"In Zimbabwe, contraceptive pills were being sold by staff to buy food during the drought. In drought-affected communities, 54% of girls and young women had seen more unintended pregnancy, against 29% elsewhere," Reena Ghelani, CEO of Plan International, told CG.
In the lead-up to the 15th International Day of the Girl this Sunday, Plan International has launched its 2026 State of the World's Girls report, with a focus this year on the unique impacts of the climate crisis on girls and young women.
The study points to floods, droughts, storms, and extreme heat as risk factors for gender-based violence, child marriage, and unintended pregnancy. But while the statistics may be staggering, they also outline clear steps decision-makers can take now to dramatically improve well-being among vulnerable populations.
Reena Ghelani, CEO of Plan International, told CG that the team focused its latest efforts on climate-impacted areas of low- and middle-income countries to close critical evidence gaps where impacts are disproportionately felt. But she also noted that she "would expect the same mechanisms to apply wherever climate shocks meet existing inequality." Read more...
The Atlanta Pride Festival, set to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community in Georgia this weekend, has announced it has canceled its Saturday programming due to the potential impacts of Hurricane Isaias.
The hurricane strengthened to a Category 3 storm on Friday morning as it moved toward the U.S. Gulf Coast, where it later made landfall as a Category 2 storm. Residents of Georgia as well as those of the Florida Panhandle, Alabama, coastal Mississippi, and eastern Louisiana have been bracing for severe weather, safety risks, and threats to infrastructure.
As of Friday evening, festival organizers in Atlanta were looking out for heavy rainfall, flash floods, strong winds, and possible tornadoes, with the hope that Sunday's events may still proceed as scheduled.
Atlanta Pride has a history of altering plans in response to extreme weather. It was reportedly due to a severe drought in 2008 that the festival was rescheduled from June — typically recognized as LGBTQ+ Pride Month — to October, which is LGBTQ+ History Month.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, city officials in 2008 "canceled all large festivals at [Piedmont Park] in fear that the park's lawns would not recover from prolonged foot traffic" amid the dry conditions.
Managing large events is increasingly a concern as heat waves, droughts, and storms threaten public safety and green spaces.
Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up their dispute with New York, Massachusetts, and California, where shield laws protect health care providers who prescribe and mail abortion medication to individuals in states with abortion bans.
The three southern states, which have such bans in place, filed lawsuits last week, aiming to neuter the legal "shields" for out-of-state providers who enable telemedicine access to drugs like mifepristone.
Telemedicine access, which typically involves virtual prescription, can enable patients in states that ban abortion to receive pills by mail. Inside and across state lines, telemedicine services can also improve access for those in reproductive health care deserts and those whose access to in-person care is challenged by extreme weather, high transportation costs, and more.
Officials in Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas say shield laws in New York, Massachusetts, and California prevent them from enforcing bans within their borders. Among the claims in the filings is that mail delivery of abortion medication into these southern jurisdictions is creating a "public nuisance."
According to Reuters, experts say "the lawsuits represent an unprecedented attempt to use public nuisance law, traditionally applied in environmental pollution and other public harm cases."
From this perspective, the move could be seen as a part of a years-long strategy by anti-abortion groups and lawmakers to leverage environmental laws to restrict abortion access nationwide, despite an absence of scientific evidence that abortion medications have any meaningful environmental impact.
A new U.S.-wide study exploring teenage girls' values, concerns, and agency regarding artificial intelligence highlights certain reservations about the technology, including over environmental impacts related to its use.
Conducted by Girls Who Code in collaboration with Touchstone Research, the survey of 2,328 teens showed that when girls feel they have agency in engaging with the tech, the so-called "AI gender gap" in its use begins to disappear.
The findings also reflect teen girls' concerns about the environmental impacts of the polluting, energy-intensive, high-water-use data centers that power AI. According to the study, they are "more likely [than boys] to avoid AI tools if they believe those tools have a negative impact on society or the environment."
The survey indicates that 32% of girls aged 13-14 are "very concerned about the environmental impact of AI," and 46% of girls aged 17-18 express the same concern. The authors identify these concerns as expressions of consideration and skepticism that, with the right tools, may lead girls to engage more meaningfully with the technology.
In a piece for Forbes, Girls Who Code CEO Susan Gouijnstook wrote that the study "suggests teen girls' lower usage is not simply disengagement. It also reflects their deliberate boundary-setting around privacy, safety, accuracy, creativity, and the technology's environmental impact."
Some experts believe such boundary-setting could ultimately help improve the technology and shape the policies that may regulate it.
Women are speaking out about how nickel mining and processing are affecting their waters, forests, and fish in Indonesia.
The country is the world's largest producer of the metal, a key component of stainless steel manufacturing and electric vehicle — or EV — batteries.
In a virtual event this week launching a new report on the subject from Climate Rights International, author Margareth Aritonang pointed to the importance of the global transition to clean energy systems like EVs but underscored that the transition must be just and fair for the communities making renewable infrastructure possible.
CRI's report builds on years of nickel-related research and advocacy in the region, where mining and smelting have been linked to human rights abuses, deforestation, air pollution, water pollution, and declines in fish populations.
