How Women Are Turning the Tide for Climate Justice

“Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow” is the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day. The upcoming Commission on the Status of Women, the biggest annual UN convening on women’s rights, also focuses on climate change. This is no coincidence. Women have long been calling for attention to the disproportionate impacts they are facing from climate change and environmental degradation. The IPCC report published last week showed just how immense the impacts are. Not just in the future, but already today, and they are not shared equally.

The inequalities of today's world are heavily reflected in - and compounded by - the climate crisis. Historical injustices and unequal opportunities and power are visible in emissions (Global North, rich, men) and impact (Global South, poor, women, Indigenous and marginalized communities). They are visible in the lack of action on the side of those with the most responsibility and resources to invest in mitigation, adaptation and compensation for climate-induced loss and damage. Climate finance commitments to the Global South have not been delivered and the money that does get disbursed seldomly ends up with the women and communities most affected.

However, women, from smallholder farmers in rural Africa to Indigenous women in the Amazon, have been custodians of the forests, of their lands and biodiversity. Women are more likely to depend on the environment for their livelihoods and have long been building sustainable solutions such as agroecology. It is only right they are calling for gender-just financing. Women have also been clear in their call for a seat at the table, as decision-making is still heavily skewed to (white, Global North) men. The contrast between those inside the negotiations at COP26 and those in the streets of Glasgow could not be bigger. Even when women are not at the table they are leading the fight against climate change – and, more importantly, for climate justice.

We had the honour to speak to some of these women for the second series of the People vs Inequality podcast. We wanted to answer the following question; how can we get urgent climate action that is also just, in which all voices are heard and which reduces, rather than increases, inequality? So how ARE women turning the tide for climate justice? We found three things to stand out across the stories of six of the most effective climate activists of today.

1. Women Nurture Care for Nature and People

It struck us how all our guests were inspired to work for climate justice because of their strong connection to nature which had been fostered from their early years. They also all emphasised the importance of building trust and relationships. Youth activist Elizabeth Wathuti decided to follow in the footsteps of her hero Nobel Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai. Growing up in Nyeri County, the most forested part of Kenya, and seeing both the beauty and destruction of nature first-hand, she turned anger and love into action. She is spearheading a tree growing campaign to get every child in every school in the country to plant and adopt a tree to maturity in their school compounds. This daily reminder and practical approach helps nurture care and leadership for their environment.

"If we are serious about tackling the climate crisis we need to start listening and feel the pain of those suffering the consequences already today," Elizabeth said when we interviewed her. She has taken this message to the global stage, courageously calling on global world leaders to open their hearts, truly listen and take immediate action at COP26 in Glasgow. Elisabeth also demonstrates the power of compassion and humanising the climate crisis by explicitly talking about the ravaging drought and its effects in parts of Kenya where women have to walk long distances to find food and water for their families. And by combining this with concrete action on the ground, she shows what leadership truly means.

2. Women are Strategic and Inclusive in Their Choice of Tactics

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz builds on a long history of organizing and movement building for the rights and recognition of Indigenous Peoples, from her home community of the Kankana-ey Igorot people to the global stage. She shows how to build inclusion by enhancing the capacities of women and their communities to advocate for their rights. Victoria cautions against greenwashing and false solutions that do not respect Indigenous Peoples practices or their right to consent before any actions in their territories. As a UN Special Rapporteur, she put the knowledge and solutions of Indigenous Peoples on the agenda and got important international agreements recognizing their rights. She emphasises how both resistance and dialogue are key to making change happen and that movements know very well how to combine these strategies - which shows from the many victories that have been won so far.

This also shows from the work of Tessa Khan, a leading environmental and human rights lawyer who has played an important role in winning landmark court cases, won the 2018 climate breakthrough award and recently set up a new NGO called Uplift. Tessa is using her experience in campaigning, advocacy and strategic litigation to support movement building for a just transition away from fossil fuels. “The best thing I can do for my family in Bangladesh is to campaign here in the UK to phase out fossil fuels,” she told us. Tessa believes that global north citizens have the privilege and responsibility to use their best skills to work towards fixing the climate crisis and to make sure everyone - from oil workers to migrant communities - is heard in the process.

3. Women Dare to be Bold and Look at History to Show The Way

Bolivian-Dutch artist and activist Chihiro Geuzenbroek highlights the historical injustices that led to both climate change and inequalities and calls on everyone to acknowledge and address these as they work for climate justice. She also reminds us of how big historical changes have been the result of people mobilizing at a massive scale, using arts and music, and not being afraid to disrupt. From women’s suffrage to the civil rights movements: citizen direct action played an important part and this is increasingly recognized in the climate movement. “Civil disobedience movements know that you need to make business as usual impossible for real political change to happen,” says Chihiro. Renowned environmental lawyer and climate negotiator Farhana Yamin also came to this conclusion when she “put her body on the line” by gluing herself to the Shell Headquarters as part of an Extinction Rebellion protest.

Tasneem Essop, the director of the influential Climate Action Network International, builds on her own experience in the anti-apartheid struggle. She is concerned that the callous response of global north actors in the face of crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and worsening climate change is starkly different from the global solidarity experienced during those times. She has made local organizing and deliberately directing resources to the global south key priorities for her network. She calls on all of us to build back people power by standing united in the face of strong political and corporate interests.

The challenges ahead of us are big and may seem insurmountable at times. There is growing recognition that climate change is not just an environmental issue, but connects us in many ways, and requires addressing inequalities at all fronts. Women’s rights are at the core of that. Gender equality and climate justice are two sides of the same coin, which presents us with a massive opportunity to build inclusive movements and address both issues at their core. The stories of these women show that clearly. They all emphasised ‘we need everyone in on this’. When we asked Tessa what gives her hope she said: “Acting is what generates hope. And believing in the fight because we have no choice. There is lots to do!”

The People vs Inequality Podcast is a production by Barbara van Paassen (creator and host) and Elizabeth Maina (producer). The climate justice series of this podcast is supported by the Guerrilla Foundation. Previous support came from the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity and the International Inequalities Institute, at the London School of Economics.

The views expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme, the International Inequalities Institute, or the London School of Economics and Political Science.