality and spread environmental awareness, which eases female managers' task in achieving better environmental results at the corporate level in terms of reducing CO 2 emissions. ...
Does having more women in managerial positions improve firm environmental performance? We match firm-corporate governance characteristics with firm-level carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions over the period 2009-2019 to study the relationship between gender diversity in the workplace and firm carbon emissions. We find that a 1 percentage point increase in the percentage of female managers within the firm leads to a 0.5% decrease in CO2 emissions. We document that this effect is statically significant, also when controlling for institutional differences caused by more patriarchal and hierarchical cultures and religions. At the same time, we show that gender diversity at the managerial level has stronger mitigating effects on climate change if females are also well-represented outside the organization, e.g. in political institutions and civil society organisations. Finally, we find that, after the Paris Agreement, firms with greater gender diversity reduced their CO2 emissions by about 5% more than firms with more male managers. Overall, our results indicate that gender diversity within organizations can have a significant impact in combating climate change.
... More recently, there is an ever-growing body of literature probing the role of female parliamentarians in influencing the environmental quality (e.g., Flynn et al. 1994;Buckingham 2010;McCright 2010;Ergas and York 2012;Grillos 2018). ...
... Meanwhile, a large amount of literature also confirms the positive relationship between female parliamentarians and environmental performance from the perspective of empirical analysis. For instance, Ergas and York (2012) are the first to study the association between female parliamentarians and environmental performance (i.e., CO 2 emissions). Using quantitative analysis of crossnational data and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression models, they find that women's status has a significant negative association with CO 2 emissions. ...
This paper investigates whether the effect of female parliamentarians on environmental performance differs by the level of income. To that end, a threshold estimation approach is applied to a panel of 91 countries over the period 2002–2012. The results suggest the existence of income threshold effects in female parliamentarians-environmental performance nexus. Specifically, when it is above the income threshold value, the extent of this positive correlation is much greater than below it. It means that theoretically although the female parliamentarians have a higher awareness of environmental protection and a positive effect on environmental performance than men, the economic development of countries will affect the implementation of this effect. Countries tend to prioritize economic development when income levels are low, only in high-income countries will the proportion of female parliaments significantly improve the country’s environmental performance. These results provide some important implications for policymakers when considering the relationship between female parliamentarians and environmental performance.
... It is increasingly recognized that gender dynamics influence social and political factors determining who participates in decision-making about energy systems and responses to climate change [5][6][7]. Prior research has explored the ways in which climate change impacts are differently distributed for men and women globally [8,9], how gender identities interface with perceptions of climate change science and policy alternatives [6,10], and how political and social action to address climate change might reinforce or reduce gender inequality [6,11,12]. At the same time, a large body of scholarship focuses on the intersection of gender issues and environmentalism and varied framings of the role of women in environmental justice activism [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]118]. ...
... Concepts of women's closeness to nature, virtuousness, and roles as mothers and protectors have frequently been strategically invoked in environmental activism [11,13,[16][17][18]48]. Women environmentalists speak of protecting children, ensuring a future for future generations, preserving home and family life and maintaining health and quality of life for people in their communities [12,21]. Perceptions of women's vulnerability, virtuousness and their predisposition to being more environmentally conscious are echoed in much of the literature about gender and climate change [8,9]. ...
As women take on more leadership roles in the United States advancing social and political change, analysis of women’s contributions to the transformation occurring within the energy sector is critically important. Grassroots movements focused on energy justice and energy democracy focus on: (1) resisting the power of large multinational fossil fuel energy companies that exacerbate inequities and disparities in energy, (2) reclaiming the energy sector with more community and public control to redisitrbute benefits and risks, and (3) restructuring the energy sector to prioritize equity and justice with community ownership and distributed governance. This research analyzes women’s leadership by focusing on how two women-led, non-profit organizations are advancing the renewable energy transition, operationalizing the concept of energy democracy and contributing to the energy justice movement. The two organizations are Grid Alternatives, a solar installation and workforce training organization, and Mothers Out Front, an advocacy organization focused on addressing climate change by promoting a transition to renewable energy. These organizations differ in their mission and approaches, yet both intentionally link climate and energy action with other forms of social justice activism, by expanding community engagement, strengthening participation, and fundamentally redistributing power to promote a transition to more equitable, resilient and sustainable energy systems. This paper contributes to the theoretical understanding of gender in energy justice and energy democracy movements, and to the practical consideration of the role that women’s leadership is playing in accelerating energy system change and advancing the principles of energy justice and energy democracy.
... Surely, it is applicable to climate issues. While gender is highly relevant (Alston, 2013;Resurrección, 2013), it is also nested into other power categories, for example, depending on context and place (Nagel, 2012;Kaiser and Kronsell, 2014) and related to economic status, e.g., in explaining carbon emissions (Ergas and York, 2012;MacGregor, 2017, p. 22) and ecological footprints. Although our starting point is in exploring gender difference, many of the chapters in this book refect on which social categories are recognised and conceptualised in policy-making and ask questions about whether intersectional aspects are visible and/or included. ...
... The existence of an EKC tends to be country specific and time-variant (Apergis 2016;Awaworyi;Churchill et al. 2018;Liddle and Messinis 2018; also see Sadorsky 2020). 3. The effect of gender and racial inequality on emissions have also been explored (Ergas and York 2012;McGee, Ergas, and Clement 2018). 4. The first difference estimator regresses the change of y on the change of x. ...
This study tests whether greater political equality at the nation-state level moderates economic growth’s association with production-based and consumption-based CO2 emissions. Based on data for 106 nations from 1990 to 2014, this study finds that greater political equality mitigates both types of emissions, but when interacted with economic growth, it intensifies growth’s association with emissions. Conversely, political equality mitigates emissions when the economy is stagnant or contracts, but has no effect on emissions during times of economic expansion. The results are homogeneous across country income groups. These findings suggest that greater political equality is likely a necessary but insufficient condition to mitigate CO2 emissions.
... In terms of demographic variables, younger participants tend to recycle more probably because they are more in tune with environmental issues (Van Liere and Dunlap, 1981). It is a well-established finding that females are generally more environmentally conscientious than males (Ergas and York, 2012), which is consistent with the relationship between gender and recycling intention observed here. It is also not surprising that minority participants express a stronger intention to recycle. ...
Recycling has become an urgent environmental and economic issue in the United State since China's National Sword Policy. In this study, we connect the theory of planned behavior, environmental concern, recycling knowledge, and social capital to investigate recycling intention. Based on a representative sample of New York state residents (N = 1010) recruited through Ipsos Public Affairs using stratified random sampling, we employed hierarchical ordinary least squares regression and PROCESS macro to analyze the data. Survey results show that attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are positively related to recycling intention. Subjective knowledge, rather than objective knowledge, influences recycling intention. Moreover, subjective knowledge influences recycling intention through attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, while the indirect relationship from objective knowledge to recycling intention was not significant. Lastly, environmental concern and social capital influence recycling intention through attitude and subjective norms. These findings suggest that environmental communication messaging needs to attend to contextual factors such as community connectedness.
... This concern is based on their educational attainment and social status (Momsen 2019;McCright 2010). For example, Ergas and York (2012) found that the countries with the higher political status of women have lower CO 2 emissions and suggested increasing gender equality for supporting the environment. Especially in developing poor countries, women are responsible for household activities, and they do not have time for accessing education or income-generating activities due to the existing social and cultural stereotypes. ...
The present study provides a macro-level framework for gender issues and their link to energy policies and environmental quality, in line with the sustainable development goals (SDG). It examines the relationship between environmental sustainability, gender equality in education, energy consumption, and sub-Saharan Africa’s income by using cointegration analysis and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method. The study’s estimation results are consistent with the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis and policy actions suggested by eco-feminist theories in both the short-run and long-run and show that gender equality in education has positively related to environmental sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa.
... While gender has been shown to be relevant to climate change (Alston and Whittenbury, 2013;Resurrecci on, 2013) it is nested beside other social differences, such as context and place Kronsell, 2015, 2016;Nagel, 2012) or economic status, when, for example, explaining carbon emissions (Ergas and York, 2012) and ecological footprints. Apart from assisting us in avoiding unidimensional analyses of inequality, intersectionality aids in analysis of the situated nature and sociality of power and knowledge. ...
