Episode 7.
Gender and Climate Change: What’s the Link?
Did you know that one of the most effective things we can do to address climate change is educate girls and provide economic opportunities for women? Join us to explore how ensuring the basic rights of women can lead to a positive impact on not just the climate, but society as a whole.
About the Host
The host for the conversation series is Dr Amanda Cahill, CEO of The Next Economy. Amanda has spent nearly 25 years supporting changemakers across the world to improve individual and community wellbeing. Her work at The Next Economy is to support communities to strengthen local economies in ways that are good for people and planet. In this way, her work touches on many of the themes in 2040 – climate change, food and energy systems, waste, and how the economic and political systems operate to both facilitate and block change.
Guests
Dr. Jane O’Sullivan
Dr. Jane O’Sullivan is a former senior researcher at the University of Queensland’s School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, where she led research programs on agricultural intensification of subsistence crops in the Pacific and South East Asia. She subsequently turned attention to the demographic pressures on food security, economic development and environmental sustainability. She has participated in a wide range of cross-disciplinary collaborations with international colleagues in ecological economics, environmental philosophy, climate change responses and family planning promotion and implementation. She has published ground-breaking analyses on the economic impacts of population growth, population aging and the use of population projections in relation to projecting climate change. She is an executive member of Sustainable Population Australia and an associate of The Overpopulation Project.
Sarah Ireland
Sarah began her career as a first-responder to the disaster zone in Myanmar from Cyclone Nargis. Since then, Sarah has built over 10 years experience in humanitarian outreach, international aid and the development sector. She has led emergency response teams in the Philippines, Iraq and in the Horn of Africa. Then as a Humanitarian Advocacy and Policy Adviser, Sarah lobbied both Australian and overseas governments to increase foreign aid budgets and the intake of refugees, and to prioritise women and girls in their overseas aid programs. It was on the front line of disasters and crises where Sarah witnessed the power of education, and Sarah is now the CEO of girls’ education not-for-profit One Girl that supports girls with educational opportunities in Sierra Leone and Uganda. Sarah is a winner of Pro Bono’s 2018 IMPACT 25 Awards and is currently the humanitarian representative on the Red Cross Australia Victorian International Humanitarian Law Advisory Committee.
Organisations & Key Campaigns:
- One Girl – https://www.onegirl.org.au/
- Do it in a Dress Campaign – https://www.onegirl.org.au/event/do-it-in-a-dress-2019/home
- Sustainable Population Australia – http://population.org.au/
- Sustainable Population Australia – Myths – http://population.org.au/about-population/population-myths
Reports with link between education and lower fertility:
- Education leads to lower fertility and increased prosperity – https://grist.org/population/2011-05-12-education-leads-to-lower-fertility-and-increased-prosperity/
- Link Between Education and Fertility in Low and Middle Income Countries – https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/events/pdf/expert/25/2016-EGM_Elina%20Pradhan.pdf
Reports & further information on the impact of educating girls:
- Malala Foundation & World Bank Report on Economic Cost of Educating Girls – https://malala.org/newsroom/archive/cost-of-not-educating-girls or https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/07/11/not-educating-girls-costs-countries-trillions-of-dollars-says-new-world-bank-report