女性作为环境领导者：将叙事从脆弱性转向赋权

Women as Environmental Leaders Shifting the Narrative from Vulnerabilityto Empowerment Adhwaa AlsalehGirija BorkerHannah Uckat Development EconomicsDevelopment Impact GroupSeptember 2025 Policy Research Working Paper11223 Abstract Readiness Framework (CLRF), which distills the skillsetrequired for effective climate leadership. The frameworkis used to assess women’s leadership potential across fivedomains: leadership, principles, skills, knowledge, andnetworks.Three spheres of transformation—practical,political, and personal—are applied to map where womenare currently leading within the climate space and whereinstitutional and policy support can unlock greater impact.The study finds that women are uniquely equipped to andalready play an active role in climate action, although it isoften underrecognized. By reframing women not as passivevictims but as strategic actors, the paper offers a concep-tual and policy-relevant lens for advancing inclusive climategovernance. Embedding women’s leadership in climatestrategies is not only an equity imperative, but also centralto achieving durable and effective climate resilience. Women are often portrayed in climate discourse as dis-proportionately vulnerable to environmental change—areductive framing that, while grounded in evidence, canobscure their agency and leadership in shaping climateresilience. This paper addresses that gap by exploring howgendered experience equips women to lead effective cli-mate action. It examines two interrelated drivers of women’sclimate leadership: (1) the heightened impact of climateshocks, such as displacement, food insecurity, and healthrisks, on women, which fuels women and catalyzes adap-tation efforts; and (2) the distinctive competencies womendevelop through their social roles, such as long-term ori-entation, risk aversion, and prosocial behavior, which alignwith the demands of climate leadership. The paper pres-ents a narrative review of interdisciplinary literature anddevelops a new conceptual model, the Climate Leadership The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about developmentissues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry thenames of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely thoseof the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank andits affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. WomenasEnvironmentalLeaders:ShiftingtheNarrativefromVulnerabilityto Empowerment ByADHWAAALSALEH,GIRIJABORKER andHANNAHUCKAT1 JEL Classification:J16,Q54,Q57,O21 Keywords:Gender, Climate Change, Leadership, Intersectionality, Adaptation, Resilience, Targeting, Agency Introduction Climatechangeisoneofthemostpressingglobalchallenges,withfar-reachingconsequencesforecosystems,economies,andhumanwell-being.TheIntergovernmentalPanel onClimateChange(IPCC)warnsthatwithoutimmediateandtransformativeaction,theworldisontracktoexceed1.5°Cofwarmingbytheearly2030s,triggeringirreversibleecologicalandeconomicdisruptions(IPCC,2023).Theseeffectsarenolongerdistantorabstract;theyareunfoldinggloballywithincreasingfrequencyandseverity.Risingtemperatureshaveintensifiedextremeweatherevents—hurricanes,wildfires, droughts, andfloods—displacingmillions and exacerbating food and waterinsecurity(UNDRR,2022).Overthepasttwodecades,climate-relateddisastershavesurgedby83%(UNDRR,2020),displacingmorethan20millionpeopleannually(UNHCR,2021).The effects of climate change are not evenly distributed.Theirharshest consequences fall on morevulnerable populations, particularly in low-income and climate-exposed regions, who often lack theresources needed to adapt effectively(UNEP, 2021). Among them, women and girls areespeciallyat risk. Due to existing structural inequalities and their roles in managing food, fuel, and watersystems, women are more likely to experience climate-related poverty, health shocks, anddisplacement. In resource-dependent communities, women and children are 14 times more likelythanmentosufferharmduringenvironmentaldisasters(UNWomen,2021a).By2050,climatechange could push anadditional 100millionpeopleintopoverty, withwomen disproportionatelyaffected(WorldBank,2016).Theseriskscompoundexistingdisparitiesinaccesstoeducation,healthcare,mobility,and decision-making power—widening gender gaps in resilience andrecovery.Yetwithin this heightened vulnerability lies an overlooked paradox:women,while disproportionately affected, are also key actors in building resilience. Across the Global South, women manage the very systems most susceptible to climate shocks–provision of food, water andenergy–andoftenleadeffortstomitigateclimatecrises,intheformofmobilizingresou