Only eight out of 78 world leaders attending the annual UN climate summit are women.
As the war on women continues, so too does the climate crisis. The UN has warned of a catastrophic 3.1°C rise in global temperatures, meaning that the critical 1.5°C Paris Agreement limit is rapidly disappearing from view. Achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals demands bold, urgent, intersectional action.
Importantly, women must have an equal – if not a majority voice – in an issue that will impact them disproportionately.
Indeed, young women already bear the brunt of the climate crisis, particularly in conflict-stricken countries. Climate change is expected to thrust another 236 million women and girls into starvation by 2030 – more than double the number of men.
Educating girls is one of the simplest and most powerful tools against climate change. Described by UNICEF as “one of the most transformative development strategies,” some studies have shown that it could slash CO2 emissions by nearly 70 gigatons by 2050.
Locally, educating girls curbs rates of child marriage – tackling overpopulation and resource scarcity while vastly improving women’s health and wellbeing. Nationally, it fuels economic growth while reducing inequality – transforming despair into opportunity.
Where pouring money, food, and medicine into developing nations offers only temporary relief, education empowers girls with the skills to thrive in sustainable livelihoods. It breaks the cycle of reliance on dowries and foreign aid, fostering lasting independence.
Girls need at least 12 years in education to break barriers and create international change. But education is increasingly being denied to them, with 120 million already out of school globally.
In Afghanistan, the only country in the world that bans girls and women from receiving education, the Taliban’s draconian actions are met with international complacency.
Just three years into the Taliban’s rule, decades of hard-won social and economic progress in Afghanistan have been dismantled. Their morality ministry has issued a stream of oppressive decrees – banning women from speaking in public, appearing in photos or even hearing each other in prayer.
This is not just a humanitarian crisis. Without education, women will not be able to provide the knowledge and resilience that is so desperately needed by their wider communities.
Investing in girls’ education is a powerful counterforce that can equip the next generation – in its entirety – to tackle climate change.
Overcoming barriers of oppression won’t be easy, but with COP29 underway, now is the time to mobilise as a global community. The UN itself has repeatedly acknowledged women’s role in strengthening the call for stricter climate policies and fostering greater environmental sustainability worldwide.
At recent COP summits, the UNFCCC’s Gender Action Plan (GAP) has been amended to include the participation of indigenous women and women from local communities. Now, we must expand this focus to include women’s education.
Beyond COP, grassroots movements to include women in policymaking are key to moving the needle. One such initiative is the upcoming ‘International Conference on Girls’ Education is Muslim Communities’ which will convene in January under the leadership of Dr Mohammed Al-Issa, the Secretary-General of the Muslim World League (MWL), the world’s largest Islamic NGO.
Dr Al-Issa, who has a history of speaking out against the Taliban’s ‘gender apartheid’ will be joined by Islamic scholars, UN representatives, civil society activists, academics and politicians – including the Prime Minister of Pakistan. [A1] Key themes of the summit include exploring how girls’ education can contribute to development goals, and the potential opportunities of emerging technologies.
Most importantly, the conference will examine girls’ education from an Islamic perspective, reviewing Sharia sources to combat misconceptions about women’s education. Delegates will reconnect with the true values of Islam, which call for gender equality in both rights and responsibility – including the ultimate duty to seek further knowledge.
The conference will serve as a launchpad for several groundbreaking initiatives, including global awareness campaigns and a distance learning platform being added to the MWL app. It will culminate with the launch of new Charter on girls’ education, enshrining the consensus reached.
We have already seen the value of such agreements. The MWL made history with the launch of its Makkah Charter and Charter of Building Bridges between Islamic Schools of Thought and Sects, both of which were endorsed by thousands of Muslim scholars. These landmark documents brought various strands of Islam together in a unified call for a more moderate and peaceful version of their shared faiths.
But we can’t stop there.
We also need to train more female teachers, invest in women’s civil society initiatives, provide safe transportation to schools, and offer informal courses in cases where traditional education is blocked.
Current estimates suggest that barriers to girls’ education can cost entire countries up to $30 trillion in the loss of lifetime productivity and earnings. By viewing this issue through an Islamic lens, we can emulate the high female participation and literacy rates seen in countries like Malaysia and the UAE.
With access to a quality education, women across the Global South can become powerful agents of change from a community level, not only for their local areas, but also for national and international development.
Educating girls is the most powerful catalyst that exists for combating climate change, eradicating poverty, and dismantling inequality – paving the way for a sustainable planet and a thriving, equitable future.
About The Author:
Dr Nathalie Beasnael is the founder of Health4Peace, which provides essential medical supplies to hospitals in Chad, Senegal, Ghana, and South Africa. She is the Diplomatic Envoy for the Republic of Chad to the USA and was a delegate at the United Nations annual climate summit Cop 28, where she moderated a panel discussion on how climate change is impacting human health. She sits on the Advisory Board of Faith for Our Planet, which works to mobilize religious communities in response to the climate crisis.
Beasnael remains actively involved in women’s empowerment through initiatives like MAISONDENE, INC. Her work has recently been published in USA Today, Newsweek and others.
This article, written by Dr Nathalie Beasnael, was published by Rachel Hamilton.