In 2007, the survey (Langlais et al, 2007) showed that only a small minority of Swedish municipalities were responding concretely to climate change. We wondered then what motivates action on climate change. Can gendered structures involving decision-makers, citizens and NGOs explain an increase in "climate work" in municipalities? Norgaard and York (2005) point out that, even if the positive correlation between the ratio of women in parliamentary positions and the degree of environmentalism are clear, the effect on the development of climate change response at the municipal level remains unclear. The Swedish Government recently presented a report arguing that women all over the world generally have a more sustainable way of life than men (Johnsson, 2007). Can it be that women's empowerment in decision-making processes generates a more dedicated approach to climate change measures?
To begin to understand more about these questions, a specific topic related to gender perspectives was added to this year's telephone survey. It asked whether a municipality had highlighted the correlation between gender and the response to climate change.
The ways in which the topic was addressed by the respondents however made it difficult to assess whether women's empowerment in decision-making processes actually benefits the response to the issue of climate change. Nevertheless, results from the survey do show that many municipalities (about 50%) are yet to establish any connection between gender and climate change responses. Among the rest, some municipalities have already reflected on the issue, but without initiating any active measures, while others have developed projects where gender and climate are key perspectives, often on questions relating to transport and travel patterns.
It was common to hear the argument from the municipalities that the climate change issue is gender neutral. This is interesting given that studies indicate that women and men affect the environment in different ways and that men and women often have different approaches to the relationship between the environment and development (Johnsson, 2007; Kurian, 2000).
Some municipalities noted that the climate change issue had only become a priority when male decision-makers realised its importance. This indicates that there is a bias towards men's values in climate change decision-making. Is engagement by men crucial in order to acknowledge women's more sustainable ways of living? Some municipalities responded that women are, generally, more committed and develop a better understanding of climate change issues.
Is it then possible that if women had the same representation and legitimacy in decision-making as men that the climate change issue would have assumed a more prominent position in municipal debate? Perhaps the mass-media would have had to generate less attention on the issue if power was more equally distributed between women and men. It is also possible that the turning point for climate change response in municipalities might have occurred much sooner.
When analysing sparsely populated municipalities versus urban areas in urban regions in the context of the telephone survey a number of interesting tendencies were observed. The analysis was performed by merging results from the telephone survey with statistics from governmental authorities. One clearly emergent tendency is that, on their climate change response, sparsely populated municipalities obtain a lower average score than urban ones. In the 2007 survey, each municipality was placed in one of six scored categories in order to assess its response to climate change, ranging from a score of 1, for no response, to 6, for exceptional response. It is interesting that among the 43 Swedish municipalities that scored 5 or 6 on climate change response, only one of these municipalities could be termed 'sparsely populated'. Among the 22 sparsely populated municipalities, 13 received a score of 1. This equals 59% of the municipalities in this category. This can be compared to municipalities in urban areas where only 29% scored 1.
Do the tendencies referred to above reveal any particular gender perspective? The observation that women, who generally live in more environmentally-friendly ways, are moving away from the peripheries, and that women are underrepresented in decision-making, could at least be part of the explanation for the lower level of engagement in climate change issues by municipalities in sparsely populated areas.
References
- Johnson-Latham, G. (2007) A study on gender equality as a prerequisite for sustainable development. Environment Advisory Council, Sweden 2007:2.
- Kurian, P.A. (2000) Engendering the Environment? Gender in the World Bank's Environmental Policies. Ashgate, New York.
- Langlais, R., Francke, P., Nilsson, J. & Ernborg, F. (2007) Turning point on Climate Change – Emergent Municipal Response in Sweden: Pilot Study. Nordregio Working Paper 2007:3. Stockholm
- Norgaard, K. & York, R. (2005) Gender Equality and State Environmentalism.
Gender & Society 19(4), 506-522.
Authors:
Christian Dymén Research Fellow and Richard Langlais, previous Senior Research Fellow at Nordregio