Climate change effects, views and approaches vary based on geographical location, class, gender, age and other climate related social factors. It is thus relevant to explore how various government bodies/authorities involved in dealing with climate change represent and act on social difference across diverse societies. This article performs a discourse analysis of climate policy documents from three Swedish government agencies: the Transport Administration, the Energy Agency, and the Environmental Protection Agency. This in order to explore how the different agencies represent social difference: what is made visible; what is obscured; what are the impli-cations? We collected a purposive, collated sample of literature through online searches and personal communications with agency staff. We apply an intersectional approach to the sampled literature. The article finds that while each agency articulates an awareness of social difference, this tends to manifest in broad terms. It argues that this has the effect of obscuring differential climate impacts and effects of climate action, with potential environmental justice implications. Finally, the article concludes by proposing that incorporating intersectional approaches will support more effective, inclusive and equitable climate action, in Sweden and elsewhere.
... One of the emerging areas in environmental sociology is an assessment of the effects of women's status and gender inequality on environmental policy. Even though there is a body of theorizing and research about connections between envi ronmental crises and gender relationships outside of environmental sociology (Merchant 1980;Rocheleau et al. 1996;Shiva 1989), there is only a limited amount of work in the field (Dunaway and Macabuac 2007;Salleh 2009), pointing to an important lacuna to be addressed by future research (Kennedy and Dzialo 2015 being that support for environmental protection is higher in nations where women have greater political status than in nations where they have low status, even controlling for a variety of indicators of "development" and "modernization" (Ergas and York 2012;Norgaard and York 2005;Nugent and Shandra 2009). There is also a growing body of research finding that women express more concern over environ mental problems and risks than do men (Davidson and Freudenberg 1996;McCright and Xiao 2014). ...
Environmental sociology has come to be sufficiently large and diverse, particularly as it has taken root internationally, that its contents cannot be easily summarized. This chapter begins by examining the divide between realist and constructivist perspectives on environmental problems and how they have evolved. More recently, the constructivist/realist divide in environmental sociology has evolved into a related but broader pair of stances termed agnosticism and pragmatism based on analysts' treatment of environmental conditions in their research. The chapter also examines debates over the causes of environmental problems, the social impacts of these problems, and potential solutions to them. A major focus of environmental sociology, particularly in the United States, has been to assess the driving forces behind environmental degradation. Although there is a considerable diversity of views about the forces that lead to degradation of the environment, two major perspectives stand out: human ecology and Marxian political economy.
... The project does provide some evidence that better gender-awareness and gender equality practices are linked with better waste reduction and environmental performance. This refects research at the global scale, where countries which perform highly on gender equality also do so on environmental measures (Ergas and York, 2012). Although the relationship between the two is not necessarily straightforward, there are indications that greater attention to gender balance and gender equality amongst stakeholders and employees could lead to improved waste reduction, which makes it all the more critical that policies such as the European Union's Circular Economy Action Plan, or EMAS, do actually refer to gender and indicate its importance, which is not yet the case. ...
... Carbon emissions per capita are lower in countries where women have more political voice (Ergas and York, 2012;Mavisakalyan and Tarverdi, 2019). Men's lower rates of environmental concern and activism, on average, are often understood as being linked to their relative social position and sense of invulnerability (Goldsmith et al., 2013, p. 161;Nagel, 2015, p. 168). ...
Climate change causes gendered impacts everywhere: extreme weather events, warming cities, melting sea ice and permafrost, ice storms, floods, droughts, and fires related to climate change are directly and indirectly causing widespread economic and social impacts. Gender violence accompanies the socio-economic disruptions linked to climate change. Fossil fuel extraction, transport, and processing affect women and men differently – and intersectionally -- as a function of gendered social and economic positions. Women and men also have different access to redress and to policy processes shaping public responses. Women’s perspectives are vital for efficient and effective climate policy and governance processes at all levels. This chapter focuses on how community-based organizations, women’s groups and activists, in a range of countries, articulate the gendered impacts of climate change; what their priorities are for action; and how they are organizing to improve women’s political agency and input into climate decision-making -- for example, through citizen science, community-based education and networking, and commoning: building resilient means of sharing livelihood necessities (e.g. land, food, water, care, and skills).
... The second relationship of interest, between gender and climate policy support, is less obvious. Granted, cross-country evidence suggests that gender equality and female empowerment at the national level may be crucial to yield better environmental and climate policies (Norgaard & York, 2005;Buckingham, 2010;Austin & McKinney, 2016;McKinney & Fulkerson, 2015;Ergas & York, 2012;Ergas et al., 2021). Yet, only half of the survey studies examining the relationship between gender and climate policy support find a significant relationship (McCright et al., 2016a). ...
It is well-known that men and women differ in their views regarding the severity of climate change, but do they also differ in their support for climate policy and in undertaking climate action in their everyday lives? Previous survey evidence on these questions is inconclusive, but we can answer them using unique survey data from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). Regression analysis confirms that Swedish women believe more strongly than men that climate change will affect Sweden. Furthermore, women engage in more climate-mitigating behavior than men, even conditional on climate beliefs. The association between gender and climate policy support is less robust, and disappears altogether when climate beliefs are controlled for, demonstrating that climate beliefs are the main mechanism explaining the relationship between gender and policy support.
... Women's traditional duties as caretakers, survival food producers, water and forest product collectors, and being a mother according to various strands of feminist thought, are to blame. Other theorists claim that women's positions and environmental conservation are intertwined since women's misuse and nature's subjugation are interdependent phenomena [46]. For these theoretical and empirical grounds, this study hypothesized that civilizations with higher equality for women would have fewer environmental consequences when adjusting for other aspects. ...
Consumption-based CO2 emission (CBE) accounting shows the possibility of global carbon leakage. Very little attention has been paid to the amount of emissions related to the consumption of products and services and their impact on sustainable development goals (SDGs), especially in the SAARC region. This study used a CBE accounting method to measure the CO2 emissions of five major SAARC member countries. Additionally, a Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) and a causality model were used to investigate the long-term effects of the CBE and SDG variables between 1972 and 2015. The results showed that household consumption contributed more than 62.39% of CO2 emissions overall in the SAARC region. India had the highest household emissions, up to 37.27%, and Nepal contributed the lowest, up to 0.61%. The total imported emissions were the greatest in India (16.88 Gt CO2) and Bangladesh (15.90 Gt CO2). At the same time, the results for the long-term relationships between the CBEs and SDGs of the SAARC region showed that only the combustible renewables and waste (CRW) variable is significant for most of these countries. The sharing of the responsibility for emissions between suppliers and customers could encourage governments and policymakers to make global climate policy and sustainable development decisions, which are currently stalled by questions over geographical and past emission inequities.
... One reason cited for the mixed evidence of a positive correlation between democratic status and environmental performance is that empirical studies often work with narrow definitions of democratic status centred on the presence or absence of elections, without adequately accounting for the quality of democratic institutions (Böhmelt et al., 2016;Hanusch, 2018). Some studies address this deficiency by testing the influence of individual components of democratic quality on environmental policy or performance, pointing to positive effects from: political rights, including freedom of expression (Escher and Walter-Rogg, 2018); procedural environmental rights, i.e. rights to public participation, access to information and justice in environmental decision-making (Gellers and Jeffords 2018); and gender equity in political representation (Erga and York, 2012;Atchison and Down, 2019; finding 2). ...
Many democracies find it difficult to act swiftly on problems such as climate change and biodiversity loss. This is reflected in long-standing debates in research and policy about whether democratic practices are capable of fostering timely, large-scale transformations towards sustainability. Drawing on an integrative review of scholarly literature from 2011 to early 2021 on sustainability transformations and the democracy-environment nexus, this article synthesises existing research on prospects and pitfalls for democratising sustainability transformations. We advance a new typology for understanding various combinations of democratic/authoritarian practices and of transformations towards/away from sustainability. We then explore the role of democratic practices in accelerating or obstructing five key dimensions of sustainability transformations: institutional, social, economic, technological, and epistemic. Across all dimensions we find substantial evidence that democratic practices can foster transformations towards sustainability, and we conclude by outlining a set of associated policy recommendations.
... These findings would seem to suggest that women's greater concern is broadly generalizable to countries around the world, and therefore, it has been widely assumed that the gender gap in climate change views is a largely global phenomenon. On this basis a number of studies have argued that the gender gap in climate change views is a key reason why in countries around the world women's greater political status and representation leads to climate change mitigation (Ergas & York, 2012;Mavisakalyan & Tarverdi, 2019;McKinney & Fulkerson, 2015). However, this assumption is problematic because prior studies do not allow for variability in the effect of gender across countries and a number of recent studies find evidence suggesting gender differences in climate change views are not universal, but in fact vary quite considerably across countries and regions (Lewis et al., 2019;Poortinga et al., 2019). ...
