Perspective  |  May 8, 2021

Linking reproductive rights and climate solutions

by Kristen P. Patterson

Reprod.jpg

Ivan Radic | Flickr | Republished under Creative Commons (CC-BY-2.0)

The time is ripe to include women’s reproductive rights as part of our climate solutions toolbox.

This Mother’s Day, I’m asking myself tough questions about what it means to be a mom, a woman, and a climate advocate in this critical cultural moment. After 20 years of working at the intersection of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and environmental conservation, I find there is still a strong hesitancy among some SRHR and climate advocates to link reproductive rights and climate. With the 26th Climate Conference of the Parties (COP) slated for this November—just as the pandemic has brought our world’s climate and health crises into sharp relief—the time is ripe to include women’s reproductive rights as part of our climate solutions toolbox. Doing more, together, is the best path to a more healthy, equitable climate future for women and girls around the world, particularly the most vulnerable among us.

This hesitancy to link reproductive rights and climate dates back a few decades, and relates to a taboo around “population.” Beginning in the 1950s, the United Nations started hosting once-per-decade world population conferences, with a goal of encouraging countries to implement population programs to address rapid population growth that would inhibit economic development. The programs designed to address the “population problem” focused on promoting family planning, with women targeted to use contraception. A few countries, notably China and India, resorted to coercive policies that forced contraceptive use. In 1994, at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, advocates understandably promoted a shift away from family planning as the sole solution to concerns about population. 

Advocates also embraced reproductive health as much more than just family planning, to include sexual rights, sexually transmitted infections like HIV, safe motherhood and safe abortion (Newman et al 2014). The era of sexual and reproductive health and rights was born, and to this day, some SRHR advocates believe that any linkages with population or other sectors such as environmental conservation or climate change detract—and distract—from the message of SRHR for all and are tantamount to blaming women in the developing world for climate change. This mentality was on display at the celebration of the 25th anniversary of ICPD, held in Nairobi in 2019, where a fellow advocate who works at the intersection of SRHR and climate told me that she was shocked by the scant attention given to SRHR, population and climate change. 

I share the feeling of dismay that our professional community can’t seem to blend these vital, complex and interconnected parts of an equitable and sustainable life on Earth. My passion for working at the nexus of reproductive health and climate solutions springs from my service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger after college. I lived alongside Nigeriens for two years in a rural village, Sabon Gida, 500 kilometers east of the capital. I learned Hausa, lived in a mud-brick hut, and became close friends with many of the 800 Hausa and Fulani residents. I focused on agroforestry, and we certainly planted a lot of trees. But my friends and village leaders wanted to do more than restore their natural resources. They were concerned about keeping their children healthy (25 percent of children in Niger died before the age of five in the mid-’90s) and wanted to rehabilitate the main village well which served as the primary local water source for people and livestock. As I worked to respond to their diverse needs and connect them with local resources and extension agents, the seeds were sown for me to become a life-long advocate of holistic approaches to community-led development.

In the mid-1990s, we didn’t talk about climate change—but after facing years of desertification along the edge of the Sahara Desert, my friends recognized that they needed to address multiple health and environmental challenges in order to become more resilient to frequent shocks and stresses that are common in Niger, including droughts, locusts, and disease outbreaks like meningitis. Planting trees and restoring depleted soil went hand-in-hand with improving health and access to clean water. 

Most of my closest female friends were about 10 years older than me. I was single and childless at age 22, while they had gotten married at age 16 or 17 and had their first child soon after—girls in Niger marry earlier and give birth to their first child at a younger age than anywhere else in the world. As Vanessa Nakate, a Ugandan climate-justice activist wrote recently, “Girls who have been to school grow up to be empowered women. They are not forced into early marriage, and they tend to have healthier, smaller families, reducing emissions well into the future.” Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single school in Sabon Gida.

