The ecological transition must be socially just and feminist!
Report from a workshop on gender and climate justice in Paris
in May 2024, organized by Adéquations and WIDE Austria
Download: Workshop report as a pdf
- Why should action against the climate crisis tackle extractivism and consider gender issues?
- Does the transition towards renewable energy in the Global North lead to the destruction of the livelihoods of people in the Global South?
- How do we include gender issues in an intersectional way in climate policies?
- How can environmental organizations deal with gender equality issues internally?
These (and other) critical questions were discussed during a workshop on “Gender and Climate Justice”, held on May 22, 2024 in Paris at the feminist house Cité Audacieuse , organized by Adéquations in cooperation with WIDE Austria and the European WIDE+ network , with the support of the “Feminists for Alternatives on Climate and Environment” programme (FACE).
The event was attended by a wide range of around 50 representatives from different NGOs (feminist, international solidarity, environmental associations) and institutions. The participants discussed challenges related to a just and really sustainable transition from a feminist perspective.
The workshop was facilitated by Bénédicte Fiquet and Sarah Mantah (both Association Adéquations).
It was introduced by the organizers Yveline Nicolas for Adéquation and Claudia Thallmayer for WIDE Austria, who highlighted:
- the need to debate social and gender justice in relation to climate change,
- the necessity to include gender equality and intersectional issues in climate policies,
- the dilemma of how the energy transition is about to lead to new forms of neocolonial exploitation in the Global South, while ensuring decarbonisation in the Global North,
- the need to build common advocacy in relation to the issues that the speakers were about to bring up.
Emma Rainey (WIDE+) presented a freshly published WIDE+ briefing paper on gender and climate justice (produced within the COPGendered project, an Erasmus+ funded WIDE+ project). It contains different sections like a general introduction, including e.g. women as active agents in the context of climate change, chapters on gender and energy, climate justice and LGBTIQ, climate-induced forced migration, as well as on extractivism, and gender and mobility (transport). It is meant as a background resource for adult education but also for advocacy purposes for a gender-just transition.
Download: WIDE+ Briefing Papers on Gender and Climate Justice (in English)
Briefing papers in other languages: https://wideplus.org/copgendered-project/
Further speakers at the workshop were:
- Patricia Muñoz Cabrera (WIDE+)
- Elena Georgiadi (GenderCC/LIFE)
- Sara Mohamed (WIDE Austria)
- Aurélie Cerisot (CCFD-Terre Solidaire)
- Salma Lamqaddam (ActionAid France)
- Aminata Niakaté, co-rapporteur of the report by the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) 2023: „Gender inequality, climate crisis and ecological transition„
- Antoine Gatet (France Nature Environnement); co-rapporteur of the above mentioned CESE report
Numerous questions and contributions were received from the participants – lively discussions with new insights, inspiration, contacts, and proposals for future cooperation were some of the workshop results!
Continue and read the full workshop report (pdf)