Understanding the climate change-gender nexus: the economic impacts on South African women

The nexus between climate change and gender is complex, and sectoral and socio-economic impacts are difficult to understand. In developing countries, climate change impacts women more than men. Women have lower resilience capacities and less economic opportunity. At the same time, as economic actors, women are essential. In this paper, we analyse the impacts of climate change on economic sectors and how they spill over to women in South Africa. Here, gender inequality is high and likely to increase because of climate change. Using a recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium model, we analyse how climate change impacts economic growth and women through different economic shocks and channels. By linking a microeconomic simulation to the macroeconomic framework, we analyse the impact of climate change on female-headed households. The results show that the climate shock negatively impacts productivity, labour demand and economic growth. These negative impacts translate to households by increasing prices and decreasing purchasing power. The impacts on poverty are stronger for female-headed households than for male-headed households. Thus, policies need to address the problem of climate change, which is widening the gender gaps between men and women, not only under pro-poor and pro-gender objectives but also under pro-growth objectives.