Women express statistically significantly greater climate change concern than men in a number of countries, but this gender gap is not universal around the world. We use multilevel models with cross-level interactions to analyze how the individual-level effects of gender on climate change concern and perceived seriousness are influenced by three macro-level contextual factors: national affluence, climate risk, and gender equality. We find that gender differences in climate change views are statistically significant only in relatively affluent countries, the differences are larger at higher levels of affluence, and greater climate risk amplifies the difference in concern but not perceived seriousness. The effect of gender on climate change views does not statistically significantly vary by level of gender equality.
... Recently, there has been an increase in the number of scientific research that focus on the unique features of the climatic changes experienced in smaller geographical units instead of whole continents and/or certain countries (Sachindra et al. 2016), as well as on the exposure of the various economic sectors (Moretti -Loprencipe 2018;Craiga -Feng 2018) or even individual demographic groups (Lutz -Striessnig 2015;Ergas -York 2012). In this study, the approaches of individual age groups to climate change and their effects on everyday life and recreational habits were examined. ...
Although the issue of the coronavirus pandemic has temporarily overridden discussions on the impacts of climate change on tourism, they have not lost their relevance at all. The exposure of the tourism industry to these effects is indisputable. This study, conducted in 2019–2020, examined the perceptible impacts of climate change that generate further changes, and the issue of climate adaptation involving certain supply-side players in the tourism sector at the local and regional levels. In the questionnaire used to explore the topic, questions were asked about a number of perceptible phenomena and their effects on everyday life, recreational habits, and adaptation. The quantitative surveys involved 1,615 respondents from the Transdanubian region of Hungary (NUTS1/HU2). The results of the research clearly confirm that the problem of climate change is no longer a concern only for scientists, and although the different generations perceive and evaluate the phenomenon differently in many cases, it increasingly affects people’s everyday lives and recreational habits. The perceived effects experienced by the respondents clearly influence the enjoyment of certain tourism product groups (beach holidays, hiking, attending open-air events) and the comfort and satisfaction experienced by individuals.
... The conventional and non-renewable energy sources are expensive to use and limited in numbers globally, and the world economies are shifting their focuses from these conventional fossil fuel energy sources towards clean, cheap, and abundant renewable energy to bring them into use (Wang et al., 2020b). Prior studies (Ergas and York, 2012;Waygood and Avineri, 2016;Lv and Deng, 2019;Kronsell et al., 2016;Winslott Hiselius et al., 2019) showed a correlation among employed women and environmental changes, including CO 2 emission in the atmosphere. A study on the European Commission, considering the municipal waste management process of Ireland and the U.K., found that women were having authoritative and managerial positions performed at a higher rate of recycling as compared to those who do not have an (Buckingham et al., 2005). ...
The present study empirically investigates the nexus between education expenditure, female employer, consumption of renewable energy, and CO2 emission in China. A total of 25 years of data spanning from 1991 to 2015 is used in the study. The World Bank data has been used as the source of data. Several econometric techniques, such as ADF, P.P, Bound test, ARDL, and fully FMOLS, have been applied to draw empirical inferences. The bound test reveals a long-run relationship between the considered variables. The estimations of the ARDL model show that education expenditure, female employers, and renewable energy consumption have a negative connection with CO2 emission. The study's findings indicate that increasing education expenditure, an increasing number of female employers, and increasing renewable energy consumption as a percentage of total energy use will help reduce CO2 emission in both the long term and short term in China. The fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) has been applied to test the robust impact of independent variables towards the dependent variable used in the study. And lastly, this study provides important policy recommendations that help in reducing CO2 emissions in the environment.
... Gender, and intersectional factors around race, imperialism, class and indigeneity, is very relevant to climate change. Empirically, organisations and societies where women are more involved do more to address climate change (Ergas and York, 2012;Buckingham, 2010;Ben-Amar et al., 2017), while conversely, conservative white men are most likely to be climate change deniers (McCright and Dunlap, 2011). Historically, there is a nexus between capitalism (which the author acknowledges), imperialism and racism (which he partially acknowledges) and patriarchy (which he does not acknowledge) in contributing to ecological degradation. ...
... Scientists and lawmakers have increasingly focused on gender (and specifically, women) in their research to fill these gaps and have found that gender is an important factor in understanding both the causes and impacts of climate change (Alaimo, 2009). For example, researchers have found that women, on average, contribute less to the causes of climate change, but suffer greater harm as a result of its impacts (Ergas & York, 2012). Policymakers and funders have realised that climate mitigation and adaptation programmes that are not designed in a manner that is sensitive to gendered conditions are unlikely to succeed (Vogel & O'Brien, 2006). ...
This book explores practices of epistemic exclusion, epistemic objectification and epistemic exploitation in climate change policy by examining the roles gender and sexuality play in determining who can contribute to and access the epistemic communities and resources that shape climate change decision-making. The book examines practices of information sharing, gathering and co-production in the context of climate information services programmes that have been implemented in a number of rural African country contexts.
Coal extraction releases pollutants to the air that affect the health and well-being of not only the coal communities but also societies at large. However, coal also provides people with stable livelihoods. Given this, how do coal workers perceive air pollution that is produced by their own industry? To answer this question, I interviewed coal miners in China. My findings present a paradox: Although miners identify certain sources of air pollution, these same miners nevertheless deny the existence of air pollution. My findings reveal that, in order to collectively avoid the mention of any air quality issues, the miners must avoid a direct confrontation with authority—that same authority that has forged a formulated acquiescence among miners at work. Acknowledging air quality issues could disturb the miners’ employment stability by creating anxiety and fear, challenging their ontological security.
This study investigates how the media covered women politicians pre and post the
2017 Kenyan general election. It also explores, from a valence perspective, whether
the coverage was done in a negative or positive tone and also investigates the most
dominant patriarchal and gender frames featured in the print media coverage of
Kenyan women politicians. Findings from a content analysis of 184 articles from The
Daily Nation and The Standard newspapers indicate that attribution of responsibility
is the most dominant frame followed by human-interest, conflict and morality frames.
In valence terms, the print media coverage of women politicians was neutral. While
iron maiden was the most prevalent patriarchal frame, which denotes that women
can handle political matters, it is important to note that there was less use of gender
frames during the election period.
The purpose of this study is (1) to assess the level of environmental knowledge and attitudes of students in grade 1 to 3 of senior middle schools in Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, (2) to estimate whether the grade level and gender influence their environmental knowledge and attitudes or not, and (3) to research the relationship between environmental knowledge and attitudes. Participants were 423 students ranging from the first to third grade of 10 different senior middle schools. They were administered a questionnaire to assess their environmental knowledge and attitudes. Results show that participants had inadequate environmental knowledge but their attitudes were relatively favourable. The environmental knowledge level of grade 3 students was significantly higher than the grade 1 and 2 students and the level of grade 1 students was slightly higher than that of grade 2 students. This holds true for their environmental attitudes. Boys demonstrated higher environmental knowledge and more positive environmental attitudes as compared to girls. We found the significant correlation between students’ environmental knowledge and attitudes but it was moderate (r = .302, p < .01).
A basic engineering approach is to find an optimal solution in the face of the complexity of the overall problem, that is, finding an approximation of the reality, or the optimality, in order to pose the problem neatly and then solve it. Social systems and societal impacts, however, are complex and non-linear. Interdisciplinary approaches are needed to evaluate impacts on gender equity, such as the impact of energy systems on women’s health, livelihoods, employment and other societal impacts. Multiple pathways to address gender equity through energy have been identified. Evidence suggests that small-scale infrastructure projects, such as mini-grids, are more conducive than large-scale conventional energy projects to improving access to services by the poor, providing greater opportunities for participation by women and other marginalized groups.
(Please find the English version of the abstract below. The report is in German, a 15 pages summary in english. the guidance for the Gender Impact Assessment in Climate Policy is urrently translated into English )
Zielsetzung des Forschungsprojektes war es, den Mehrwert der Geschlechterperspektive für den Klimaschutz und die Klimaanpassung zu eruieren und umgekehrt darzulegen, inwieweit eine geeignete Ausgestaltung klimapolitischer Maßnahmen zur Geschlechtergerechtigkeit beitragen kann.
