Thursday, 9 April 2009, 12:15 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Parliamentarians Group on Population

Embargoed until 1130am 9 April

Cross-Party Parliamentarians’ Group Calls for Focus on Population Issues in ETS Review

Wellington, 9 April 2009: Gender, sexual and reproductive health, and other population issues need to be at the heart of addressing climate change, including the current Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) Review Dr Jackie Blue, Chair, and Hon Steve Chadwick, Vice Chair, of the New Zealand Parliamentarians’ Group on Population and Development (NZPPD) will be briefing colleagues today as follow-up to their NZPPD written submission to the ETS Review Committee.

“There is increasing recognition around the world that these issues are vital to address in mitigating and adapting to climate change. New Zealand cannot afford to ignore this”, says Dr Jackie Blue.

The NZPPD submission states that there are fundamental and powerful differences in the way women and men: contribute to climate change; are impacted by climate change; their capacities to cope with and adapt to climate change; and their access and participation in decision making on climate change.

It is a widely accepted fact that climate change will impact worst on the poorest and most vulnerable. Women comprise 70% of those living below the poverty line around the globe. People who heavily rely on local natural resources for their livelihood are and will be severely impacted by climate change. Again, women disproportionately feature in this group. There is also much evidence that the disadvantaged position of women means greater difficulty in coping with natural disasters, and such disasters are increasingly being linked to climate change.

For the rest of the press release, go here.

Related:

Website of the NZ Parliamentarians’ Group on Population and Development

Global Warming or Global Governance? by Dr Michael Coffman, PhD