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We need a strong, ambitious, comprehensive outcome to this year’s U.N. Commission on the Status of Women that centers the experiences of women, girls and nonbinary people on the frontlines of climate change.
Global feminists and environmental activists are constantly being inspired by the work of feminists and environmentalists. Expressions of disappointment in the failure of the U.N. system to stop climate change—or acknowledge it as a human rights or gender equality issue.
Yet, the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) wraps up this week, there may be a chance to address the failures of the U.N. climate change negotiations through the lens of women’s human rights.
This year, CSW—the U.N.’s foremost arena for gender equality—will for the first time prioritize as its key theme the interlinkages between gender equality and climate change, environment and disaster risk reduction. In light of the newly released IPCC report about the deadly consequences climate inaction, governments should use this opportunity to make more ambitious commitments—toward progress on both gender and climate justice.
This will be no easy task. Several of the most pressing climate issues—ending global reliance on fossil fuels, compensation for loss and damages caused by climate change, and commitments to additional climate finance—are some of the most difficult areas for governments to agree on in multilateral spaces. Many countries who are considered strong allies in terms of human rights, gender equality, and climate finance are reluctant to make progressive climate commitments.
Women and frontline communities, despite being often overlooked in environmental planning or decision-making, have the knowledge and skills to protect nature and care about their communities in times of environmental crisis.
For example, just a few weeks back, the The U.S. led the attempt to strip language on “losses and damages” from the IPCC report, which would essentially block those most in need from getting help. And, these talks are being carried out in a context of ever-shrinking civil society space, where the COVID-19 pandemic has been weaponized to further prevent access to these types of negotiations.
CSW, despite all these obstacles, can still offer an opportunity to achieve a negotiated solution that lays the foundation for future action at this intersection. It is more ambitious, inclusive, and progressive.
A lot of the task we have at hand is making clear why climate and environmental issues are issues of gender justice, and why it’s not possible to divorce them. Women, girls and gender-expansive people—especially those who are people of color, who are Indigenous, or who live in least-developed countries—are disproportionately affected by climate, environment and disasters.
Women and frontline communities, despite being often excluded from environmental planning and decision making, have the knowledge and expertise necessary to protect nature and care about their communities in times of environmental crisis. A powerful first step would be to use the U.N. as a means of ensuring they have the resources and recognition that they deserve.
This requires governments to be open to making real compromises to advance human right and gender equality. It also requires that gender negotiators as well as global feminist movements active at CSW increase their understanding of the gendered aspects of the climate crisis. We must advocate for the inclusion language on sexual and reproduction rights and justice for those who are discriminated on the basis or gender identity, sexual orientation, and/or sexual characteristics.
At the same time, we must push global North governments like the European Union, United Kingdom and the United States who espouse those rights in U.N. fora to commit to redressing their historical trajectory of pollution and extraction by explicitly recognizing the need to redress both economic and non-economic impacts of climate-related disasters—referred to as “loss and damage” in the climate negotiations.
It is equally important to stop the emission of greenhouse gases that cause loss and damage. Rather than continuing to uphold the narrative of “net zero” and “False solutions,” CSW must express the need for ecosystem-based approaches grounded in the leadership of Indigenous and other frontline communities. We need to keep our focus on real, macro-level solutions instead of colonialist attempts to “offset”—rather than stop—the continuous and destructive burning of fossil fuels.
Rather than continuing to uphold the narrative of “net zero” and “false solutions,” CSW must express the need for ecosystem-based approaches grounded in the leadership of Indigenous and other frontline communities.
As feminists working on climate and environmental justice, we know that the rights of some can’t come at the expense of others—that justice for some, as we’ve heard during the first days of CSW, is justice for none.
We need a strong, ambitious, comprehensive outcome to this year’s CSW that centers the experiences of women, girls and nonbinary people on the frontlines of climate change—one that does not put their rights to bodily autonomy and a safe environment in opposition, but recognizes that fulfilling both is crucial to a just and sustainable future.
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