A former coordinator and current Member of the European Parliament spoke at the roundtable ‘European and International Commitments’, part of the ‘Women and Climate’ conference held today at Convento São Francisco in Coimbra.
During her address, she highlighted that women are more affected by climate change due to their “vulnerability, especially economical,” as well as “their immense responsibility, greater than that of men, in community care.”
The candidate emphasized that both climate change mitigation and territorial adaptation would greatly benefit from nature-based solutions.
“These nature-based solutions are often knowledge that communities possess, and women are the guardians of this knowledge in these communities,” she noted.
She pointed out that this is true “in both rural communities in Europe and indigenous communities.”
The focus should not only be on the “so-called global south” but also on “our territories: how much of this knowledge exists [with women in rural areas]?”
Catarina Martins, a rapporteur for COP30 in Brazil, scheduled for November, mentioned that Brazil’s Minister of Environment, Marina Silva, “is very interested in discussing” at the event “the Lima Plan for gender equality, which aims to allow women to participate more in decisions” related to the issue.
In her speech, the candidate also stated that addressing the housing problem merely as a construction issue is “from a climate perspective, disastrous, in a territory like Portugal or Europe, which is highly urbanized with many impermeable soils.”
Besides increasing construction that distances people from workplaces and public services, it is crucial to pay attention to the quality of what is being built, because “Portugal is not a country with a mild climate.”
“We need energy-efficient roofs to reduce energy consumption, which is fundamental for any fair climate transition, as well as ensuring quality of life,” she said.
According to her, women also “suffer the most from the housing crisis,” as they are the ones told “they will lose their child because they don’t have a roof.”
Referring to the increased workload, a point especially detrimental to women, “who are caretakers of their children, their parents, their community,” she further warned about an aging Europe with “low quality of life and more chronic diseases.”
