Women 'uniquely placed' to inspire climate action, mayors say

(Reuters, 21 Feb 2019) Cities, which are home to over half the world's population, must involve all residents in efforts to adapt to climate change, said mayors.

Women's untapped communication skills make them "uniquely placed" to explain the damaging impacts of an overheating planet and spur climate action by the public, mayors said on Thursday.

From leaders to citizens, women must be at the centre of efforts to curb global warming if the world is to limit wilder weather and rising seas, said officials at a conference organised in Paris by C40, a global alliance of cities.

For Karla Rubilar, mayor of Santiago in Chile, the fight against climate change has one major problem. "The conversation by experts seems elitist, removed from reality, and people don't always understand how it affects them," she said.

"But women are good at listening and at communicating, which makes them uniquely placed to explain what action citizens can take," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on the sidelines of the Women4Climate event.

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said women had staying power.

"Think of the women in your families - how determined they are to nurture relationships and how they follow through with everything," she said in an interview. "Now apply that to climate action: women just get the job done."

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Reuters, 21 Feb 2019: Women 'uniquely placed' to inspire climate action, mayors say