Sanna Marin, the world’s youngest woman prime minister, has a plan, and she’s got a team of women in place to help her execute it.

The 34-year-old Finland PM is working aggressively to show gender equality is essential to the fight against the climate crisis, not only in terms of those in power, but also for those most at risk of devastation imposed on them by climate change.

During a visit to Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum in March, Marin gave a detailed look inside her country’s plan to become carbon-neutral by 2035. But the crux of the matter is who becomes most harshly impacted if the world doesn’t find a climate solution.

“We need gender equality to fight climate change, and we need women in powerful positions to make [the] change that we need,” Marin said, later adding that to get the job done, everyone (not just women) needs to be involved. She then noted how the climate crisis disproportionately affects women and girls — particularly in less developed countries.

According to a study conducted by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in some of those underserved countries, women are typically responsible for collecting food, water, and fuel for cooking. But with more extreme weather events and dwindling resources, that task has become near-impossible, resulting in an increase of violence against women and forced prostitution.

Dr. Grethel Aguilar of IUCN said in the study that the “damage humanity is inflicting on nature can also fuel violence against women around the world – a link that has so far been largely overlooked.”

About 70% of the world’s poor are women, and their involvement in fighting climate change is difficult in some regions. “Restricted land rights, lack of access to financial resources, training and technology, and limited access to political decision-making spheres often prevent [women] from playing a full role in tackling climate change and other environmental challenges,” according to the IUCN.

A Progressive Past, A Progressive Future



Marin’s election victory in December 2019 made international headlines: She’d just become the youngest leader in the world at age 34 and would be leading a coalition government made up of five women all under the age of 40.

But even before she was elected, Finland was already significantly progressive in terms of gender: in 2018, the country ranked fourth in the world for the closest gender wage-gap. The country has also elected three women prime ministers over its 102-year existence, and it was the first country in Europe (and second in the world) to give women the right to vote and hold office.

But leading a country — even one with a modest population of over 5 million — at the age of 34 has inevitably brought up questions about her role in politics. Marin told NowThis that while her experience dealing with several other world leaders has been mostly positive, that hasn’t always been the case.

“I haven’t had a negative experience as a prime minister, but before when I have been in politics, of course I can see that there [is a] discriminatory atmosphere,” Marin told NowThis.

Although she mentioned the prejudice women leaders face in her own country, after she was elected, she had a positive showing in the polls — with two-thirds of citizens supporting their government with so many women in leading positions.

“We are showing the world that we can lead, and [that] we can also get people behind our policies and our leadership,” she said.

