RMAP Argument - What can a gender lens add to research on climate change mitigation and adaptation?

Panel: Margaret Alston, Katrina Lee-Koo, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt and Moderator, Jacqueline de Chazal

Past approaches to climate change mitigation and adaptation have often failed to account for the issue of gender. This series presented by the Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program in the Crawford School of Economics and Government will examine the relevance of gender for the development of strategies to deal with climate change. Gillian Brown is the Principal Gender Adviser at AusAID. She will argue that as climate change affects men and women differently, new strategies for tackling it should be employed in order both to empower women as well as recognise the contribution they can make to mitigation and adaptation. Professor Margaret Alston is the Head of the Department of Social Work at Monash University. She believes that while women should play a greater role in the formation of climate change policy, climate change is largely gender blind. Dr Katrina Lee-Koo is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the Australian National University. She will argue that as the consequences of climate change are deeply gendered, gender should be an important consideration in any attempt to understand or address the social, political, economic and cultural impacts of climate change. Dr Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt is Research Fellow at the Resource Management in Asia Pacific Program. She believes that the gender inequalities already prevalent in the developing world will only be exacerbated by the effects of climate change, and that these vulnerabilities must be considered and integrated into climate change interventions. The argument will be moderated by RMAP Postdoctoral Fellow Jacqueline de Chazal.