In its recent research efforts, the organization has highlighted that women — often responsible for household management of water and food sources like fish — described the local impacts of industrial operations differently than men. Men spoke in terms of land sold as well as jobs promised or never delivered. Women spoke in terms of dust-dyed water and "the number of seconds a hand can stay in the water before it comes out red," according to the report.
CRI says the operations are infringing upon Indigenous Bajau rites too. Traditionally, the Bajau dip newborns in the water for strength. Now, the water is too polluted to do so.
The organization, which has shared a video along with the written report, called on the Indonesian government, the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, nickel supply chains, and EV companies to address these impacts. Residents and advocacy groups, meanwhile, are lobbying officials, speaking to the press, and suing for justice in court.
A survey of 1,000 maternal health care professionals from Australia, Brazil, India, the UK, and Zimbabwe points to a rise in heat-related cases and complications among pregnant people over the past five years.
Of those responding to the survey, 73% reported increases in heat-related cases affecting pregnant people and 76% reported increases in such cases affecting fetal or newborn health. According to a press release, nearly all respondents had cared for a pregnant person or baby whose health they believed had been affected by extreme heat, while 92% said they need more training and resources to protect pregnant people amid high temperatures.
Health care professionals also reported that extreme heat is making it harder for pregnant people and families to access care.
Wellcome, a global foundation focused on health research, commissioned the survey ahead of the 31st Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change — also known as COP31 — to make a case for including maternal and newborn health in national climate and care plans.
Simon Stiell, the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, referred to the survey findings at the pre-COP ministerial summit in Fiji on Oct. 5. Stiell pointed to the need for governments to invest in existing solutions, which might include heat alerts, trained community "heat champions," and reflective roof paint intended to cool buildings.
Medical professionals around the world are responding to the issue.
In Memphis, Tennessee, in the U.S., maternal-fetal medicine physician Danielle Tate told local news outlet Fox 13 this week that extreme heat exposure has been linked to preeclampsia, gestational hypertension, premature birth, poor fetal growth, low amniotic fluid, and stillbirth.
Tate recommends staying hydrated, soaking feet in cold water, and accessing air conditioning and cooling centers.
Women in Dramasi, Fiji, are waking before dawn to collect water from dwindling sources, with consequences for hygiene, health, and families' access to food.
Time- and labor-intensive water management responsibilities have often been deeply gendered in contexts around the world. And household needs — such as cooking, washing, menstrual health, and other personal care — can become additionally fraught during droughts and other shortages.
Florence Swamy, Executive Director of Pacific Centre for Peacebuilding, recently told FijiVillage that women in Dramasi collect water from rivers and drying creeks when it is still dark because if they wait until later in the day, animals relying on the same limited sources may contaminate the supplies.
The Pacific Centre brings women from neighboring communities together to amplify their voices on water access and community needs, reflecting a key issue as the Pacific Pre-COP31 negotiations wrap up in Fiji this week: ensuring climate finance reaches communities on the frontlines of climate change.
Care systems — from child care to early education and long-term care for older people and people with disabilities — are often overlooked in climate adaptation planning and funding.
Recognizing care as essential climate-resilience infrastructure could help maintain services during climate emergencies and reduce the unpaid care burden that often falls on women and girls when formal services fail.
In a new commentary published by Project Syndicate, the co-authors of a recent working paper from the Brookings Institution's Center for Sustainable Development call for integrating care services into climate adaptation planning and finance.
Using Bangladesh as an example, they estimate that building climate-resilient care infrastructure would require investment equivalent to roughly 3-5% of gross domestic product, while potentially creating jobs, strengthening climate resilience, and easing burdens on unpaid caregivers.
This digest was curated, reported, and formatted by Gracie Leavitt. It was written and edited by Gracie Leavitt and Kirsten Krueger.
One goal at Climate, Gendered is to bring a spotlight to the reality that proliferating pollution, increasing temperatures, rising seas, extreme weather, habitat loss, and more can uniquely and disproportionately impact girls, women, and LGBTQ+ communities — especially individuals from communities of color, Indigenous people, disabled people, immigrants and displaced people, people experiencing poverty, and residents of low- and middle-income countries. We're also interested in the climate and environment crises and concerns that can disproportionately affect boys and men.
But there's a whole lot going on around the world, and this weekly brief isn't intended to be exhaustive but rather your chance to spend just a few moments on a handful of items — including the ideas that might make a difference. We appreciate your feedback and observations.
"The goal is for the [seed savers] to have good forage for their cattle but also earn income from selling the forage and native seeds," Nai-nancy Laizer of Savannas Forever Tanzania told CG. "So it addresses the effects of climate but also generates income to these communities."
"We know how much these women have trained, sacrificed, and prepared for this moment," Siana Austin Hunt of the O'ahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association said in a release regarding the race's cancellation, adding, "but the safety and well-being of our people and communities must come first."
"We are not simply providing aid," Nadine Ortega of the grassroots group Tagnawa Hawai'i told CG about supporting survivors of gender-based violence in the wake of hurricanes and floods. "We are supporting women's agency, autonomy, and ability to rebuild their lives on their own terms."
"Early hospital admission, close monitoring, timely access to blood when required, and appropriate fluid and supportive management are crucial to reducing dengue-related deaths among women," Dr. H.M. Nazmul Ahsan told The Daily Star.