In einem umfassenden Literaturreview wurde ein Überblick über die Forschung zu Geschlechterverhältnissen und Klimawandel geliefert, der die Relevanz der Wechselwirkung zwischen diesen beiden Bereichen verdeutlicht. Es werden Erkenntnislücken der Forschung identifiziert sowie dort identifizierte Chancen für eine wirksamere und geschlechtergerechtere Klimapolitik aufgezeigt.
Angestoßen wurde die zunehmende Bedeutung der Geschlechterperspektiven für eine wirksamere Klimapolitik von den Beschlüssen und Mandaten zu Gender bei den internationalen Klimaverhandlungen. Um diese auf nationaler Ebene umzusetzen, wurden im Forschungsprojekt analytische Kategorien zur Untersuchung der strukturell ungleichen Machtverhältnisse zwischen den Geschlechtern sowie ihrer Ursachen und Ausprägungen in verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen Bereichen entwickelt, die sogenannten Genderdimensionen. Mit ihrer Hilfe werden potenzielle Wirkungen von Maßnahmen auf die Geschlechterverhältnisse identifiziert und klimapolitische Handlungsmöglichkeiten generiert.
Diese Genderdimensionen wurden für die Weiterentwicklung der Gleichstellungsprü-fung/gleichstellungsorientierten Folgenabschätzung (Gender Impact Assessment) für die Klimapolitik herangezogen. Als Ergebnis einer Test und Kommentierungsphase wurde eine praxisorientierte Arbeitshilfe entwickelt.
Im Zuge einer Wirkungs-, Daten- und Methodenbedarfs-Analyse wurden die sieben Genderdimensionen für die Analyse von drei klimapolitischen Programmen und Strategien (Klimaschutzplan 2050, kommunales Maßnahmenprogramm der Nationalen Klimaschutzinitiative (NKI) sowie Deutsche Anpassungsstrategie) genutzt, um Anregungen zu geben, wie diese gleichstellungsorientierter und klimapolitisch wirksamer ausgerichtet werden können.
Das Ergebnis zeigt Chancen zur Verbesserung der Geschlechtergerechtigkeit auf vielen Ebenen. Dabei werden Grundsätze zur Einbeziehung von Geschlechtergerechtigkeit in die Klimapolitik genauso abgeleitet wie konkrete Politikempfehlungen zum Klimaschutzgesetz und Gender Aktionsplänen etc. Wichtige Erkenntnisse ergeben sich auch für Methoden, Datenbedarfe und Datenerhebung sowie Forschungsbedarfe und -regularien. Schließlich werden Empfehlungen zu Finanzierungs- und Förderaspekten sowie Wissensverbreitung und Kompetenzstärkung gegeben.
English
The aim of the research project is to demonstrate the added value of the gender perspective for climate protection and adaptation and, conversely, to demonstrate to what extent the appropriate design of climate policy measures can contribute to gender justice.
A comprehensive literature review provides an overview of the state of the art of research on gender relationships and climate change, highlights the relevance of the interaction between these two areas, identifies gaps in knowledge and identifies opportunities for a more effective and gender-equitable climate policy.
The increasing importance of gender perspectives for an effective climate policy was triggered by the decisions and mandates on gender equality and justice in the international climate negotiations. In order to implement these at the national level, the research project developed analytical categories to examine the structurally unequal power relations based on sex and gender as well as their causes and manifestations in various areas of society, the so-called gender dimensions. Informed by analyses based on these gender dimensions, political impacts of measures on gender relations were identified and recommendations were generated.
These gender dimensions were also used for the further development of Gender Impact Assessment (GIA) for climate policies. As the result of a test and commentary phase, a practice-oriented guidance was developed.
In the course of an impact, data and methods needs analysis, the gender dimensions were used for the analysis of three climate policy programmes and strategies (Climate Action Plan 2050, NKI's Local Measures Program and German Adaptation Strategy) in order to provide suggestions on how these could be more gender-oriented.
The results show opportunities for improving gender equality at many levels. Principles for integrating gender equality into climate policy were derived, as were concrete policy recommendations on climate protection legislation and gender action plans. Important findings also arise for methods, data needs and data collection as well as research needs and regulations. Finally, recommendations are given on the financing and promotion as well as on the dissemination of knowledge and the strengthening of competence.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.22201/crim.9786073034722e.2020
Con base en perspectivas feministas y decoloniales argumentaré la importancia de reconocer que aprendemos en nuestros cuerpos. Esto admitiría que tal posicionamiento sociopolítico siempre motiva las preguntas que hacemos y lo que llegamos a entender (Haraway 1988). De manera similar, utilizo el pensamiento fronterizo ya que este refuerza que el conocimiento intuitivo, ese que nos enseña a desconfiar, es lo más cercano a la realidad que podemos alcanzar (Anzaldúa 2003). Una perspectiva desde América Latina requiere considerar cuestiones de género y raza, esenciales para entender nuestro contexto. Una ciencia ambiental feminista y decolonial permite conocer mejor nuestras relaciones sociales, así como la naturaleza, en particular desde esta región, y entender que este discernimiento transformaría la manera como que se practica la ciencia y se abordan problemas socioambientales en una cooperación y empoderamiento que hace posible su avance.Con base en perspectivas feministas y decoloniales argumentaré la importancia de reconocer que aprendemos en nuestros cuerpos. Esto admitiría que tal posicionamiento sociopolítico siempre motiva las preguntas que hacemos y lo que llegamos a entender (Haraway 1988). De manera similar, utilizo el pensamiento fronterizo ya que este refuerza que el conocimiento intuitivo, ese que nos enseña a desconfiar, es lo más cercano a la realidad que podemos alcanzar (Anzaldúa 2003). Una perspectiva desde América Latina requiere considerar cuestiones de género y raza, esenciales para entender nuestro contexto. Una ciencia ambiental feminista y decolonial permite conocer mejor nuestras relaciones sociales, así como la naturaleza, en particular desde esta región, y entender que este discernimiento transformaría la manera como que se practica la ciencia y se abordan problemas socioambientales en una cooperación y empoderamiento que hace posible su avance.
By adding social equity to its goals of ecological and economic viability, the sustainability project runs the risk of being dismissed as wishful utopian thinking. Like the socialist movements that preceded it, the sustainability movement must grapple with the pitfalls of utopianism and chart a path forward that acknowledges the current social, political, and economic realities that seek to thwart it. To use references from the history of nineteenth and twentieth century socialism, sustainability, like Marxism, will need to distinguish itself from “utopian” thinking by promoting a “scientific” strategy that identifies and engages key historical dynamics and political agents that will promote an ecological transition. This article argues that the most promising strategy for sustainability progress centers, paradoxically, on the most neglected element of the sustainability equation: equity. Recent research indicates that the promotion of greater economic and political democracy is correlated with improved environmental performance. These findings suggest that an indirect approach to sustainability—prioritizing efforts to increase social equity—might be the most pragmatic and direct strategy for building a sustainable future.
The papers in this collection capture some ways in which the rollback of democracy
has manifested in the East and Horn of Africa region. The articles not only highlight
regression in the various thematic spaces; reproductive health, religion, media, social
and political movements as well as the state of constitutionalism, but also recommend
interventions and concepts that can gear states towards an inclusive democracy.
The role of patriarchy and other interlocking oppressions remains a deep concern that
requires a multi-faceted response depending on the different contexts within which
power is exercised. While the push for inclusive leadership in the East and Horn of
Africa has yielded visible gains with more women elected over time, power has not
shifted to reflect the increment in those numbers. Eliminating gendered inequalities
remains a legitimate struggle in the wake of the commercialised and violent politics
that limit the participation of women and citizens in general, particularly those of
lower social-economic status. The few women operating within the patriarchal state
structure survive by adapting to it with little collective women agency to show.
State structures have mutated to look more accommodating of women, all the while
maintaining gendered notions and norms instrumental in determining who accesses
and retains power. Political repression, the resurgence of the autocratic rule as well
as the rise of the capitalist ruling elites, all pose a great danger to inclusive leadership
in the region.
In an analysis of 160 NDCs and 13 NAPs, we find that national climate strategies are not paying attention to issues of girls' education, children's rights, intergenerational equity, or education.
