The economic impacts of climate change on women in South Africa

In developing countries, climate change impacts women more than men. Women have fewer resilience capacities and less economic opportunity. At the same time, women are essential as economic actors. In this paper, we analyse the economic impacts of climate change on women in South Africa. Here, gender inequality is high and likely to increase because of climate change. At the same time, women who suffer more from climate change impacts are highly important for economic growth. Using a computable general equilibrium model, we analyse how climate change impacts economic growth and women through different economic shocks and channels. By linking a microeconomic simulation to the macroeconomic framework, we analyse the impact of climate change on female-headed households. The results show that the climate shock negatively impacts productivity, labour demand and economic growth. These negative impacts translate to households by increasing prices and decreasing purchasing power. The impacts on poverty are stronger for female-headed households than for maleheaded households. Thus, policies need to address the problem of climate change, widening the gender gaps between men and women, not only under pro-poor and pro-gender objectives but also under pro-growth objectives.