The climate crisis is one of the greatest global challenges of the 21st century. The detrimental effects of climate change can be felt in the short term through natural hazards and in the long term through the gradual degradation of the environment. Research shows that the effects of climate change are felt in many areas, including agriculture and food security, water resources, human health, migration patterns, transport, and industry, among others. Therefore, vulnerability to climate change can be defined as ‘the degree of exposure of people, geophysical and socioeconomic systems to adverse climate change as well as the extent to which people can respond to problems associated with climate change.’1 Vulnerability to climate change comprises three fundamental areas: the rate of exposure, the degree of sensitive capability, and the degree of adaptive capacity.

This research brief finds that among the most pressing environmental problems facing Jordan is water scarcity, a crisis that is aggravated by climate change. In addition, evidence from around the world shows how climate-induced events and impacts such as droughts, floods and changes in temperatures can lead to gender-based violence, including harassment, intimate partner violence, child marriage and transactional sex. In previous research, UNFPA used the Ecological Model to understand factors that increase the vulnerability of women and girls to climate change. Those factors include broad ones such as poverty, economic and social inequalities and gender discrimination at the societal level and more micro-level ones such as low levels of education, lack of access to income and high dependence on natural resources at the individual level.