This year is expected to be the hottest on record. Unless drastic and immediate action is taken, the United Nations’ latest estimates suggest that by the end of this century, temperatures will rise by up to 3.1 degrees Celsius, pushing humanity towards an increasingly uninhabitable planet. Solving the climate crisis requires urgent global cooperation.
But the annual World Climate Conference (called the Conference of the Parties, or COP), held in November in the oil-rich Azerbaijan, maintained the status quo at best. The current economic system that underpins that status quo is rooted in the extraction of natural resources and the exploitation of cheap and unpaid labor, often carried out by women and marginalized communities. This system thus drives the climate crisis while perpetuating inequalities based on gender, race, and class. It prioritizes the interests of corporations, governments, and elites in positions of power and wealth, while destroying the natural environment on which poor and marginalized people most depend.
Another tack is required to move the needle. As UN gender equality researchers, we see growing evidence that women, girls and gender diverse people are bearing the brunt of climate change. And that begs the question: What if we approached climate from a feminist perspective?
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Feminism provides an analysis of how inequality structures our world, thereby driving the climate crisis and other global concerns. We believe this provides a vision of a better climate future and a practical approach to moving towards it. That healthy future involves not just ending our fossil fuel-based economy (although that is urgent and necessary), but a more fundamental transformation of our economic and political systems.
Women around the world have unequal access to economic resources such as jobs, bank accounts, land, and technology. This means that when weather patterns change and infrastructure and public services are disrupted, our ability to adapt, recover and rebuild is reduced. As a result, their livelihoods and economic security are particularly at risk. In a worst-case scenario, climate change will push up to 158 million more women and girls into poverty around the world by 2050, and an additional 236 million women and girls will be left without access to food, according to new research from UN Women. You may experience anxiety. In addition to income poverty, women and girls face increasing poverty over time. As access to water, fuel and nutritious food becomes more difficult, and as families’ medical needs increase, women and girls have to spend more time doing unpaid care work. This reduces the amount of time they have to do paid work, go to school, and take care of themselves.
The toxic combination of time and income poverty has far-reaching long-term effects. For example, reductions in child marriage rates have been slow for years, but communities are exposed to environmental stress because families are economically disadvantaged and see early marriage as a form of safety for their daughters. This practice is on the rise again. In drought-prone areas, girls are more likely to drop out of school because families cannot pay school fees and require girls to help with household chores, reducing their life chances. hindered.
Feminist climate justice approaches seek to address the interconnected challenges of climate change, gender inequality, and social injustice. This means that women and girls who are poor, from ‘lower’ castes or marginalized ethnic groups, or who have disabilities are the most affected by disasters and environmental degradation, and the knowledge to cope with them is essential. It is based on the perception that their contributions and contributions are consistently ignored. A feminist climate justice approach elevates their voices and values their contributions to understanding the climate crisis and charting a new way forward. For example, indigenous and local community women have used their traditional knowledge of tree species to lead Colombia’s sustainable forestry efforts. In Bangladesh, during extreme flooding, women relied on traditional rural cooking methods to provide food to remote affected areas.
We need to move away from an economy based on extraction and pollution to one based on regeneration and caring for each other and the environment. These new systems will prioritize the well-being of people and planet over profit and elite power, enabling a more sustainable, resilient, inclusive and just future. This feminist vision is based on thinking from a diversity of cultural backgrounds and a growing interest in the ‘economy of welfare’. For example, the Buen Vivir (living well) paradigm that underpins Bolivia and Ecuador’s development strategies is inspired by indigenous knowledge and values that promote harmonious relationships between humans and nature. Meanwhile, Canada is focusing on improving key areas of life, including health, social belonging, environmental quality, prosperity and public trust to help build resilience from COVID-19. A quality of life strategy was introduced.
As detailed in our report Feminist climate justice: A framework for action, Moving towards this vision requires action centered around four pillars.
First, we must recognize women’s rights, work and knowledge. For climate change policies to be effective, they need to take into account the expertise women, including indigenous and rural women, bring on issues such as ecosystem protection and environmentally sustainable agriculture. This is essential to avoid problems of maladaptation, where well-intentioned adaptation projects fail or cause more harm than good.
We must redistribute resources away from male-dominated and environmentally harmful economic activities to ones that prioritize women’s employment, regeneration, and consideration for both people and ecosystems. The idea of a just transition, which has gained attention on climate change, goes beyond providing new jobs for men laid off from the fossil fuel industry and addresses the long-standing economic disadvantages faced by women and other marginalized groups. need to be addressed. Significant inequalities in land ownership, labor force participation, and access to education, training, and technology. and inadequate or absent social protection.
We must ensure that diverse women’s voices are represented in environmental decision-making, whether in social movements, ministries of the environment or COP delegations. In civil society, women who organize collectively within and across movements have the ability to be heard and have their voices heard without being threatened, harassed, or even killed for their work. You have the right to see your interests reflected. It is therefore also essential to end impunity for violence against human rights and environmental rights defenders.
And we must recognize that the Global North bears the greatest responsibility for past emissions and ensure that we remediate the effects of environmental degradation and do not repeat those harms. yeah. Wealthy countries need to build on longstanding commitments to climate finance and ensure funding reaches grassroots women’s organizations on the front lines of this crisis. As campaigners shouted at COP28, “Make polluters pay in billions, not millions.” Taxing and regulating the companies that cause climate change in developing countries is necessary as part of reparations.
As important as the “what” of feminist climate justice, the “how” is equally important. The wide gulf between calls for bold climate action and slow government responses raises urgent questions about how to ensure accountability. Given the current tensions and conflicts between nations, the fact that governments come together every year to negotiate climate change is an achievement that cannot be ignored. But it still feels like a million miles away from where we should be. The role of social movements such as feminists, environmentalists, indigenous groups and youth will be critical, working with UN allies, governments and progressive businesses to demand faster, more radical action. Our hope is that a feminist climate justice framework will help integrate a shared understanding of the urgency and direction of action needed across these four pillars to demand a more sustainable future. That’s it.
This is an opinion and analysis article and the views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of the author. scientific american.
Laura Tarkett She is Deputy Director of Research and Data at UN Women. Bluesky lauraturquet.bsky.socialand Follow Tarquet on LinkedIn
Silke Staab She is a senior research specialist at UN Women. Follow her on LinkedIn at Bluesky @silkestaab.bsky.social
brianna howell I am a research analyst at UN Women. Follow her on LinkedIn