My friends were strong, smart women, yet all but my friend Mantou lost multiple children to ailments that were preventable or treatable in other countries with more resources than Niger. My friends and other women in Sabon Gida were eager to learn more about what they called maganin hutu in Hausa—“rest medicine.”

Ten years later, when I gave birth to my first child, I finally grasped the absolute perfection of the translation of contraception into Hausa. In present-day Niger, demand for and uptake of contraception still faces many cultural hurdles, but during my time in Sabon Gida, many husbands were supportive of their wives using contraception because they could see the benefits of spacing births for both their wives and their children.  

Accessing contraception during my years in Niger was hard. Women had to walk on sandy paths (usually carrying their youngest child on their back) nearly four hours roundtrip to the nearest health clinic, which sometimes was out of stock. The consequences of failing to resupply contraception were stark: maternal and child health tragedies were a weekly occurrence in Sabon Gida. An acquaintance on the other side of the village, Salama, died during childbirth. Another woman experienced an obstetric fistula; her baby died, because she was taken to the nearest hospital—65 kilometers away—too late, by donkey cart, after 48 hours in labor. And I still think of Amadou regularly, the son of my two closest friends, Haoua and Gado, who asked me to name him. Amadou died of whooping cough soon after his first birthday because he had missed a round of vaccinations, which required the same punishing walk to the health clinic.

My experience of motherhood—though I’m a white woman living in the U.S.—has been deeply influenced by my time in Niger. I carry my friends’ stories and those of other women in Sabon Gida with me still, as if it was yesterday; their influence on my life’s work cannot be understated. 

It’s time for the world to recognize that reproductive health is a key component of climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience. In addition to reproductive and primary health care challenges, climate change is now a main character in the lives of every person in Niger. Climate impacts worsen each year, and with the world’s highest fertility rate, Niger’s population has more than doubled from 10 to 23 million in the past 25 years. More than perhaps any other place in the world, Sahelian countries like Niger exhibit the intertwined challenges of SRHR, rapid population growth and climate change. Evidence shows that boosting women’s rights to decide whether and when to have children enhances equity, slows population growth at a global scale, and contributes to climate mitigation.

I like to think that bridging sectors and bringing more advocates to the table to support universal reproductive rights and climate action will help save lives. The publication of Project Drawdown’s seminal book in 2017 raised awareness for the first time among thousands of climate advocates of the importance of enhancing equity through education and women’s reproductive health, and the cascading benefits such investments have as climate solutions. As the inaugural director of Drawdown Lift, I’m eager to collaboratively identify, promote and advance interdisciplinary solutions-based approaches that alleviate extreme poverty and address climate change. 

The evidence calling for advocates and other stakeholders to let go of the population taboo is growing. Connecting human health, population and climate change is essential—we need advocates who deeply understand that our lives are entwined with nature, and defending both is the way forward. Ensuring that people in places like Niger and across the Sahel have full access to (and knowledge about) reproductive health services and programs that boost their resilience to climate change—as well as quality education—should be non-negotiable.

This opinion piece was originally published by Ms. Magazine on May 8, 2021. Hear more on the link between reproductive justice and environmental justice on the recent episode of “On the Issues With Michele Goodwin”: Climate Change Is Real. Now What? (with Osprey Orielle Lake and Nourbese Flint).

Press Contacts

If you are a journalist and would like to republish Project Drawdown content, please contact press@drawdown.org.

More Insights

Feature  |  September 27, 2023
water droplet
The concentric circles of individual climate action
by Mary Hoff
When it comes to climate change, does individual action matter? Emphatically, yes.  While it’s true that eating less meat, biking instead of driving, or planting a tree only does so much to reduce emissions, actions like these are just the beginning when it comes to the impact that you as an individual can have. Personal climate action looks a lot like ripples expanding out from a pebble dropped in a pond. It starts with what you can do in your own home. But as you expand beyond your own personal space, your sphere of influence and impact grows, too.  If you’re feeling climate insignificant, check out the five circles of climate action below. Start with the innermost circle and work your way out. Notice how, as you move from learning and doing to sharing and advocating, the collective impact of you, your friends, neighbors, and colleagues expands. Soon, what started as a few isolated ripples can coalesce into a wave of change. Together, we can create the future we want at the speed we need. But it starts with individual action. So let’s get to work.   1: LEARN Familiarize yourself with climate solutions and how you can help deploy them. Check out the 93 technologies and practices that together can stop climate change. Watch the Drawdown Roadmap, Climate Solutions 101, and Drawdown’s Neighborhood video series for a comprehensive look at how humanity can halt climate disruption through concerted action.  2: DO Alter your own activities to reduce your personal contribution to climate change. Apply what you learn to become more climate friendly at home, at work, in your volunteer activities and hobbies, as you travel—in every aspect of your life! The opportunities are endless, and every action matters. Consider the climate impact of your consumer choices, and alter them accordingly. Check out other suggestions for mobilizing around climate solutions, including those from our partners Drawdown Ecochallenge, Rare, and Don’t Look Up, as well as from Science Moms, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the David Suzuki Foundation. 3: SHARE Communicate the opportunity to make a difference with others. Bring up the subject of climate change with individuals in your various spheres of influence: family, friends, neighbors, fellow faith community members, etc. Do so in a nonthreatening, nonjudgmental way. For example, you might start by mentioning unusual weather you’re having or a disaster in the news, and wondering if it’s related to climate change. Before you broach the topic, think about what the other person cares about. Tailor your conversation to connect climate change to what’s most important to them—their hobbies, their family, their health, their values. Listen to their thoughts. Then let them know the climate actions you’re taking and why. Explain how every person has a unique and important role to play in halting climate change. If they would like to learn more, share the link to this page.  Engage with people from all walks of life, not just those who think as you do. Like identity theft or the global economy, climate change affects everyone, not just environmentalists or those of particular political persuasions.  4: ADVOCATE Urge change makers to go all in on halting climate change. Think of three people in your sphere of influence who have exceptional impact: lawmakers, CEOs, community leaders, popular artists, social media influencers, journalists, consumer liaisons for brands you buy. Share with each, in language that resonates with them and what they care about, the importance of stopping climate change—and the evidence we have that it’s possible. If appropriate, start with the five basic facts about climate change): 1) it’s real, 2) It’s us, 3) It’s bad, 4) scientists agree, 5) there’s hope. Encourage them to check out the Drawdown Roadmap, which details strategies for strategically deploying solutions at the right time and in the right place, reaping multiple benefits, and overcoming barriers. Point out that climate solutions are not just about climate. They also offer numerous benefits for alleviating poverty, protecting biodiversity, advancing justice, reducing conflict, and more. Suggest one specific way in which the change maker can exert their influence to contribute to halting climate change. 5: AMPLIFY Enhance your impact by spreading the word. Let us know what you’re doing to help stop climate change. If you have additional resources to suggest or strategies to recommend, please pass them along so we can share with others.
Read more
Perspective  |  September 5, 2023
worker with hardhat
Hats off to climate champions at work
by Jamie Alexander
The United States recently observed Labor Day, a celebration of the contributions of the American worker. It’s a time to acknowledge the people who build and maintain the foundation our country rests on—the people who, often without being noticed, enable us to power our lives, move from place to place, access food and shelter, and much more.  Today, for a world in the throes of an increasingly unstable climate and with a vanishing window of time to slash the greenhouse gas pollution that is causing it, the holiday is particularly meaningful. Because to solve climate change, we need to dramatically scale up climate solutions, and fast. That will take massive numbers of skilled workers building a future replete with heat pumps, mass transit, electric vehicles and chargers, solar panels, and much more, all aimed at permanently and comprehensively displacing the polluting industries of the past.  