Bills
| 3.23.22

Does Climate Change Have a Disparate Impact on Women That Congress Should Recognize? (H. Con. Res. 29)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H. Con. Res. 29?

(Updated March 8, 2020)

This resolution calls on Congress to recognize the impact that climate change has on women, and the efforts of women around the world to address climate change.

It encourages the use gender-sensitive frameworks when developing policies to address climate change that consider how those policies would affect women. It also recognizes the need for balanced participation of men and women in efforts to mitigate climate change.

Congress, under this resolution would affirm a commitment to supporting women who are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, empowering women to have a voice in crafting strategies to address climate change, and including women in economic planning to improve conditions resulting from climate change.

This resolution also encourages the President to use a gender-conscious approach in all U.S. policies and programs that relate to climate change globally, while ensuring that they support women across the world to adapt and prepare for climate change.

Argument in favor

Women play a leading role in agriculture and food production across the world, and climate change is an imminent threat to their work and their families. The U.S. has to keep these women in mind when making policy that will directly impact their lives.

Argument opposed

This is a really nebulous resolution that has few specifics about what it actually wants the government to do. It is so all over the place that it even claims climate change will drive women into prostitution.

Impact

Women around the world and their families who would be affected by climate change, climate change initiatives and programs, Congress, and the President.

Cost of H. Con. Res. 29

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth:

This resolution has received attention for its assertion that “food insecure women with limited socioeconomic resources may be vulnerable to situations such as sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage.” Some media outlets published articles mocking the resolution as claiming “climate change makes women prostitutes.”

Rep. Lee told the Los Angeles Times: 

“It’s unfortunate that this resolution has been misrepresented as to its goals. Tragically, as women around the world are pushed to the margins they become more vulnerable. And we’ve seen time after time that women on the edge are forced to make heartbreaking choices, this among them.”
Sponsoring Rep. Barbara Lee introduced versions of this resolution in previous sessions of Congress, but her past attempts have stalled in committee in November 2011 and May 2013.

Of Note:

Women account for over 60 percent of the agricultural production in low-income food-deficit countries, which are generally less developed and thus more vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) has explained that the objective of this resolution is to: “Empower women who are particularly vulnerable to climate change and to encourage a more gender-sensitive approach in climate change policy.”


Media:


Summary by Eric Revell