Gender and environment and energy in Europe & CIS

There is a global lack of awareness regarding the critical interrelationship between the Earth’s environment and our own human survival, and this lack of awareness is shared by men and women alike. Despite the fact that a great deal of attention has been focused on this issue in recent decades—at the local, national, and international level—many people remain confused or inadequately informed. One reason, of course, is the enormous complexity of the subject, which continues to generate sharp debate among policy-makers and within academic circles. In some countries the problem is compounded by a lack of educational materials and/or media coverage that are accessible to people of all education levels, thus impeding the mobilization of public action. This is also true in respect to gender differentials of the human impact on environment. 

 

Most of the indicators developed for assessing environmental damage are not gender-specific nor sensitive, and do not allow for the differentiated evaluation of the contribution of men and women to environmental degradation. Such shortcomings undermine the potential effectiveness of rehabilitation and protection measures as well as the potential for altering consumption patterns. In order to bring gender perspective into the shpere of environment for sustainable development initiatives it is important to 1) minimize the negative impact of certain economic and social activities on the environment by raising awareness among men and women regarding the links between their established patterns of production and consumption (including energy, water, and bio-resources) and the affects of those patterns on the environment; 2) minimize consumption of natural resources by promoting innovative gender-sensitive solutions to environmental problems within the framework of national sustainable development; and 3) accelerate the promotion and development of environmentally sound, cost-effective technologies and methods as well as their wide-spread use by men and women by providing economic incentives