Durban - Women face disproportionately high risks to their livelihoods and health from climate change, according to a new report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The women particularly affected are those living in mountain regions in developing countries and also face associated risks such as human trafficking.
According to the report, women in communities vulnerable to climate change are often more likely than men to lose their lives during natural disasters, due to poor access to coping strategies such as basic lifesaving skills or cultural factors that restrict the mobility of women.
The report, entitled 'Women at the Frontline of Climate Change: Gender Risks and Hopes', was released at COP17, where debates around women and climate change have been taking place.
From 1999 - 2008, floods affected almost one billion people in Asia, 28 million in the Americas, 22 million in Africa and four million in Europe.
UNEP said in parts of Asia and Africa, where the majority of the agricultural workforce is female, the impacts of such disasters has had a major impact on women's income, food security and health.
Women are responsible for about six percent of household food production in Asia and 75 percent in Africa.
"Women often play a stronger role than men in the management of ecosystem services and food security. Hence, sustainable adaptation must focus on gender and the role of women if it is to become successful," said UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, Achim Steiner.
"Women's voices, responsibilities and knowledge on the environment and the challenges they face will need to be made a central part of governments' adaptive responses to a rapidly changing climate," he added.
Research by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows that by providing women with the same access as men to productive resources and technologies could increase yields on farms managed by women by between 20 and 30 percent.
The report suggested investing in low carbon, resource efficient green technologies, water harvesting and fuel wood alternatives can strengthen climate change adaptation and improve women's livelihoods.
This could substantially improve food security by raising agricultural output in developing countries by up to four percent.
But some women struggle with adaptation measures due to a lack of access to formal education, poverty, discrimination in food distribution, food insecurity, exclusion from policy and decision making institutions and processes, and other forms of social marginalisation.
Meanwhile, Peter Mbelengwa, spokesperson for the Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Rejoice Mabudafhasi, said African ministers during COP17 have called for women to speak out with a single voice.
There have been a number of events during COP17 around gender and climate and many South African ministers have used these occasions to raise awareness on the impact of climate change on women in developing countries.
Mbelengwa said government felt strongly that women must be involved in the decision and policy making processes around the environment because they were the custodians of it.