Attitude towards environmental protection is a crucial component in environmental safeguard psychology. It is a psychological tendency expressed by evaluating the environmental gender attitude with favour or disfavour. This study aimed to compare the attitude level of male and female trainees towards environmental protection based on personal, psychological and sociocultural variables by using an ex post facto research design. The research population was composed of the trainees (N=177) who participated in the online training programmes organized from April 07 to May 31, 2020, by the Centre for Advanced Agricultural Science and Technology (CAAST) for Climate Smart Agriculture and Water Management (CSAWM), MPKV, Rahuri, Maharashtra, during COVID-19 lockdown period. In this study, an online survey method was used. The research instrument was a well-designed and structured online questionnaire using a Google Form consisting of two sections. The first section consisted of 11 independent variables of personal, psychological and sociocultural characteristics. The second section consisted of 17 environmental attitude questions focusing on closed structure questions with a five-point Likert scale, i.e. Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. The results revealed that age, training received, membership of environmental societies or organizations, courses taught, waste management and social media use significantly affect the trainees’ attitudes to environment protection. The female respondents had a favourable environmental attitude when compared with the male respondents. Therefore, the study concluded that a set of factors influences the gender attitude of the online trainees. These factors alone cannot change trainees’ attitudes towards environmental protection. Accordingly, necessary and appropriate conditions should be provided to change the attitude of male trainees for environmental protection. Sustained support is necessary to efficiently understand the role of gender in environment protection through government policies, social media, policymakers, scientists, extension workers, research organizations, various training programmes, participation of students and faculty in the environmental cleanliness drive and awareness programs, etc.
This study examines the impact of gender, gender role attitudes, and university experience on environmental values. Using a sample of 609 undergraduate students at a university in the southern United States, nested ordinary least squares regression models examine how gender affects the environmental values of students. Women report significantly higher levels of environmentalism, with the difference mediated by gender role liberalism. Gender role liberalism has a mediating influence on the gender gap in environmental values. The impact of the university experience on environmentalism depends upon the respondent’s gender: progression through university has a positive impact on environmental values for men, but not for women. The results reveal the importance of attitudinal factors and educational experiences for shaping environmental values. Implications for research and policy are discussed.
According to feminist political ecology, women are uniquely and disproportionately affected by forest loss in many low- or middle-income countries (LMICs) because of gender divisions with regard to labor, land access, and forest resources. However, most macro-comparative theories of development (including economic dependency, ecological modernization, treadmill of production, world society, and neo-Malthusian theories) tend to ignore gender. We draw on ideas from feminist political ecology to examine how gender-focused bilateral aid in the environmental sector impacts forest loss from 2001 to 2015. To do so, we analyze data for 79 LMICs using ordinary least squares regression. We find that more gender-focused bilateral aid in the environmental sector is related to less forest loss. We also find support for economic dependency theory (more agricultural and forestry exports are related to more forest loss) and neo-Malthusian theory (more population growth is related to more forest loss). The main finding on bilateral financing supports the idea that gender should receive more attention in cross-national research, especially the integration of gender-related measures into analyses to refine and expand conventional macro-theories of development.
This paper contributes to gender mainstreaming and waste management literatures, which largely neglect the empirical dimensions of gender mainstreaming in environmental practices, and have a complete lacuna in waste management. Informed by an ecofeminist approach which argues that gender equality is necessary to achieve environmental sustainability, the paper, and its underpinning research, utilizes feminist and participatory methodologies for implementing gender mainstreaming in waste reduction innovations. This enables the links between greater gender awareness and more environmentally sustainable waste management practice to be explored, and the opportunities for, and obstacles to, adopting gender mainstreaming in waste management to be assessed. The largely qualitative data, drawn from surveys, focus groups and evaluations in eleven European cities, suggest that while developing gender awareness in waste reduction is complex, with many factors contributing to its adoption, a link between waste reduction initiatives achieving CO2 equivalent savings and greater gender awareness can be observed.
This paper reviews the contribution of the Beijing Platform to achieve gender sensitive environmental policy, based on a number of examples covering a range of scales, regions and timings of their inclusion of gender: the EU; the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; IOC-UNESCOs Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development which launches in 2021; and municipalities in Europe responsible for implementing waste reduction initiatives. The broader context of gender mainstreaming provides a critical conceptual and analytical framework. It acknowledges some limited and isolated progress, but concludes that, overall, a lack of structural change leaves unequal gender relations broadly intact, while environmental conditions continue to deteriorate.
The paper examines how environmental degradation affects female economic inclusion. Using Generalised Least Squares (GLS) and Instrumental Variable Approach in Two-Stage Least Squares (IV-2SLS), a panel of 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa was analysed for the period 1990–2013. We observe that CO2 emission (metric per capita), CO2 emissions from electricity and heat, CO2 emissions from liquid and fuel consumption, and CO2 intensity (emission from solid fuels such as wood, charcoal, and coal) appear to negatively affect female economic inclusion. This implies that environmental deterioration disproportionally affects the labour force participation of women. The paper recommends that policies that are designed to mitigate environmental pollution should also incorporate measures to address gender exclusion. This effort will not only reduce environmental vulnerability but will also create a window for women empowerment in vulnerable situations. This focus holds the potential for the attainment of SDG 5 in SSA.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the social, political, economic, and environmental forces that shape disproportionate HIV rates among women in less-developed countries. Specifically, we analyze how environmental degradation and women's property rights condition female unemployment rates in poor nations and ultimately, patterns of disease. Using data from 105 less-developed nations, we construct a structural equation model to analyze influences on the proportion of HIV cases among women. We find that environmental degradation is an important, though often overlooked factor contributing to the female HIV burden across nations, through mechanisms such as female unemployment, disenfranchisement, and poor access to socio-health services. We also find that restrictions on property rights for women impact female unemployment and access to health services. Conclusions point to the efficacy of incorporating ecofeminist frameworks that emphasize ecological conditions alongside political, economic, and social forces to explain global health and gender inequalities in HIV/AIDS.
Women's political participation and representation vary dramatically within and between countries. We selectively review the literature on gender in politics, focusing on women's formal political participation. We discuss both traditional explanations for women's political participation and representation, such as the supply of women and the demand for women, and newer explanations such as the role of international actors and gender quotas. We also ask whether women are distinctive-does having more women in office make a difference to public policy? Throughout the review we demonstrate that a full understanding of women's political representation requires both deep knowledge of individual cases such as the United States and broad knowledge comparing women's participationacross countries. We end with four recommended directions for future research: (a) globalizing theory and research, (b) expanding data collection, (c) remembering alternative forms of women's agency, and (d) addressing intersectionality.
Our aim here is to strengthen the links between the world-systems perspective and research on gender inequality. Grounding our analysis in theories assessing the connections between gender relationships and world-system processes, we empirically explore (1) the extent to which women's status in nations overlaps with the world-system position of those nations and (2) the influence of women's status within nations on a variety of national characteristics. We find that women's status has a moderately strong association with world-system position, which suggests that macro-comparative research may confound the respective effects on a variety of social characteristics of women's status and world-system position if indicators of both factors are not included in analyses. We also find that, controlling for world-system position, GDP per capita, and urbanization, in nations where women have higher status (variously measured), total fertility rates, infant mortality rates, military expenditures, and inflows of foreign direct investment are lower, and public health care expenditures and per capita meat consumption are higher. These results suggest that women's status likely has social effects that can be seen on the macro-level, and that world-systems analysts should pay more attention to theories of gender in their research.
Women generally initiate, lead, and constitute the rank and file of environmental justice activism. However, there is little research on why there are comparatively so few men involved in these movements. Using the environmental justice movement in the Central Appalachian coalfields as a case study, we examine the ways that environmental justice activism is gendered, with a focus on how women’s and men’s identities both shape and constrain their involvement in gendered ways. The analysis relies on 20 interviews with women and men grassroots activists working for environmental justice in the coalfields of Appalachia. We find that women draw on their identities as “mothers” and “Appalachians” to justify their activism, while the hegemonic masculinity of the region, which is tied to the coal industry, has the opposite effect on men, deterring their movement involvement. We explore the implications of these findings for understanding the relationship of gender to environmental justice activism.
We present a blockmodel of the world system circa 1965 that is based on four types of international networks: trade flows,military intervention, diplomatic relations, and conjoint treaty memberships. We then report regression analysis of the effects of these structural positions on nations' economic growth (change in GNP per capita) from 1955 to 1970. Net of other plausible determinants, these effects are large in magnitude and entirely consistent with world-system/dependency theories. Further analyses reinforce the interpretation of these findings as the structural, accumulative advantage of location in the core over that in the periphery. Substantively, our results suggest that exogentic theories of economic growth are even more powerful than previous analyses have indicated. -Authors
This paper explores the opportunities for and the benefits of considering gender in municipal waste management (MWM) policy. Two case studies in Ireland and the UK are presented. These show that the structural mechanisms for achieving a more consistent and coherent approach to ensuring that MWM policy is sensitive to gender differences and inequalities are still weak. They also show that political structures and champions for gender equality and equal opportunities make a difference to the way in which women are involved and considered in MWM policy making. The research is set within the broader context of environmental justice which, to date, has been more concerned with race, ethnicity and wealth inequalities than with gender inequalities.
