Rousbeh Legatis interviews MICHELLE BACHELET, Executive Director of UN Women

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25, 2011 (IPS) – Involving women in decision-making and resource management is a basic necessity for any effective plan to address the multi- layered and life-threatening consequences of climate change, says the head of UN Women.
Continue Reading

En São Gonçalo, una de las ciudades de Brasil con mayor índice de pobreza, un grupo de mujeres logró sobreponerse a las inundaciones que en 2010 les arrebataron lo que tenían. Asociadas en Las Mujeres de Salgueiro, ellas saben bien lo que es enfrentarse a las injusticias climáticas y también lo que es levantarse, mediante pequeños emprendimientos.

Las mujeres son las mayores víctimas de los efectos del calentamiento global, pero al mismo tiempo las que primero reaccionan y levantan las banderas de la lucha en la mitigación y la adaptación al cambio climático, dijo a IPS Janete Guilherme, coordinadora de la asociación comunitaria. “Los hombres vienen detrás”, aseguró.

Women coffee growers speak to Martha Nyambura about the impact of climate change on their production.

Days before the start of COP17 in Durban, the UNFCCC has formally recognised the Women and Gender Constituency, giving them full constituency status when the talks start in Durban at the end of November. Tinus de Jager reports that there will be a strong push for a gender-specific focus at the climate-change talks in South Africa

By Andrew Green
KAMPALA, Nov 21, 2011 (IPS) – Life in Bwaise – a slum on the outskirts of the capital of Uganda – has never been easy. But increasingly erratic rains over the last three years have brought constant floods to the former swampland. Residents who can afford to are moving out, leaving the poorest – often single mothers and grandmothers – behind. Continue Reading

By Mariela Jara
CUZCO, Peru, Nov 15, 2011 (IPS) – “This year the freeze killed my crops, our small livestock died, and now I can’t even sleep because I’m worried sick thinking about how to put food on my family’s table, since I’m a widow,” said Rosaura Huatay, an indigenous farmer in Peru’s northern Andes highlands.
Continue Reading

By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Nov 14, 2011 (IPS) – After two weeks without water, the taps finally started running again in the home of Araceli Salazar and her neighbours in the poor, crowded neighbourhood of Iztapalapa on the east side of the Mexican capital. Continue Reading

By Naimul Haq

NOAKHALI, Bangladesh, Nov 10 , 2011 (IPS) – Char Nongolia village is a basket case when it comes to climate change impacts such as increasing salinity, frequent cyclones, tidal surges, erratic rainfall and extended droughts.

Continue Reading

By Sudeshna Sarkar
CHARIKOT, Nepal, Nov 9, 2011 (IPS) – Suntali Shrestha wrings her hands in tension and despair as she recounts how she has been spending sleepless nights fearing that the flood alarm in her village would go off while she slept and she would be submerged.
Continue Reading