By Pía Riggirozzi/Latinoamérica21
Climate change not only destroys territories and ecosystems: it deepens historical inequalities and forces millions of people to move. In Latin America and the Caribbean, where structural poverty, violence, institutional weakness and gender inequality come together, the climate has become a catalyst for vulnerabilities.
Environmental degradation – from the loss of glacial mass to heat waves, droughts and forest fires – is deteriorating livelihoods and pushing entire communities to migrate to less affected areas. Natural disasters associated with climate change are today one of the main drivers of human displacement in the region: 2.2 million new internal displacements were recorded in 2022 alone, one of the highest figures in the world according to UNHCR.
He World Bank warns that, if urgent policies are not adopted, by 2050 Latin America could have more than 17 million internal climate migrants, with an especially serious impact on Mexico and Central America.
The gender dimension in this crisis emerges clearly. According to the Program of the United Nations For the Environment, women and girls represent close to 80% of people displaced by climate causes. This ‘feminization’ of climate migration reflects how social norms and structural inequality amplify the impacts of environmental deterioration, especially affecting rural, indigenous and Afro-descendant women.
Gender and climate migration: multiplied vulnerability
In Latin America, women are often primarily responsible for ensuring water, firewood and food, tasks that are becoming increasingly difficult with environmental deterioration. Furthermore, the report The Unjust Climate of FAO reveals that rural women heads of households lose more income than men due to extreme heat and flooding. If global temperatures increased just one degree more, losses could grow by up to 34%, worsening poverty and inequality.
These conditions push many women to migrate as a survival and resilience strategy. However, during displacement they face sexual violence, labor exploitation and human trafficking, in addition to the loss of access to basic services, which increases the risks of maternal mortality and unwanted pregnancies.
Health also suffers the consequences
Extreme heat increases the risk of stillbirths, and rising temperatures favor the spread of diseases such as dengue, malaria and the Zika virus. According to a study published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americasyoung women in Central America and the Caribbean are the most affected. Extreme heat doubles the probability of migrating to capitals in search of employment or shelter.
On the other hand, highly feminized sectors such as the textile maquila or domestic work are among the most vulnerable to these impacts, generating loss of income, forced mobility and job insecurity. Furthermore, climate factors create new—and reinforce old—ignored health determinants, highlighting the need to improve health access and services. health surveillance systems to respond effectively to these crises.
Central America: the mirror of a crisis
The Central American Dry Corridor – which covers Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua – is one of the clearest examples of how climate change impacts daily life. More than 11 million people depend on agriculture, and between 30% and 50% of rural households have lost part or all of their crops in the last five years due to droughts and floods according to the IOM.
This food insecurity pushes thousands of families to migrate north. In this context, women carry the hardest burden: staying means enduring scarcity and multiplying care tasks; Migrating, on the other hand, involves risking dangerous routes such as the Darién Gap, where high levels of sexual violence have been documented.
Between 2016 and 2021, climate disasters displaced 2.3 million children and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean according to UNICEF data, increasing the care and protection responsibilities of women, both in transit and at destination.
Protagonists of change: women, territory and climate justice towards COP30
Despite this panorama, women are not just victims: they are also leaders and agents of change. In multiple territories of Latin America, rural and indigenous women lead resilience networks, promoting agroecological practices, reforestation projects and community water management systems. According to UN Women (2025)these leaderships have been fundamental to sustaining life and protecting ecosystems, although their political and economic role continues to be made invisible.
Looking ahead to COP30, which will be held in Belém, Brazil, in November 2025, it is essential to recognize and finance the climate leadership of Latin American women. It is not enough to make their contributions visible: we must guarantee their full and binding participation in climate governance mechanisms and ensure that adaptation funds reach the projects they lead.
Investing in women is not just a matter of justice: it is an effective climate resilience strategy. Where they manage natural resources, soils regenerate faster, crops are more sustainable and communities show greater social cohesion and food security. COP30 should mark a turning point, moving from seeing women as victims of the climate crisis to recognizing them as protagonists of ecological and social transformation.
Towards a COP30 with climate and gender justice
Brazil, host of the next COP, has the historic opportunity to place the nexus between gender, migration and climate change at the center of global negotiations. This requires: creating international frameworks that recognize people displaced by climate change; guarantee funds that go to initiatives led by rural and indigenous women and displaced women; ensure that these women have a voice and vote in climate decisions; integrate health into climate and migration policies; and create accountability mechanisms to ensure practices related to the previous points.
Finally, COP30 should reinforce the principle of shared responsibility and promote a coordinated regional approach that recognizes the interdependence between countries affected by climate change and strengthens regional and multilateral cooperation. Only in this way can COP30 be remembered as the summit where progress was made towards climate justice that is also gender and migration justice.
This article was published in Latin America21 and is reproduced with the express permission of its publishers. Read the original.
Pía Riggirozzi is Professor of International Politics at the University of Southampton. PhD in Politics and International Relations from the University of Warwick. Master in International Relations from the University of Miami and FLACSO-Argentina.