Bangladesh has recently experienced a number of high-profile disasters, including devastating cyclones and annual floods. Poverty is both a cause of vulnerability, and a consequence of hazard impacts. Evidence that the impacts of disasters are worse for women is inconclusive or variable. However, since being female is strongly linked to being poor, unless poverty is reduced, the increase in disasters and extreme climate events linked with climate change is likely to affect women more than men. In addition, there are some specific gender attributes which increase women's vulnerability in some respects. These gendered vulnerabilities may, however, be reduced by social changes.
Carbon dioxide is understood to be the most important greenhouse gas believed to be altering the global climate. This article applies world-system theory to environmental damage. An analysis of 154 countries examines the contribution of both position in the world economy and internal class and political forces in determining a nation's CO, intensity. CO, intensity is defined here as the amount of carbon dioxide released per unit of economic output. An inverted U distribution of CO, intensity across the range of countries in the global stratification system is identified and discussed. Ordinary Least Squares regression suggests that the least efficient consumers of fossil fuels are some countries within the semi-periphery and upper periphery, spe-cifically those nations which are high exporters, those highly in debt, nations with higher military spending, and those with a repressive social structure.
The Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) and tolerance are both widely used measures of the degree of multi-collinearity of the
ith independent variable with the other independent variables in a regression model. Unfortunately, several rules of thumb
– most commonly the rule of 10 – associated with VIF are regarded by many practitioners as a sign of severe or serious multi-collinearity
(this rule appears in both scholarly articles and advanced statistical textbooks). When VIF reaches these threshold values
researchers often attempt to reduce the collinearity by eliminating one or more variables from their analysis; using Ridge
Regression to analyze their data; or combining two or more independent variables into a single index. These techniques for
curing problems associated with multi-collinearity can create problems more serious than those they solve. Because of this,
we examine these rules of thumb and find that threshold values of the VIF (and tolerance) need to be evaluated in the context
of several other factors that influence the variance of regression coefficients. Values of the VIF of 10, 20, 40, or even
higher do not, by themselves, discount the results of regression analyses, call for the elimination of one or more independent
variables from the analysis, suggest the use of ridge regression, or require combining of independent variable into a single
index.
By analyzing research and theoretical foci in its three major publication venues, we can judge how much attention the world-system perspective has been paying to women. After 25 years, women are only a faint ghost in the world-system perspective. In the ?rst twenty volumes of Review, less than 5 percent (16) of the articles deal with gendered exploitation, women, or households. In the ?rst ?ve volumes of the Journal of World-System Research, less than 4 percent of the articles address womens issues.2 By 1999, PEWS had published 21 annual monographs; yet less than 5 percent of the articles in those volumes integrated women or gender inequities.
A critical mass of female voices changes the tenor of political and corporate decisions - and should be used to galvanize climate policy, says Susan Buckingham.
Attempts to trace the social origins of the sexual division of labour, and challenges the view that the dominance relationship evolved either out of biological or economic determinants. Describes the history of the related processes of colonization and 'housewifization'; extends this analysis to the contemporary new international division of labour, and the role which women have to play as the cheapest producers and consumers. Then focuses on the role of violence against women in the establishment of production relations which are not based on wage-labour proper, using the experiences of women in India. After arguing that present socialist countries cannot provide the desired alternative for women's liberation because the socialist accumulation process is based on 'housewifization', the last chapter attempts to develop a feminist perspective of a future society based on a self-sufficient economy. Sees the first step towards this as a consumer liberation movement started by women in the 'overdeveloped' classes and countries.- from Author
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Objective. Surveys demonstrate somewhat consistent gender differences in environmental concern, but there is no consensus on reasons for these differences. This research makes the case that differences in perceived vulnerability to risk explain the gender gap found in environmental surveys and other, quite distinct, areas of potential risk as well. Methods. Two national surveys, administered simultaneously and each involving very different environmental risks (hazardous waste sites and global warming), are analyzed in terms of gender differences. Results. In both surveys, in every question that involves reactions to a specific risk, women are more concerned than men. Standard deviations also are consistently smaller for women. When health-risk perceptions enter equations accounting for environmental concerns, however, the gender gap disappears. Conclusions. Questionnaire items that imply specific risks tend to produce significant gender differences. These types of survey results can be construed as communication events in which respondents who feel vulnerable answer in ways that urge caution on policymakers.
There is a large focus at the organizational level on the importance of a link between women and the environment, yet little empirical research explores this. We examine how women's status in economic, political, educational, and health spheres affect state environmental protection efforts in the form of protected land area. Hypotheses derived from ecofeminism and empirical literature of gendered differences in individual-level attitudes and behaviors are tested using multiple regression models with a cross-national sample. We find no support for broader ecofeminist claims that the overall oppression of women and environmental degradation are linked by a common source. However, we find strong support for the idea that increasing women's political status in particular through representation in national government has a positive effect on state environmental protection efforts. We also find no evidence that connection to a world polity has a significant effect on nation-state designation of protected land area.
This study examines the social forces that drive deforestation. Neo-Malthusian, modernization, and dependency theories are
applied in a cross-national comparison of 51 developing countries. Multiple regression techniques are applied to estimate
the rate of deforestation using the level of urbanization, economic growth rate, population growth rate, level of sectoral
inequality, rate of change in primary product exports, and rate of change in tertiary education. Results support modernization
theory, indicating that the level of urbanization has a curvilinear effect on the rate of deforestation, that economic growth
contributes to deforestation, and that sectoral inequality reduces the rate of deforestation. In support of neo-Malthusian
theory, population growth results in higher rates of deforestation. Tertiary education has a mild negative effect on the rate
of deforestation, whereas the effect of trade dependency is insignificant.
Common but differentiated responsibilities?
From procedural to substantive change.
A chance for gender post 2012?
The authors employ multiple theories within a political economy framework to examine the structural predictors of the per capita ecological footprints of nations. Engaged theories include ecological modernization, treadmill of production, treadmill of destruction, and ecologically unequal exchange. Results of cross-national panel regression models indicate that the treadmill of production in the context of economic development increases per capita footprints, which contradicts general claims of ecological modernization theory. Similarly, the treadmill of destruction in the mode of military expenditures per soldier positively affects per capita footprints. Those with relatively higher levels of exports sent to economically developed and militarily powerful nations experience suppressed consumption levels, and these effects are especially pronounced and increasingly so for less-developed countries, many of which consume resources well below globally sustainable thresholds. The latter sets of findings support key elements of ecologically unequal exchange theory. Ultimately, this research suggests that a political economy framework that considers domestic attributes and structural relationships in particular contexts is quite useful for understanding the consumption-based environmental harms of nations.
I use panel data to empirically assess the effects of a variety of theoretically important structural factors on national level CO2 emissions in the former Soviet republics, a context of de-modernization and peripheralization. Several theories address the effects of modernization on the environment, but they neglect to consider the environmental consequences of de-modernization. Unlike the trends in most other nations over the twentieth century, former Soviet republics in the 1990s saw their collective population size, economy, level of urbanization, level of industrialization, and international trade decline, and, thus, they provide an ideal context in which to assess the effects of de-modernization on the environment. In addition to the dramatic changes in economic and demographic factors, the size of the militaries of the former Soviet republics changed substantially during the 1990s, with some republics expanding their militaries while other were scaling theirs back. I take advantage of the substantial variation within the former Soviet republics, and assess the effects of militarization, in addition to economic and demographic factors, on CO2 emissions. I find that de-modernization, as indicated by declines in GDP per capita and urbanization, led to declines in CO2 emissions, countering claims that further modernization is necessary to resolve the environmental crisis. I also find that militarization has an effect on CO2 emissions above and beyond that of economic development.
