Extreme Heat, Health, and Human Rights: Protecting Sexual and Reproductive

This panel will bring together public health leaders, climate justice advocates, and women’s rights and reproductive health experts to explore how climate change is reshaping sexual and reproductive health and rights – and what we can do about it.

Emerging evidence links extreme heat, flooding, air pollution, displacement, and other climate impacts to a wide range of reproductive health challenges – including changes in fertility rates and preferences, severe maternal health complications, increased risk of stillbirth and preterm birth, reduced access to pregnancy health services, and breastfeeding difficulties – all of which have serious implications for future generations. Yet sexual and reproductive health remains underrepresented in climate policy frameworks and discussions.

This session will highlight recent research on the impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations in low-resource settings across South Asia and Africa. The discussion will draw on findings from Climate Rights International, Human Rights Watch, and other organizations working in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone to inform strategies for increasing investment in understanding and addressing the impacts of climate change on sexual and reproductive health and rights – and for building pathways for the implementation of evidence-based interventions.

Panelists will also explore how governments, funders, philanthropies, and NGOs can better align priorities to leverage climate adaptation frameworks and strategies for improved sexual and reproductive health outcomes.

Panelists: 

• Medha Gandhi, Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Specialist
• Skye Wheeler, Senior Researcher, Women’s Rights Division, Human Rights Watch

Moderator: Cara Schulte, Researcher, Climate Rights International & Doctoral Candidate, Global Environmental Health Solutions Lab, UC Berkeley

Host or Publisher Climate Rights International