Climate change is expected to hit the world's poorest and most vulnerable first and hardest. That puts women, who the U.N. says make up 70 percent of the world's poorest, squarely in its path.

In many of the most vulnerable parts of the world, women are chiefly responsible for farming and for collecting water and firewood. Women and children also die at much higher rates than men in natural disasters, studies show.

If climate change brings more droughts, floods, severe storms and land degradation, as expected, the implications for women are obvious.

That's why policies now being created to deal with climate change need to focus strongly on threats to - and opportunities for - women, argue the United Nations Population Fund and the Women's Environment and Development Organization in a new resource kit on gender and climate change.

The information, aimed at policy makers and aid organizations, aims to provide data and guidance on incorporating gender issues into climate change adaptation plans, finance agreements and other policy.

"Women are sometimes seen only as victims of climate change and natural disasters, when in fact they are well positioned to be agents of change," the report argues. Incorporating their concerns into planning and policy "is crucial to ensuring that women contribute to and benefit from equitable climate solutions."

How will women be affected by climate change? Drought, flooding and increasing difficulty growing food in some regions means that women may be forced to spend more time bringing in needed water, fuel and food. That could result in fewer girls attending school, and earlier marriage as parents try to reduce the mouths they need to feed and as the households of potential husbands look for additional female labour.

Pregnant and lactating women and their young children are among the most vulnerable to a host of disease threats that are expected to expand their range as climate change takes hold.

And as the world's population rises toward 8 billion or more by 2050, with most of the growth in the world's poorest and most vulnerable regions, women are expected to have an increasingly hard time hanging onto land in the face of growing competition for it.

How can the threats be countered? Some solutions are simple. Girls, in many places, are not taught the survival skills - swimming, tree climbing - that save their brothers and fathers during tsumanis and other disasters, the report notes. A little practice might make a big difference.

Other threats will be more difficult to counter. But focusing policy and aid on some likely impacts coming down the road - fewer calories available to girls and women, threats to their land tenure, weaker access to medical care in disaster zones, more pressure to take girls out of school - could make a real difference, the report argues.

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