Consumption and concomitant environmental degradation are among the most pressing global issues confronting us today. This research argues that these problems are embedded within the context of hierarchical inter-state relationships and intra-national characteristics in the modern world-system. Using cross-national comparisons among 208 countries, I construct a recursive indirect effects model to estimate the direct, indirect, and total effects of world-system position, domestic inequality, urbanization, and literacy rates on a comprehensive indicator of per capita consumption of natural resources: the ecological footprint. I find that world-system position has the strongest positive total effect on per capita consumption, followed by urbanization and literacy rates. Domestic inequality, by contrast, has a strong negative total effect on per capita consumption. In a second analysis, I examine the extent to which cross-national variation of consumption levels occurs within different zones of the world-system. I find and discuss two outliers in the core and one in the periphery, and a relatively high level of variation in the semiperiphery.
Accumulated research findings show that women tend to express higher levels of concern toward technology and the environment than do men, but that the tendency is not universal. The findings are particularly clear-cut for local facilities and/or nuclear and other technologies that are often seen as posing nisks of contamination; findings appear to be more mixed for broader patterns of environmental concern. Although the differing patterns have been reported with enough consistency to be considered relatively robust, less progress has been made to date in explaining the underlying dynamics. Five main hypotheses can be identified. One hypothesis, the expectation that increased knowledge will lead to decreased concern, has received so little support, despite repeated examination, that it can be discarded. Another, that women tend to express greater concern than do men about the health and safety implications of any given level of technological risk, has received consistent support. The remaining 3 hypotheses require additional empincal examination.
This article argues that climate change not only requires major technological solutions, but also has political and socio-economic aspects with implications for development policy and practice. Questions of globalisation, equity, and the distribution of welfare and power underlie many of its manifestations, and its impacts are not only severe, but also unevenly distributed. There are some clear connections, both positive and negative, between gender and the environment. This paper explores these linkages, which help to illustrate the actual and potential relationships between gender and climate change, and the gender-specific implications of climate change. It also provides examples of women organising for change around sustainable development issues in the build-up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), and demonstrates how women's participation can translate into more gender-sensitive outcomes.
At a first glance, the links between the results of the UN negotiations on climate change and gender issues may not be obvious. However, I believe that gender did indeed play a role in these discussions. This was not a role of the first order, but it was nonetheless a significant one. I would like to explain this impression by analysing briefly the three 'communities' which have shaped the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Kyoto Protocol. The first community consists of the different countries' governmental delegations, the most important players in the negotiations. The second community consists of business and its representatives, and the third consists of environmental NGOs.
Gender-related inequalities are pervasive in the developing world. Although women account for almost 80 per cent of the agricultural sector in Africa, they remain vulnerable and poor. Seventy per cent of the 1.3 billion people in the developing world living below the threshold of poverty are women. It is important that the consequences of climate change should not lead already marginalised sections of communities into further deprivation. But key development issues have been at best sidetracked, and at worst blatantly omitted, from policy debates on climate change. The threats posed by global warming have failed to impress on policy-makers the importance of placing women at the heart of their vision of sustainable development. This article argues that if climate change policy is about ensuring a sustainable future by combining development and environment issues, it must take into account the interests of all stakeholders. The Global Environment Facility and the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol can play a role in ensuring sustainable development, provided they are implemented in a way that does not disadvantage women and the poor.
Ascientific consensus has emerged indicating that the global climate is changing due to anthropogenic (i.e., human induced) driving forces. Our previous research reformulated the well-known I=PAT (environmental Impacts equal the multiplicative product of Population, Affluence, and Technology) model into stochastic form, named it the STIRPAT model, and used it to assess the effects of population and affluence on carbon dioxide loads. Here we extend those findings by examining the impacts of population, affluence and other factors on the emissions of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), as well as the combined global warming potential of these two gases. We also assess the potential for “ecological modernization” or an “environmental Kuznets curve” (EKC) effect to curb GHG emissions. Our findings suggest that population is a consistent force behind GHG emissions, that affluence also drives emissions, that urbanization and industrialization increase emissions, and that tropical nations have lower emissions than non-tropical nations, controlling for other factors. Contrary to what ecological modernization and EKC theorists predict, we find that to date there is no compelling evidence of a decline in emissions with modernization. These results support both the “treadmill of production” thesis and the “metabolic rift” thesis.
There are several compelling reasons to expect that gender equality may serve to foster state environmentalism. However, most previous research on environmental politics has neglected gender. To help further our understanding of the connection between gender and environmental politics, the authors empirically assess the association between the representation of women in national Parliament and environmental treaty ratification, using a large sample of nations. The findings indicate that nations with higher proportions of women in Parliament are more prone to ratify environmental treaties than are other nations. The results point to the importance of considering the role of gender in analyses of state behavior and environmental politics and are consistent with the argument of some feminist theorists that the exploitation of nature and the exploitation of women are interconnected.
This research investigates the extent to which the transnational organization of production in the context of foreign investment dependence affiects the environment in less developed countries. Drawing from the theory of foreign investment dependence, the author tests two hypotheses: (a) Foreign investment dependence in the manufacturing sector is positively associated with carbon dioxide emissions in less developed countries, and (b) foreign investment dependence in the manufacturing sector is positively associated with the emission of organic water pollutants in less developed countries. Findings for the ordinary least squares fixed effects panel regression analyses confirm both hypotheses, providing support for the theory. Other results correspond with prior research in the political-economic and structural human ecology traditions.
A focus on land-use and forests as a means to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the global atmosphere has been at the heart of the international climate change debate since the United Nations Kyoto Protocol was agreed in 1997. This environmental management practice is a process technically referred to as mitigation. These largely technical projects have aimed to provide sustainable development benefits to forest-dependent people, as well as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, these projects have had limited success in achieving these local development objectives. This article argues that this is due in part to the patriarchal underpinnings of the sustainable development and climate-change policy agendas. The author explores this theory by considering how a climate mitigation project in Bolivia has resulted in different outcomes for women and men, and makes links between the global decision-making process and local effects.
This article bridges the gap in studies of the social bases of democratization between qualitative studies focused on social groups and quantitative studies focused on national characteristics. Qualitative historical evidence suggests the importance of classes-in particular, the emerging class of intellectuals-in the wave of democratizations in the decade before World War I. Quantitative cross-national data on a more recent wave of democratizations, from 1989 to 1996, confirm these findings. Models using direct maximum-likelihood estimation find that the ratio of adults with higher education has a significant positive effect on change in democracy levels, as measured by two longitudinal scales (Polity IV and Polyarchy). Proxies for the working class and the middle class-candidates proposed in previous studies as the social basis of democratization-also have significant effects.
We raise four challenges to the claim of ecological modernization theory (EMT) that continued modernization is necessary for ecological sustainability. First, EMT needs to go beyond merely demonstrating that societies modify their institutions in reaction to environmental problems and show that such modifications lead to ecological improvements. Second, EMT must show that late stages of modernizing processes lead to the ecological transformation of production and consumption at relatively high frequency. Third, EMT must demonstrate that industries or firms that are reducing their direct impact on the environment are not contributing to the expansion of negative impacts by other industries or firms. Fourth, EMT must show not only that economies are becoming more resource efficient but also that the pace of increase in efficiency exceeds the pace of increase in overall production. In this article, we review the existing evidence and find that EMT has insufficiently addressed these four issues.
Growing evidence demonstrating clear threats to the sustainabilily of the ecosystems supporting human societies has given rise to a variety of sociological theories of human-environment interactions. These environmental impact theories fall into three general perspectives: human ecology, modernization, and political economy. These theories, however, have not been empirically tested in a common analytic framework. Here, a framework that relies on ecological principles is adopted and modified. Using a revised stochastic formulation of that framework and the most comprehensive measure of environmental impact to date-the ecological footprint-the factors driving the environmental impacts of societies are assessed. The overall findings support the claims of human ecologists, partially support the claims of political economists, and contradict the claims of modernization theorists. Basic material conditions, such as population, economic production, urbanization, and geographical factors all affect the environment and explain the vast majority of cross-national variation in environmental impact. Factors derived from neo-liberal modernization theory, such as political freedom, civil liberties, and state environmentalism have no effect on impacts. Taken together, these findings suggest societies cannot be sanguine about achieving sustainability via a continuation of current trends in economic growth and institutional change.
The world environmental regime has encouraged nations to adopt new environmental policies and laws worldwide. But, scholars
question the impact on the environment, suggesting that national policies may be ‘decoupled’ from outcomes. We fill a gap
in neo-institutional theory by specifying the circumstances in which institutions will affect outcomes — namely, when institutions
are: 1) highly structured; 2) when they penetrate actors at multiple levels of the social system; and 3) when they are persistent
over time. We explore these ideas using the case of global environmentalism. Longitudinal world-level analyses find that measures
of structure, penetration, and persistence are associated with lower levels of environmental degradation, as measured by global
CO2 and CFC emissions. Additionally, cross-national analyses find that penetration is associated with improved outcomes. In this
case, international institutions have generated substantive social change.
