Women and Climate Change Act of 2019

Short title— This Act may be cited as the “Women and Climate Change Act of 2019”.

Table of contents— The table of contents for this Act is as follows:

Women in the United States and around the world are the linchpin of families and communities and are often the first to feel the immediate and adverse effects of social, environmental, and economic stresses on their families and communities.

The United Nations has recognized, as one of the central organizing principles for its work, that “no enduring solution to society’s most threatening social, economic and political problems can be found without the full participation, and the full empowerment, of the world’s women”.

The United Nations Development Programme 2013 Human Development Report has found that the number of people living in extreme poverty could increase by up to 3,000,000,000 by 2050 unless environmental disasters are averted by coordinated global action.

Climate change is already forcing the most vulnerable communities and populations in developing countries to face unprecedented climate stress, including water scarcity and drought, as well as severe weather events and floods, which can lead to reduced agricultural productivity, food insecurity, and increased disease.

Climate change exacerbates issues of scarcity and lack of accessibility to primary natural resources, forest resources, and arable land for food production, thereby contributing to increased conflict and instability, as well as the workload and stresses on women farmers, who are estimated to produce 60 to 80 percent of the food in most developing countries.

Women will disproportionately face harmful impacts from climate change, particularly in poor and developing nations where women regularly assume increased responsibility for growing the family’s food and collecting water, fuel, and other resources.

Epidemics, such as malaria and zika, are expected to worsen and spread due to variations in climate, putting women (especially pregnant mothers and women who hope to become pregnant) and children without access to prevention and medical services at risk.

The direct and indirect effects of climate change have a disproportionate impact on marginalized women, such as environmental refugees and displaced persons, migrants, religious, racial, or ethnic minorities, adolescent girls, lesbian and trans women, women living in poverty, and women and girls with disabilities and those who are living with HIV.

Conflict has a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable communities and populations, including women, and is fueled in the poorest regions of the world by harsher climates, leading to migration, refugee crises, and conflicts over scarce natural resources, including land and water.

Displaced, refugee, and stateless women and girls face extreme violence and threats, including—

It is predicted that climate change will lead to increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather conditions, precipitating the occurrence of natural disasters around the globe.

The relocation and death of women, and especially mothers, as a result of climate-related disasters often has devastating impacts on social support networks, family ties, and the coping capacity of families and communities.

The ability of women to adapt to climate change is constrained by a lack of economic freedoms, property and inheritance rights, and access to financial resources, education, family planning and reproductive health, and new tools, equipment, and technology.

Despite having a unique capacity and knowledge to promote and provide for adaptation to climate change, women often have insufficient resources to undertake such adaptation.

Women are shown to have a multiplier effect because women use their income and resources, when given the necessary tools, to increase the well-being of their children and families, and thus play a critical role in reducing food insecurity, poverty, and socioeconomic effects of climate change.

Women are often underrepresented in the development and formulation of policy regarding mitigation and adaptation to climate change, even though women are often in the best position to provide and consult on adaptive strategies.

Appropriate congressional committees— The term appropriate congressional committees means—

Climate change— The term climate change means a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to—

Developing country— The term developing country means a country classified by the World Bank as having a low-income or lower-middle-income economy.

Disparate impact— The term disparate impact refers to the historical and ongoing impacts of the pattern and practice of discrimination in employment, education, housing, banking, health, and nearly every other aspect of life in the economy, society, or culture that have an adverse impact on minorities, women, or other protected groups, regardless of whether such practices were motivated by discriminatory intent.

Environmental disasters— The term environmental disasters means specific events caused by human activity that result in seriously negative effects on the environment.

Environmental refugees— The term environmental refugees means people displaced because of environmental causes, notably land loss and degradation, and natural disasters, who have left their community or country of origin.

Extreme poverty— The term extreme poverty means having an income level or living standard at a level of extreme deprivation based on living with income below 50 percent of the poverty line as established by the individual country at issue, or below $1.90 per day as determined by the World Bank.

Extreme weather— The term extreme weather means unexpected, unusual, unpredictable, severe, or unseasonal weather that is at the extremes of the historical distribution range that has been seen in the past.

Federal agency— The term Federal agency means any executive department, Government corporation, Government-controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive branch of the Government (including the Executive Office of the President), or any independent regulatory agency.

Food insecurity— The term food insecurity means a lack of consistent access to food.

Most vulnerable communities and populations— The term most vulnerable communities and populations means communities and populations, including women, impoverished communities, adolescent girls, people with disabilities, indigenous peoples, refugees, displaced persons, migrants, religious, racial, or ethnic minorities, lesbian and trans women, women living in poverty, women and girls with disabilities, and those who are living with HIV, who are at risk of substantial adverse impacts of climate change and have limited capacity to respond to such impacts.

Poverty— The term poverty means an income level and living standard insufficient to meet basic needs.

establishing the Federal Interagency Working Group on Women and Climate Change, the mission of which is to prevent and respond to the effects of climate change on women globally; and

implementing a coordinated, integrated, evidence-based, and comprehensive strategy on women and climate change throughout United States policies in the future.