If promoting gender equality is "smart economics" that improves outcomes and efficiency, mainstreaming gender inclusion into climate policy and financing systems is "smart climate finance."
It is noteworthy to mention that women are more vulnerable to natural disasters, financial losses, and health effects than males are because of climate change. To address these vulnerabilities, access to climate funding for women is crucial. When climate finance is gender-smart, women can also act as benefit multipliers, increasing its effectiveness.
Gender inclusion is not frequently considered in ongoing climate change initiatives and activities, even though gender equality is demonstrated to be "smart economics" that would produce stronger returns to economic growth and broader sustainable development.
Gender-smart climate finance combines two investments (Gender smart investing and Climate finance) that achieve both climate outcomes and advance gender equality and women's empowerment. These investments are in line with the Paris Agreement and satisfy both climate finance criteria (adaptation and mitigation) and the 2X criteria (Gender smart investments for climate action).
By empowering women as business owners, community leaders, household heads, and consumers, gender-smart climate finance fills a gap in the market that would have allowed for the expansion of green firms, the creation of resilient communities, and the introduction of transformative climate technology.
Gender-smart climate finance is required because the efficacy and sustainability of climate investments can be seriously harmed if gender concerns are not considered in climate finance. Over the past few decades, the role of investment in climate change mitigation, adaptation, building socioeconomic and environmental resilience, and developing frameworks for an equitable future has developed, but it is still not gender-smart; it tends to undervalue the significance of gender in creating long-term climate solutions.
Gender-smart investment is not just another screen to check off a list, nor is it about uplifting women on the surface. Instead, it is a strategy for changing the way we value our investments and who sits at the investment table to affect systemic change.
Community-Based Adaptations (CBAs) are a broad term for climate change adaptation (CCA) strategies that aim to improve the livelihoods and adaptive capacities of communities. Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change (RVCC), the first-ever adaptation project from 2002 to 2005, has been promoted by CARE Bangladesh as a pioneering initiative. When contemplating CBA for women, there should be corresponding initiatives aimed at increasing women's access to microfinance and market value chains as well as boosting their understanding and building their capacity.
Without any knowledge of how to connect livelihood adaptation initiatives to gender equality, the approach to addressing women's empowerment through an "adaptation project" is frequently drafted and implemented as just another "livelihood project." CBAs are mainly absent or inadequate from Bangladesh's community-based adaptation and resilience programs.
According to World Bank Report 2022, Bangladesh will require at least $12.5 billion, or around 3% of GDP in the medium term for climate action. Addressing the pressing issues of climate change and development will be essential. Bangladesh suffers annual losses from tropical cyclones of roughly $1 billion. A devastating statistic given that the agricultural sector accounts for almost half of employment in the nation by 2050 is the potential loss of one-third of agricultural GDP because of climate variability and catastrophic occurrences. Because of climate change in agriculture, water scarcity, and increasing sea levels, 13.3 million people may migrate to their own country in the next 30 years, with higher impacts.More than 50 international governmental funds, 45 carbon markets, 6,000 private equity funds, and a tiny fraction of global funding address both climate change and women's rights all contribute to climate finance.
Since Bangladesh is in the delta region, river erosion, a result of climate change and rising sea levels, frequently affects the poor in many areas. Due to traditional beliefs that young girls are the family's "burden," when households encounter poverty, they marry off their young daughters. By giving priority to adaptation and mitigation initiatives, climate finance may promote gender equality and women's empowerment while it mobilizes resources to facilitate the transition to zero-carbon and climate-resilient development. Because women often handle domestic cooking and fuel supplies, it is believed that women will profit from sustainable energy technology.
Climate action that considers women's expertise in resource management and ability to create lasting change is not only more just but also more effective. Gender-blind mitigation strategies have the potential to be less effective, less durable, and even unintentionally increase inequality. Targeting women as crucial stakeholders, utilizing their knowledge and potential, and empowering them to participate in poverty alleviation, sustainable development, and effective climate change responses are all critical components of efficient, and equitable low-carbon development.
Women have a special opportunity to help with climate change adaptation and mitigation. Climate policies have historically reduced the connection between gender and climate change to women's vulnerability, resulting in a concentration on adaptation measures.
Gender has begun to receive more attention in global climate financing arrangements. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Clean Investment Funds (CIF) both have a gender policy and action plan as part of their governing documents. Many present climate initiatives do not adequately relate gender and climate finance, despite ongoing attempts to promote gender equality in the current climate financing framework. When it comes to mitigation measures, it focuses mostly on extensive energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives. Climate finance will catalyze to make a difference in building resilience, gender equality, and women's empowerment dimensions as we move toward low-emission and climate-resilient development by taking gender dimensions.
The UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2022-2025 advocates a development strategy that is all-inclusive, gender-focused, and grounded on human rights. The UNSDCF will coordinate based on the objectives of the government's Eighth Five-Year Plan. By 2026, the primary objective of Strategic Priority is for ecosystems to be healthier. It emphasizes that everyone should gain from and contribute to a cleaner and more resilient environment, an enriched natural resource base, and low-carbon development, and become prosperous and more resilient to climate change and its side effects in a gender-responsive manner.
Regarding promoting equality, fairness, and justice in the global economy, climate finance "creates an opportunity to address long-standing equity issues and can facilitate and build upon ongoing processes." It is a matter of regret that, this opportunity has gone unmet and neglected. In the 2022 SDG Gender Index, Bangladesh ranked 108 out of 144 countries in (SDG 13 Climate Action) with a score of 50 which was a 21.8 score in 2019. A score of 50 indicates that Bangladesh is halfway to meeting this goal. Despite Gender sensitive climate funding flows increasing in Bangladesh, but still require intentionality and climate finance tools that are based on gender equality. Professionals in the fields of development, gender, and climate change must collaborate to fulfill the initiative of "Gender Smart Climate Finance" in Bangladesh.
Dr. Soma Dhar is an economist based at the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh and Dr. Tapan Sarker is a Professor of Finance and former World Bank scholar based at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia
