Synergies and trade-offs between climate change adaptation options and gender equality: a review of the global literature

Abstract

Climate change impacts are being felt across sectors in all regions of the world, and adaptation projects are being implemented to reduce climate risks and existing vulnerabilities. Climate adaptation actions also have significant synergies and tradeoffs with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 5 on gender equality. Questions are increasingly being raised about the gendered and climate justice implications of different adaptation options. This paper investigates if reported climate change adaptation actions are contributing to advancing the goal of gender equality (SDG 5) or not. It focuses on linkages between individual targets of SDG 5 and climate change adaptation actions for nine major sectors where transformative climate actions are envisaged. The assessment is based on evidence of adaptation actions documented in 319 relevant research publications published during 2014–2020. Positive links to nine targets under SDG 5 are found in adaptation actions that are consciously designed to advance gender equality. However, in four sectors—ocean and coastal ecosystems; mountain ecosystems; poverty, livelihood, sustainable development; and industrial system transitions, we find more negative links than positive links. For adaptation actions to have positive impacts on gender equality, gender-focused targets must be intentionally brought in at the prioritisation, designing, planning, and implementation stages. An SDG 5+ approach, which takes into consideration intersectionality and gender aspects beyond women alone, can help adaptation actions move towards meeting gender equality and other climate justice goals. This reflexive approach is especially critical now, as we approach the mid-point in the timeline for achieving the SDGs.

Adaptation to compound climate risks: A systematic global stocktake

“…9 Climate responses may face limits, 39 fail to achieve their objectives, involve trade-offs among objectives or across stakeholders, involve unintended consequences for other groups or societal objectives, or increase risk to other climate risk drivers. 40 These challenges are particularly stark in response to compound events. 35 Just as we use the term “response” to encompass a wide range of actions, we use a holistic definition of “risk” that incorporates hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and response.…”

“… 51 Challenges of interactions between responses also occur between adaptation options and broader development and sustainability outcomes. 18 , 40 For example, this can be achieved through identifying opportunities to increase agricultural productivity over currently water-limited rain-fed croplands by adopting irrigation practices that do not deplete freshwater stocks and impair aquatic ecosystems. Expanding sustainable irrigation may avert agricultural expansion but can create additional externalities including potentially negative impacts on food security, hydroclimatic conditions, water quality, soil salinization, water storage infrastructure, and energy use that are often neglected.…”

SDG-enabled decarbonisation transport pathways for mid-sized Indian cities

“…A growing body of literature indicates that while climate change undermines the progress of SDGs, climate actions also pose several trade-offs with SDGs (Denton et al, 2014). Climate adaptation has a largely synergistic relationship with SDGs across various socioeconomic contexts (Roy et al, 2022); adaptation measures to extreme weather events, climate-proofing houses and addressing urban heat island effects are a few examples of how climate adaptation generates co-benefits for human health and positively interacts with several SDGs. .…”

The forms of climate action

“…A major concern of sociological scholarship resides in the level of coverage and equity in climate action planning (Angelo et al., 2022; Roy et al., 2022). Since most climate action planning occurs at the city level, many cities, smaller towns and rural regions lack protection.…”