Spotlight Initiative

The UN Spotlight Initiative’s latest report really highlights a deeply troubling connection: climate change is not just an environmental crisis — it’s a human rights crisis too.

Main Findings:

• Climate change is fuelling a rise in violence against women and girls globally.
• For every 1°C increase in temperature, incidents of intimate partner violence (IPV) rise by about 4.7%.
• If global temperatures rise by 2°C, about 40 million more women and girls could face IPV annually by 2090.
• In a 3.5°C warming scenario, this number more than doubles — a catastrophic outcome for global safety and wellbeing.

The Bigger Picture:

• Gender-based violence is already termed a “global epidemic”: more than 1 billion women (about one in three worldwide) have experienced abuse.
• The report calls this expanding violence a “shadow pandemic”, worsening silently alongside climate change.

Spotlight Initiative:

• A UN–EU partnership working to eliminate violence against women and girls worldwide.
• Describes this ongoing abuse crisis as a “shadow pandemic.”