A recent study published on October 2 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate, led by Jenevieve Mannell from University College London, reveals a connection between climate change-related landslides, storms, and floods and incidents of intimate partner violence against women, with effects observable two years later.
Countries with low to middle incomes are more severely affected by both the immediate (like flooding) and long-term (such as rising sea levels) consequences of climate change. When nations experience climate-induced disasters, they often see a rise in intimate partner violence against women, perhaps because such events highlight existing economic inequalities based on gender.
Mannell and her team evaluated data from 363 nationally representative surveys spanning 156 countries to determine the rate of intimate partner violence, defined as physical or sexual harm against a woman by her partner in the previous year. Each survey reflected data for a particular year from 1993 to 2019, with most countries providing data for five years or fewer.
The team compared this information with climate shock data from the Emergency Events Database, focusing on eight climate change-related incidents: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, extreme temperatures, droughts, floods, storms, and wildfires.
They found a delayed connection between hydro-meteorological climate events like landslides, storms, and floods and the occurrence of intimate partner violence, noticeable two years after these climate incidents.
Interestingly, the impact of climate events on intimate partner violence showed a similarity in magnitude to economic factors such as GDP, suggesting that “the association … may be similar to economic drivers of violence.” Generally, countries with higher GDPs report lower rates of intimate partner violence.
These findings have significant implications for crafting future environmental policies aimed at lessening the social and health effects of climate change, and they emphasize the need to consider the serious effects of climate-related intimate partner violence on women.
The researchers advocate for further exploration into the various forms of intimate partner violence in relation to climate events, along with the short- and long-term impacts, and the differences across different countries and regions.
The authors emphasize: “Understanding how climate change influences intimate partner violence is essential, and nations can tackle this issue by integrating it into their Nationally Defined Contributions (NDCs) in alignment with The Paris Agreement.”
