Document Actions

Men go to the butcher, women to the green grocer

Men have a greater impact on the environment than women, not least as a result of their food choices. This was one of the conclusions of the Nordic sustainability conference "Solutions" in Turku on 1 February. The Nordic Council of Ministers is an international advocate for a greater mainstreaming of the gender aspect in climate negotiations.

Feb 01, 2011
Tomater

Meat or fruit and vegetables? It makes a difference in climate accounting. And men and women have different consumer patterns - and thus affect the climate differently.

Photographer
Sigurður Ólafsson/norden.org

Your gender is influential on your impact on the climate. There is a particularly large difference between men and women's consumption, in relation to their transport patterns and eating habits.

This emerged at a mini-conference on the climate and gender held in conjunction with the Nordic sustainability conference "Solutions" in Turku, hosted by the Nordic Council of Ministers.

"The Nordic gender equality programme is a global model and the Nordic region is now also the foremost advocate for more gender mainstreaming in the UN's climate negotiations", said Finland's representative at the meeting, the head of the Nordic Secretariat, Bo Lindroos, in his opening speech at the seminar.

"We create change through our daily choices, and there is a difference between how men and women behave.

Finland has just taken over the Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers, and the climate is integrated into all aspects of the Programme for the Presidency 2011.

The seminar showed an extension of this, that climate problems are far-reaching - even in ways that most people do not expect.

"We create change through our daily choices, and there is a difference between how men and women behave. We affect the climate differently and therefore it is important to think about the climate and gender together", said Åland's Premier, Viveka Eriksson, in her opening speech.

Briefly, men eat more meat and drive longer distances by car. Women eat more fruit and vegetables and use public transport locally to a greater extent.

Altogether a number of calculations show that men have a 22% greater impact on the climate than women, measured in kilos of CO2.

The discussion also covered food and sustainability in more general terms. Several of the participants mentioned New Nordic Food which meets a number of the criteria for sustainability:

  • locally produced, organic, large use of fruit, vegetables and berries, and in general great focus on health and the environment.

The Nordic Council of Ministers is taking part in the UN gender equality conference in New York in February, with a focus on the climate and gender, as well as a presentation of New Nordic Food - which obviously, bearing in mind the conclusions from the seminar at the Nordic sustainability conference, is distinguished by a number of female characteristics.

Contacts

Michael Funch
Phone +45 33960332
Email mifu@norden.org

Related content
  • The gender perspective in the new climate agreement (News Item)

    The gender perspective should be included in the new global climate agreement. Women are more affected by climate change and, therefore, it is particularly important for women to take part in the decision-making process in climate issues at all levels.
  • Gender equality & climate change (Article)

    Climate change is hitting the women of the South and the men of the North hard. The death toll in the wake of the Asian tsunami of 2004 consisted of 70–80% women, while melting ice in the Arctic is endangering the traditional livelihood of male hunters. Women and men have different CO2 footprints, they are affected by the climate in different ways and their impact on the climate varies. With this in mind the Nordic Region made it a top priority to put the gender perspective on the international climate agenda in 2009.
  • Gender equality boosts climate efforts (News Item)

    Men and women influence the climate differently because they have different behaviours in their daily life. Nordic experts will give their recommendations on how gender equality can be integrated into the climate efforts at a conference.

  • Videoer om køn og klima