No Resilience without Safety: Why Climate Action Must Address Gender-Based Violence

This blog is based on a report written by Naomi Clugston, Francesca Rhodes, Erika Fraser and Onyeka Nneli.

As world leaders gather for the Bonn Climate Change Conference to advance climate action and climate justice, we are confronted with a pressing but often overlooked reality: communities will not build true resilience to climate change if women, girls, and gender-diverse people continue to live under the constant threat of violence. Addressing gender-based violence (GBV) is not just a human rights imperative; it is crucial to achieving effective, inclusive, and sustainable climate outcomes.

What is gender-based violence and how is it linked to climate change?

Gender-based violence (GBV) refers to violence directed at individuals based on their gender. It includes intimate partner violence, sexual assault, child marriage, trafficking, harassment, and other forms of abuse. While GBV disproportionately affects women and girls and gender diverse people, it also impacts men and boys who defy traditional gender norms. Women and girls with disabilities face even greater risks of violence and greater barriers to accessing support.

Climate change does not cause GBV- GBV is driven by gender inequality. However, climate change does act as a “threat multiplier”, exacerbating the social and economic drivers of violence such as poverty, displacement, and insecurity. In addition, when implemented without considering gendered power dynamics, climate programmes and policies themselves can unintentionally create or worsen GBV risks.

How does GBV block progress on climate action?

So, how exactly does GBV stand in the way of effective climate action? One example from a What Works II report, 'Overcoming an Unseen Barrier to Effective Climate Action' we launched at COP29, makes this clear. In Uganda, a wetland restoration project set out with a clear goal: to reduce environmental degradation by offering alternative livelihoods to communities farming on protected wetlands. Because women in Uganda face legal and social barriers to owning land, they were the primary users of these wetlands for farming.

To support a transition away from damaging farming, the programme provided women with cows and helped them access farmland through local landowners. While well intentioned, the project didn’t fully account for local gender norms or the risks of GBV, which ultimately undermined its goals. For example, in communities where cows were traditionally owned by men, the programme resulted in backlash against women. In some cases, the cows were stolen from women by their husbands, who used them as dowries to marry other wives. In other contexts, women were subjected to sexual exploitation by landowners who controlled their access to farmland.

Instead of creating safer, more sustainable livelihoods, the project left many women at greater risk of GBV. This broke community trust in the programme, and led many women to return to farming the wetlands where they felt safer- the very activity the initiative aimed to reduce. The takeaway? If climate interventions don’t intentionally address GBV and unequal gender power dynamics, they risk harming communities and falling short of their environmental goals.

This wetlands project in Uganda isn’t an isolated case. Our research shows that around the world, GBV is derailing climate solutions. In Indonesia, women working on mangrove conservation face threats and violence from local men that make it unsafe for those who continue. In the Pacific, efforts to relocate flood-affected communities have been undermined by sexual assault and harassment in new settlements. This has broken community trust and created resistance to the scale-up of relocation initiatives to other communities. In climate change-induced disaster zones, fear of violence in shelters keeps many women, girls and LGBTQIA+ people from accessing safety and formal humanitarian assistance when they need it most. Women human rights defenders working on environmental issues and climate activists, especially those from indigenous communities, are consistently targeted with GBV to silence their work raising the alarm against environmental degradation and climate change.

These stories are not just about violence, they are about missed opportunities, compromised safety, and ineffective climate responses.  Unless policy responses and programmes evolve, GBV will continue to undermine the very outcomes the climate community is striving to achieve.

Four ways that addressing GBV strengthens climate action:

1. Improves adaptation and resilience outcomes
   When programmes address GBV, women, girls and gender-diverse people can safely participate in building climate-resilient communities. In Uganda, practitioners agreed that integrating GBV prevention into the wetlands restoration project would have supported women to adopt more sustainable livelihoods safely. Addressing GBV helps ensure that whole communities have access to the technology, knowledge, and economic opportunities crucial to moving away from damaging practices and adapting and building resilience in the face of climate change. Read how our Grantee Partner CEDOVIP is doing just this.

2. Supports inclusive leadership and decision-making
   Climate programmes with equal representation of men and women better reflect the needs of whole communities and so tend to perform better. A global study found forest conservation outcomes improved when women held at least half the decision-making roles. However, GBV in all its forms discourages women from leadership positions and from participating in community consultations. By intentionally addressing GBV, programmes can support the inclusion of more diverse perspectives in climate governance.

3. Improves the effectiveness of climate emergency responses
   Disaster preparedness and recovery aims to keep communities safe when facing crises. However,  in many emergencies women, girls and LGBTQIA+ people face risks of violence when trying to access humanitarian relief facilities. In Fiji and Malawi, the risk of violence against women, girls and trans people was so high, that many felt safer in make-shift shelters where they were directly exposed to the danger of ongoing climate disasters.  Integrating GBV risk mitigation and GBV response services into disaster planning helps whole communities access and trust life-saving support.

4. Assists efforts towards a Just Transition to a low-carbon economy
   A Just Transition requires that Green Industries and transitions away from fossil fuels “do no harm.” Yet, evidence links large infrastructure and renewable energy projects to sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH) against local women. At the same time, women climate scientists and other professionals working in Green Industries, face increased risks of SEAH at work and violence online. Community support is essential for the sustainability of infrastructure projects, which can be lost when clean energy projects bring new risks of violence. In addition, green industries rely on the expertise of climate scientists and other professionals, including women. SEAH  at work and violence online can prevent women with invaluable expertise from working in this space. Addressing GBV and SEAH helps ensure that the transition towards a low-carbon economy is just and benefits everyone.

What Bonn Negotiators can deliver:

1. Agreement that the new Gender Action Plan should recognise the link between addressing GBV and effective climate action. The new Gender Action Plan provides an opportunity to secure agreement for Parties and stakeholders to carry out activities that would support greater understanding and knowledge of how GBV interacts with climate change, and how it can be addressed through climate action.

2. Fund GBV prevention within climate adaptation and resilience programming. Climate resilience and adaptation projects must include targeted funding for inclusive GBV prevention, survivor services, and safeguarding. This should include disability-inclusive support and should be recognised as a core strategy for supporting the inclusion of whole communities and preventing the exclusion of women and girls in all their diversity.

3. Direct climate finance to local Women’s Rights Organisations. Grassroots women’s rights organisations working on the frontline of the climate crisis are often best equipped to understand the needs of their communities but receive the least support. Climate finance must be better designed so it is accessible to women-led organisations, with specific budgets to support GBV prevention and response efforts for survivors.

4. Protect women human rights defenders working on environmental issues. Climate action cannot proceed when its fiercest advocates, often from Indigenous communities, are being silenced with violence. The international community should fund security measures for Women human rights defenders and speak out against the targeting of women and Indigenous climate activists.

Key takeaways

Every climate policy, project and negotiation that fails to consider GBV and gendered power dynamics is one that risks doing harm and undermining its own goals. As global leaders chart the path ahead for addressing climate change, the opportunity is clear: embed safety, inclusion and dignity into climate action and strengthen climate outcomes for whole communities. Now is the time to act: we cannot afford to let this opportunity slip away. 

More information

• Read our Report: Overcoming an Unseen Barrier to Effective Climate Action

• The What Works to Prevent Violence: Impact at Scale Programme (What Works II), the UK’s flagship programme to end violence against women and girls (VAWG), strives to eliminate VAWG on a global scale. Funded by the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the seven-year Programme is focused on VAWG prevention. Find out more.