A/HRC/31/51 percent, and, if mothers were the main decision-makers over household income this decrease amounted to 60 percent. 63 55. In the absence of additional support for care work at home, women dependents – children and the elderly – may be further disadvantaged by women working outside the home to earn an income. Daughters, for example, may dropped off from school to fill the care gap. Clearly, this speaks to the discrimination of women in participation in the labour market, if care work remains the main or sole responsibility of women. V. Ecological Barriers - Climate Change 56. Climate change is one of the foremost contemporary threats to food security. The agriculture sector is under substantial stress from climate change-induced increases in temperature, variability in rainfall and extreme weather events that trigger crop failures, pests and disease outbreaks, as well as the degradation of land and water resources. 64 57. It is widely acknowledged that climate change impacts are not gender-neutral. As already marginalized individuals in virtually every society, women face discrimination and are subject to human rights abuses at a disproportionate rate, further accelerated by climate change. 58. Women have multiple responsibilities as heads of households, caregivers, and subsistence farmers, and balancing these roles is increasingly challenging in the face of climate change. Women also participate in a wide range of activities that support sustainable agricultural development, such as soil and water conservation, agro-ecology, afforestation and crop domestication and are vital to adaptation and mitigation policies. 59. The successful implementation of climate change policies and projects requires an understanding of the gender-based roles and relationships vis-à-vis natural resources, as well as the gender-differentiated impacts of climate change. The Beijing Declaration in 1995 was the first international declaration to recognize the links between gender equality and climate change. It took a long time for international climate change policy makers to address gender dimensions of climate change. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process referred to gender considerations only in “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation” (REDD+) and response measures, with the latter only referring to women as a “vulnerable group”. In recent years, progress has been made in integrating gender equality in the COP decisions. It remains uncertain how the gender perspective to climate change policies will be acknowledged in the upcoming document of the climate change agreement. 60. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development also acknowledges the critical importance of advancing gender equality and empowering women and girls to realize sustainable development. Many of the climate-related SDGs include gender-specific targets, including those related to ownership and control over land and access to new technology (SDG1), women small-scale food producers (SDG2), and water and sanitation (SDG6). These goals provide a mandate for advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment across all areas of climate change action. 63 64 14 Schmeer KK, Piperata BA, Rodríguez AH, Torres VMS, Cárdenas FJC 2015. Maternal resources and household food security: evidence from Nicaragua. Public Health Nutrition 18(16): 1-10, doi:10.1017/S1368980014003000. See Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food to the General Assembly, July 2014, A/70/Slot 36200