UN Women Warns 1.5 Billion Women and Girls Live in Climate Hotspots, Calls for Urgent, Gender-Centered Action at COP31

As world leaders gather in Antalya for the 31st UN Climate Conference (COP31), a new UN Women fact sheet warns that 1.5 billion women and girls already live in climate hotspots, where high exposure to climate hazards, insecure jobs, and deep gender inequality collide. The agency warns that climate change could push an additional 141 million women and girls into extreme poverty by 2050 if decisive action is not taken.

Antalya, 10 November 2026 – More than one in three women and girls worldwide – at least 1.5 billion – live in climate hotspots, where high exposure to climate hazards, insecure jobs, and deep gender inequality collide, according to a new UN Women fact sheet on “Gender Equality in the Age of Climate Crisis.” UN Women warns that while 73 percent of countries recognize the climate risks facing women and girls, just over one in three address them comprehensively.

“Across the world, women are already leading the fight for a better future – in their communities, in laboratories, in parliaments and on the front lines of the climate crisis. We must give women and girls equal rights, resources and the power to lead, and they will help drive the change our world so urgently needs,” said Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women.

On the current trajectory, the world is headed for a minimum of 1.8°C of heating, unleashing even more devastating droughts, floods, wildfires, and cyclones, and creating irreversible loss and damage to communities and ecosystems. New data from UN Women shows that women and girls in the countries least responsible for the climate crisis are hit hardest by it, with climate change affecting every aspect of their lives, from the food they go without to the violence they face.

• Under a worst-case scenario, up to 141 million additional women and girls could be pushed into extreme poverty.
• Based on data from 24 countries, a 1°C increase in average temperatures is associated with women losing 34 percent more of their total income than men, reflecting their more limited ability to shift to non-farm work or migrate when harvests fail.
• Climate change is increasing unpaid care responsibilities, such as the collection of water and fuel, and care for family members in the aftermath of disasters. Of the 1.8 billion people without water on their premises, women are the primary water collectors in two-thirds of households. Under a high-emissions scenario, the time spent collecting water could increase by up to 30 percent by 2050.
• Climate-related livelihood losses, displacement, and resource scarcity can magnify existing drivers of gender-based violence. Across 14 countries, exposure to prolonged extreme drought was associated with 21 percent higher odds of sexual violence against adolescent girls and young women.
• Over the past decade, progress in reducing child marriage has nearly doubled in pace, but climate change threatens to undo that progress. In 24 of 46 countries where data on child marriage can be disaggregated by exposure to slow-onset events, rates of child marriage were higher in more arid environments than in more humid ones.
• AI technology is driving up energy demand, while 326 million women and girls still lack access to electricity.
• Women remain largely excluded from climate decision-making, holding just 12 percent of energy portfolios globally. Additionally, women environmental defenders face harassment and even death for protecting their communities and the planet.
• Developing countries receive less than a third of the climate finance they need, while just 4 percent of climate-focused Official Development Assistance prioritizes gender equality.

The fact sheet also highlights that progress is possible. With the right investments, women could secure up to 66 percent of net new green jobs, gaining 68 million additional jobs by 2035. While 73 percent of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – governments’ self-defined climate action plans – now acknowledge gender-specific climate risks, just over one in three address them comprehensively.

At COP31, UN Women calls on world leaders to put gender equality and women’s rights at the heart of climate action, to move towards economies that put people and the planet before profits, build resilience for all, and advance gender equality. That means guaranteeing the right of all women and girls to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, protecting the women environmental human rights defenders who risk their lives for their communities and the planet, and giving women and girls real power at the decision-making table.

It means delivering gender-responsive climate finance that reaches women and their organizations, advancing a just transition that redistributes care, and tackling the heightened risks of violence against women and girls as the climate crisis deepens. The new Belém Gender Action Plan must be fully implemented and fully financed, so that political commitments translate into real change for women and girls on the front line of climate crises.

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