There have been a few cross-national studies published that examine the determinants of threatened mammal species. However, these studies neglect insights from both ecologically unequal exchange theory and world polity theory. We seek to address this gap in the literature using cross-national data for a sample of 74 nations to construct negative binomial regression models with the number of threatened mammal species as the dependent variable. In doing so, we find substantial support for ecologically unequal exchange theory that flows of primary sector exports from poor to rich nations are associated with higher levels of threatened mammals in poor nations. We also find support for world polity theory that environmental non-governmental organizations are associated with lower levels of threatened mammals in poor nations. We conclude with a discussion of the findings, some policy implications, and possible directions for future research.
Economic changes and the machinations of the treadmill of production have dramatically reduced the number of jobs provided by extractive industries, such as mining and timber, in the United States and other affluent nations in the post–World War II era. As the importance of these industries to national, regional, and local economies wanes, community resistance to ecologically and socially destructive industry practices threatens the political power of corporations engaged in natural-resource extraction. Here we argue that to maintain their power (and profits) as their contribution to employment declines, extractive industries have increased their efforts to maintain and amplify the extent to which the “economic identity” of communities is connected with the industry that was historically an important source of employment. We fit this argument within the neo-Marxian theoretical tradition, which emphasizes the roles ideology and legitimation play in maintaining elite rule. We illustrate this theorized process by analyzing the efforts of the West Virginia coal industry, which, through its (faux) “grassroots” front group “Friends of Coal,” attempts to construct the image that West Virginia's economy and cultural identity are centered on coal production. Our analysis relies on content analysis of various sources and on experience gained from field research. We find that key strategies of the Friends of Coal include efforts to become pervasively visible in the social landscape and the appropriation of cultural icons that exploit the hegemonic masculinity of the region. These findings have implications for how industries around the country, and the world, work to maintain their power through ideological manipulation.
This study tests theoretical arguments about gender differences in scientific knowledge and environmental concern using 8years
of Gallup data on climate change knowledge and concern in the US general public. Contrary to expectations from scientific
literacy research, women convey greater assessed scientific knowledge of climate change than do men. Consistent with much
existing sociology of science research, women underestimate their climate change knowledge more than do men. Also, women express
slightly greater concern about climate change than do men, and this gender divide is not accounted for by differences in key
values and beliefs or in the social roles that men and women differentially perform in society. Modest yet enduring gender
differences on climate change knowledge and concern within the US general public suggest several avenues for future research,
which are explored in the conclusion.
KeywordsGender-Climate change-Knowledge-Concern
There have been several cross-national studies published in the world polity theoretical tradition that find a strong correlation
between nations with high levels of environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and low levels of various forms of
environmental degradation. However, these studies neglect the role that women’s NGOs potentially play in this process. We
seek to address this gap by conducting a cross-national study of the association between women’s NGOs and deforestation. We
examine this relationship because deforestation often translates into increased household labor, loss of income, and impaired
health for women and, as a result, women’s non-governmental organizations have become increasingly involved in dealing with
these problems often by protecting forests. We use data from a sample of 61 nations for the period of 1990–2005. We find substantial
support for world polity theory that both high levels of women’s and environmental NGOs per capita are associated with lower
rates of deforestation. We also find that high levels of debt service and structural adjustment are correlated with higher
rates of forest loss. We conclude with a discussion of findings, policy implications, and possible future research directions.
This study examined cultural and gender influences on attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and perceived risk factors in human ecology; further, on the level of knowledge about nature and the environment, and finally, on behavior affecting the environment. Subjects from Japan, Germany, Sweden, and the United States completed a survey scale consisting of seven components: (1) image of the sea, (2) image of the mountain, (3) image of the river, (4) sea affairs score, (5) environmental attitudes scale, (6) environmental knowledge scale, and (7) environmental behavior scale. Cultural differences revealed by the analyses included the following: (1) the Japanese group rated the sea, the mountain, and the river as less pleasant than did the other three groups, (2) the Japanese had the highest scores in environmental knowledge and the Americans the lowest, (3) the German group had the lowest sea affairs scores, and (4) both the German and the Swedish participants described and evaluated their behavior as most protective and the Japanese as least protective of the environment. Gender differences were also obtained, between as well as within cultures. Compared with male subjects, female subjects across countries perceived the risk factors as more serious as regards ecological and environmental problems, the global instability caused by economic nationalism, and the growing gap between rich and poor nations. Male subjects showed higher environmental knowledge, whereas females showed higher motivation for ecological thinking and behavior. These findings are discussed in terms of culture, gender, and cognition.
Despite the scientific consensus that humans have dramatically altered the global environment, we have a limited knowledge of the specific forces driving those impacts. One key limitation to a precise understanding of anthropogenic impacts is the absence of a set of refined analytic tools. Here we assess the analytic utility of the well-known IPAT identity, the newly developed ImPACT identity, and their stochastic cousin, the STIRPAT model. We discuss the relationship between these three formulations, their similar conceptual underpinnings and their divergent uses. We then refine the STIRPAT model by developing the concept of ecological elasticity (EE). To illustrate the application of STIRPAT and EE, we compute the ecological elasticities of population, affluence and other factors for cross-national emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuel combustion and for the energy footprint, a composite measure comprising impacts from fossil fuel combustion, fuel wood, hydropower and nuclear power. Our findings suggest that population has a proportional effect (unitary elasticity) on CO2 emissions and the energy footprint. Affluence monotonically increases both CO2 emissions and the energy footprint. However, for the energy footprint the relationship between affluence and impact changes from inelastic to elastic as affluence increases, while for CO2 emissions the relationship changes from elastic to inelastic. Climate appears to affect both measures of impact, with tropical nations having considerably lower impact than non-tropical nations, controlling for other factors. Finally, indicators of modernization (urbanization and industrialization) are associated with high impacts. We conclude that the STIRPAT model, augmented with measures of ecological elasticity, allows for a more precise specification of the sensitivity of environmental impacts to the forces driving them. Such specifications not only inform the basic science of environmental change, but also point to the factors that may be most responsive to policy.
The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis postulates an inverted-U-shaped relationship between different pollutants and per capita income, i.e., environmental pressure increases up to a certain level as income goes up; after that, it decreases. An EKC actually reveals how a technically specified measurement of environmental quality changes as the fortunes of a country change. A sizeable literature on EKC has grown in recent period. The common point of all the studies is the assertion that the environmental quality deteriorates at the early stages of economic development/growth and subsequently improves at the later stages. In other words, environmental pressure increases faster than income at early stages of development and slows down relative to GDP growth at higher income levels. This paper reviews some theoretical developments and empirical studies dealing with EKC phenomenon. Possible explanations for this EKC are seen in (i) the progress of economic development, from clean agrarian economy to polluting industrial economy to clean service economy; (ii) tendency of people with higher income having higher preference for environmental quality, etc. Evidence of the existence of the EKC has been questioned from several corners. Only some air quality indicators, especially local pollutants, show the evidence of an EKC. However, an EKC is empirically observed, till there is no agreement in the literature on the income level at which environmental degradation starts declining. This paper provides an overview of the EKC literature, background history, conceptual insights, policy and the conceptual and methodological critique.
In assessing and forecasting the impact of population change on carbon dioxide emissions, most previous studies have assumed a unitary elasticity of emissions with respect to population change, i.e. that a 1% increase in population results in a 1% increase in emissions. This study finds that global population change over the last two decades is more than proportionally associated with growth in carbon dioxide emissions, and that the impact of population change on emissions is much more pronounced in developing countries than in developed countries. The empirical findings are based on a data for 93 countries over the period 1975–1996.
This paper reports the results of a national survey in which perceptions of environmental health risks were measured for 1275 white and 214 nonwhite persons. The results showed that white women perceived risks to be much higher than did white men, a result that is consistent with previous studies. However, this gender difference was not true of nonwhite women and men, whose perceptions of risk were quite similar. Most striking was the finding that white males tended to differ from everyone else in their attitudes and perceptions--on average, they perceived risks as much smaller and much more acceptable than did other people. These results suggest that socio-political factors such as power, status, alienation, and trust are strong determiners of people's perception and acceptance of risks.