Reducing gender inequalities in education helps mitigate climate change

Abstract

Promoting gender equality in education is a telling means of realizing the sustainable development goals (SDGs) aiming at gender equality and women's empowerment. Gender inequalities in education persist, exacerbated by climate change, which in turn affects efforts to combat climate change. However, researchers to date have stopped short of examining the extent to which the efforts to narrow gender inequality in education can affect carbon emissions. This paper aims to examine the correlation, impact mechanisms and heterogeneity between gender inequality in education and carbon emissions, based on continuous data covering the global scale over a long-time span. Here, we show that narrowing educational gender inequalities, especially in post-primary education, might contribute to mitigating climate change. Reducing gender inequalities in education is a feasible solution for developing countries to address climate concerns. The analyses indicate potential social means of tackling climate issues, and provide country-varying and education level-specific information for policymakers to take targeted actions to achieve further mitigation outcomes.