Earth Day: Celebrating women farmers’ resilience to climate change

April 22, 2024

Climate change is having a major impact on daily life in Bangladesh. For small farmers in particular the impacts of climate change are devastating on their livelihoods and daily life. But women farmers in Bangladesh are coming together to work with nature to fight climate change and create sustainable livelihoods. This Earth Day we are celebrating the unbelievable resilience of farmers who are using agroecology to work with nature to create long-term solutions to the climate crisis.

Agriculture has always been a cornerstone of Bangladesh’s economy, driven by the active participation and substantial contributions of women, who make up 70% of its workforce. And so are hit hardest by climate change.

In 2022 and 2023 we were proud to support ActionAid Bangladesh on a project titled ‘Women-led Solutions to Food Insecurity and Livelihood in the Face of Climate Change.’ The project aimed to enhance the knowledge of women farmers and encourage climate-resilient agricultural practices.

The impact of ActionAid Bangladesh’s work with women farmers is immense. Here are some of their stories.

Mahfuza

Mahfuza lives in a small village in southern Bangladesh, she was stricken by poverty and the adverse effects of climate change. As a result, her attempt to cultivate crops often failed – be it in the backyard or in an agricultural field.

Following taking part in the project she said: “In the first courtyard meeting, they taught us about climate change. That was the first time I understood why my crops would not grow properly. I learnt about climate-resilient agricultural techniques. They trained us on seed-bed preparation, seed and crop selection, irrigation techniques etc. With the techniques I learnt there, I began to cultivate various seasonal vegetables in the courtyard. The yield was so good that I could sell some even after consumption.

Gulshan

In the early days of marriage, two square meals seemed like a luxury to Gulshan. Her husband tried providing for the family, but situations were not in favour. For years, crops were destroyed by floods and sometimes there was no produce due to drought from where they hailed. But today, Gulshan is a winner of two prestigious awards for her contribution to the agriculture sector. She is building a better future for her family, as well as for her community.

Gulshan told us, “People pay more for the vegetables I produce. They say these are bigger and taste better. Usage of vermicompost and bio pesticides have made a major impact in the yield. I know they are safe, chemical free and good for our health. These are cost efficient too. Also, since I started the bagging method of cultivation my crops are safe during floods. My neighbours were surprised to see that. I later taught them the method.”

Malancha

At the beginning of 2023, ActionAid Bangladesh came to Malancha’s village to train local women on farming techniques. Malancha enrolled herself and learned about different environment friendly farming techniques. She is now an expert of seed selection, seed bed preparation, seed production, bio fertilizer and pesticide production and their application.

After the training, she and 30 other women formed a women’s group. Recently, she was elected president,

She told us: “Alone, I am weak and vulnerable, I believe in the power and strength of unity. I know, I have been able to come this far only because I moved in a group.”

This Earth Day please share their stories.

Protestors at COP 28 in Dubai. Photo: Konrad Skotnicki.

Belfast Climate Change March, 2019. Photo: Trócaire.

The Profit Driving the Crisis

Despite their overwhelming contribution to global emissions, fossil fuel companies continue to attract significant financial backing—driven by their enduring profitability. This is starkly illustrated by the case of ExxonMobil, the top fossil fuel investment held by asset managers based in Ireland. In 2023, ExxonMobil reported €33.63 billion ($36 billion) in profit. That is almost twice the GDP of Botswana (€18.1 billion) and nearly three times Namibia’s GDP (€11.5 billion).

Ireland plays a hugely disproportionate role in facilitating investments into fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil. In 2023, the investments made into fossil fuel companies by investment managers based in Ireland generated an estimated 72.5 million tons of CO2e. This is more than the CO2e emissions for the entire country of Ireland—and more than ten times that generated by Sierra Leone.

The Global Human Impact

The climate crisis is here, now, and it is causing disproportionate harm in the Global South. In Bangladesh, rising sea levels and increasingly severe cyclones are displacing coastal communities, with projections indicating that 17% of the entire country could be underwater by 2050. The legally binding Paris Agreement on climate change explicitly acknowledges the importance of tackling private finance. Its three overarching goals are: keeping below 1.5C of warming; increasing adaptation and making finance flows consistent with low emissions and resilience.

This gives a clear mandate for action: both tax reform and corporate regulation are needed to tackle financial flows, and both nationally in Ireland and at EU level, ‘polluter pays’ taxes are lacking and regulation of the financial sector remains weak and fragmented. While EU regulation exists, it is designed more to nudge investors toward more sustainable investment practices by increasing transparency and reporting levels than to enforce strict standards. And it is moving in the wrong direction: the recently passed EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive excluded investments; and now the EU Commission’s Omnibus legislative proposal threatens to undo the limited gains made on climate plans, as well as blocking future attempts for stronger action at national level.

The Risk of Inaction

Fossil fuel investment is too profitable to remain weakly regulated. If Ireland continues with its current strategy of encouraging FDI at all costs, and relying on weak EU regulation, we are headed for catastrophe. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has repeatedly warned that every fraction of a degree beyond 1.5°C brings irreversible consequences: collapsed ice sheets, vanishing coral reefs, and extreme weather events that will make vast regions of the planet uninhabitable. And yet, companies are developing oil and gas fields that could push global warming beyond 2°C.

Our research found that 91% of the investments made into fossil fuel companies by investment managers based in Ireland were to companies that have plans for fossil fuel expansion like these. Ireland cannot afford inaction on this issue.

About This Research

The figures in this report regarding investment from Ireland are based on new research commissioned by ActionAid Ireland and Trócaire. In the paper, we uncover the scale of fossil fuel investment through Ireland, who the investors are, and in which fossil fuel companies they are investing. We analyse the current regulatory framework and explain why it is inadequate—and moving in the wrong direction. And we make specific recommendations for change, which are summarised below.

Summary of Recommendations

Regulate the private financial sector
Ireland must end its outsized role as an enabler of destructive fossil fuel investment. Ireland should introduce a strong gender-responsive national human rights and environmental due diligence framework which includes the regulation of investors with respect to human rights and the environment and climate. The transposition of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive could achieve this if downstream activities are included and the Omnibus proposal is rejected. Ireland should prohibit investments in fossil fuel expansion and require investors to implement climate transition plans consistent with a 1.5°C climate limit.

Endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Ireland should endorse developing a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to curb fossil fuel expansion and commit to a fair and funded phase out of fossil fuels.

Support tax justice
Ireland should support bold and fair new global tax rules through the UN Framework Convention on Tax, should adopt all OECD BEPS measures, and should conduct an updated and comprehensive spillover analysis of its tax policy. Ireland should take coordinated action globally, at the EU level and domestically to introduce a range of new taxes to mobilise finance needed for climate justice, based on ‘polluter pays’ and social equity principles such as wealth taxes for the highest earners, climate damages tax on investors, fossil fuel production taxes and levies on aviation and shipping.

Finance a just transition
Ireland must also meet its fair share climate finance obligations under Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, and pay our ecological debt to the Global South. Ireland should support conditionality-free debt cancellation for countries on the front lines of the climate crisis, commit to a new UN Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt, moving debt negotiations from the IMF to the UN, and to a debt workout mechanism that is fully representative and fair.