Climate Risks and Gender Inequality Demand Coordinated UN Action for Peace: SIPRI Report
SDG 5: Gender Equality | SDG 13: Climate Action | SDG 16: Peace, Justice & Institutions
Institutions: Ministry of Women & Child Development | Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change
The newly published Climate, Peace and Security: Women, Peace and Security Fact Sheet (October 2025) by SIPRI / NUPI underscores that climate-related security risks are not gender-neutral, and existing gender inequalities exacerbate vulnerability in conflict-prone contexts.
Climate risks interact with existing social, political, and economic inequalities to worsen exposure and limit adaptive capacity for women and marginalized groups. Climate stressors and shocks deepen these inequalities, leading to increased food insecurity, displacement, and gender-based violence, especially in conflict-affected areas. The report highlights that discriminatory laws, unpaid care burdens, and exclusion from leadership limit women’s resilience. However, women are also key leaders in climate adaptation and peacebuilding, innovating locally grounded solutions. The report finds that while the United Nations recognizes these links (e.g., in the UN Mission in South Sudan’s mandate), gender is inconsistently addressed in climate policies, and climate risks are largely absent from Women, Peace and Security (WPS) frameworks. This gap necessitates more coordinated, intersectional approaches across both agendas.
This analysis underscores the institutional failure to bridge the WPS and climate security agendas, demanding immediate policy harmonization by international bodies to dismantle structural barriers that prevent women from realizing their full potential as central actors in conflict management and climate resilience efforts.
What are SIPRI and NUPI? → The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is an independent institute based in Sweden, established in 1966 by the Swedish Parliament. It conducts research on conflict, armaments, arms control, and peacebuilding, and is a leading knowledge partner for the UN and global security institutions.
The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), founded in 1959, is a government-affiliated research institute that provides policy analysis on foreign policy, development, and global governance. Together, SIPRI and NUPI collaborate on the Climate, Peace and Security Fact Sheet series with the UN Climate Security Mechanism, producing evidence-based insights to guide multilateral and UN Security Council policymaking.
What is the Women, Peace & Security (WPS) / Climate–Peace Nexus? → The WPS agenda emphasizes women’s inclusion in conflict prevention, peace processes, and post-conflict recovery. When combined with climate-security analysis, it means designing policies where women’s voices, vulnerabilities, and leadership are central in navigating climate-driven conflicts.
Follow the full report here: Climate, Peace and Security Thematic Fact Sheet: Women, Peace and Security (October 2025)