Addressing a global challenge as complex as climate change demands a full suite of solutions and actors, but one powerful intervention is widely overlooked: educating girls. Education gives girls the skills and knowledge to respond to climate-related disasters and to the changing resource landscapes around them. The contributions of educated girls to their communities increases a region’s overall resilience to climate shocks.

Educated girls grow up to be women who participate fully in society and take on leadership roles. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that female political leaders are especially effective in creating environmental protection measures and more likely to ratify climate protective laws and treaties. And projections from a raft of international organizations including the United Nations and the World Bank indicate that education coupled with family planning and reproductive rights has a dramatic impact on population growth and carbon emissions.

But with more than 130 million girls not in school pre-pandemic, and 20 million more at risk of never returning to school due to COVID-19 disruptions, the world is denying girls their right while simultaneously missing a transformative solution to a grave threat. And climate change threatens girls first and worst. Without an education, girls are disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change. Today 80 percent of people displaced by climate disasters are women and girls.

"Extreme weather events destroy livelihoods and worsen poverty, and girls typically bear the brunt with spikes in child marriage, trafficking and domestic violence," said Christina Lowery, CEO of Girl Rising, a non-profit which advances girls’ right to a quality education. Girl Rising has recently launched a new program, Future Rising, focused on climate change.

"We want to see a renewed commitment to girls’ education particularly in the wake of COVID-19, when we’ve seen disproportionate impacts on girls, but also how educated girls are leading the way during the crisis," she said. "We need to invest in girls, their education, their social-emotional needs, and their access to opportunities and, importantly, to digital solutions."

Read the full article about girls' education for climate change by  T. Shawn Taylor at GreenBiz.