Environment and Climate Change

The climate and inequality crises have the same root: an economic system that carelessly exploits for profit the earth’s resources and its people, especially women and marginalised groups. The same logic that sees this work as inexhaustible and a ‘natural’ function of being a woman, sees the earth itself as an infinite source of material, energy, food and water for consumption and profit, rather than a delicately balanced system that sustains all life. So, rewiring our economic system to care for people and planet is crucial.

Throughout the world, women and girls are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, which amplify and interact with existing gender inequalities. In the UK, as elsewhere, women face greater barriers to financial security and to be heads of single-parent households than men, which makes them disproportionately vulnerable to the costs of climate change. And yet, policies to prevent and cope with the impacts of climate change rarely consider the gendered nature of these impacts.

Together with WEN, the Women’s Environmental Network, we undertook a two-year project developing a Feminist Green New Deal for the UK, publishing the final report  in November 2022.

That report along with a video, seven policy papers, blogs and a key messages guide can all be found on the project page:

A GREEN AND CARING ECONOMY

On this topic page, you will also find our more recent work related to the environment and climate change and gender equality, which draw on the Feminist Green Deal: A Green and Caring Economy.