In other words, Labor Day celebrates the power of the worker to transform the world. We also need people in desk jobs transforming the existing system from the inside. Businesses, especially large, multinational corporations, are disproportionately responsible for the planet-warming emissions that cause climate change, and they have a grave responsibility—as well as the resources—to address it. Employees across every business and every department can apply a climate lens to their job to help their company advance their climate work more expediently and expansively, and hold their employer accountable to their climate promises. The phrase “every job is a climate job” is not hyperbole. We need all people engaged from wherever they stand. Within every sector, every trade, and every business, workers must be protected, equipped, and supported in building the world of the future and transitioning us away from the polluting businesses and industries of the past. Worker power—whether it’s security to ask for safer, more sustainable working conditions, tools to take climate action at work, or solidarity in holding employers accountable—is core to the work of Drawdown Labs.  This Labor Day, we’re taking a moment to celebrate those who are bringing climate solutions into the world and their work, transforming the existing system from the inside. Last week, we asked Project Drawdown newsletter subscribers to share how they are taking climate action at work. We were inspired by what we heard, and reminded that it is workers themselves who are best positioned to lead us into the future because they are closest to the issues and they know best how to implement solutions.  Here are some highlights from what you all have shared: Theme #1: You are making your everyday work—and that of your team members—more efficient and sustainable.  Some anesthesiologists are averting tons of greenhouse gas emissions by switching the anesthetic they use away from a potent greenhouse gas toward a more sustainable product. These anesthesiologists are also spreading the word with the goal of getting others to make the switch.  Concerned for their respiratory health, a fleet manager at a large tech company convinced their employer to switch to an all-electric fleet. Community workers pledged to use cargo bicycle services instead of diesel vans to transport equipment to local schools for scientific outreach events. Leadership at a top law firm decided to offer pro bono legal counsel to climate organizations and worker protection initiatives. Theme #2: You are integrating climate action or reduced emissions into the product or service you or your business provides. Product designers are sharing ways they have successfully integrated “sustainable nudges” into digital products. (For more specifically on the gaming sector, please see here.) Consultants are integrating climate action into their work by translating climate solutions into “business speak” for clients. Event caterers have transitioned their business model to offer fully vegetarian menus for events and meetings. A senior manager at a large multinational corporation established a task force to review and revise the organization’s procurement policy to include preferences and requirements for sustainable products, services, and suppliers. At a university, faculty and student services are working together to host green travel workshops for visiting students. The workshops provide practical support and encourage students to use public transit rather than flying for leisure travel. A field scientist pledged to work with their IT and procurement departments to clean the data from 200 mobile phones left over from one research project in order to reuse and/or recycle them. A mathematics professor decided to pause their research and instead invest their time organizing other professors and academic resources to support local climate projects in need of their expertise.  A retiree is using their skills to perform energy audits for households that can't normally afford them, not only helping them make their homes more energy-efficient, but also helping stop climate change. Theme #3: You are pushing your company to use its influence to affect climate change in the broader world.  An executive in the treasurer’s office for a private company is exploring how the company can decarbonize its banking and bring other businesses along with them on their journey. An advertising sales manager helped launch and acquire executive sponsorship for their company’s first employee green group and is helping others do the same within their own companies. Employees in the healthcare sector are encouraging low-carbon travel policies and calculating the carbon footprint of scientific research conferences. Solving climate change will require that each of us chooses, day after day, shift after shift, to work toward a healthier, more vibrant, more resilient future. We can’t just sit back and wait for our leaders to take us there. Every one of us must bring our unique talents and skills to bear on the task of shaping a better future together. The climate solutions that we know can do the job are the result of the work of countless farmers, builders, Indigenous people, engineers, educators, foresters, healthcare workers, and others who have brought these actions to light. Whether they will be applied at the scope and scale needed to stop climate change depends on what we choose to do next. Labor Day celebrates the power of the worker to transform the world. This year it matters more than ever. Because ultimately, our future rests on each and every one of us.
Read more