Climate Change Could Hurt Teen Girls The Most

Article here. Excerpt:

'LONDON (AlertNet) - At the intersection of two of the world's most vulnerable groups – children and women - adolescent girls may end up bearing the biggest burden of climate change impacts, according to a new report.

In times of economic hardship - often caused by droughts, floods or other natural disasters - girls regularly suffer from a lack educational opportunities, sexual violence, and early and forced marriages, all consequences of what the report calls “the double jeopardy brought on by gender and age.”

While recent research shows that women and children deserve special attention in climate change legislation, “girls often fall out between both camps,” according to Kanwal Ahluwalia, a co-author of the study and an expert in gender-equality policy with Plan UK, a children’s charity.

In many countries, women’s relatively stifled freedoms put them in harm’s way when it comes to climate change, she said.'