Women’s empowerment and climate resilience: global evidence

Abstract Despite sustained global economic growth, climate change remains a critical challenge. As global energy demand is projected to rise by about 43% between 2020 and 2035, the question of how to reduce climate vulnerability and strengthen climate readiness remains urgent. Thus, the question, of how to mitigate the adverse climate impacts is of paramount importance. This study investigates whether empowering women can reduce climate vulnerability, and enhance nations’ resilience, readiness and adaptability to climate change. Using panel data from 185 countries (1995–2022), we measure climate vulnerability and readiness through the ND-GAIN vulnerability and readiness indices and capture women’s empowerment via three core indicators: women’s labour force participation, the “Women, Business and the Law” index, and the women’s political empowerment index. A series of advanced estimation techniques provide consistent evidence of a positive link between women’s empowerment and climate outcomes. Specifically, a 1% rise in women’s labour force share is associated with up to a 0.11% reduction in climate vulnerability, while enhancing resilience by 0.08–0.35%. Improvement in the “Women, Business and the Law” indicator reduces vulnerability by up to 0.17% and increases readiness by 0.05 to 0.2 %. Notably, women’s political empowerment is found to have the strongest effect, decreasing vulnerability by 0.02–0.2% and boosting readiness by up to 41% across specifications. The relationships are statistically significant at 1–10% levels. Local Projections confirm that these impacts persist in both the short and long run. We further develop a theoretical framework (and empirically test it) that systematically links women’s empowerment to climate resilience through well-defined mechanisms and sub-mechanisms, for enhanced understanding of the subject.