ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an original contribution to research on the impact of gender equality in the polity on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Employing a longitudinal panel dataset with data from 137 countries from 2009 to 2018 and fixed effects regression models, the research estimates the effect of women’s political representation on countries’ GHG emissions. The results show a significant negative effect of women’s political representation on countries’ GHG emissions. When women’s political representation increases by 1%, the country’s GHG emissions per capita decrease by 0.014 kilotons. To qualify this finding, I estimate the primary model with an alternative dependent and primary, independent variable, demonstrating that countries with greater overall gender equality have lower GHG emissions and better environmental performances.
This chapter establishes a clear trend that the climate footprint per capita is lower in countries where more women are politically represented. The chapter’s findings do not suggest that the responsibility for solving the climate crisis should be placed on women. It posits that improving gender equality within and across societies can help address challenges of social injustice as well as the climate crisis.
