Gender and Climate Justice

The concept of climate justice emerged as a result of introducing a rights approach to the challenges posed by climate change. The first Climate Justice Summit took place in 2002 in parallel to the Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP-6) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in The Hague. Global networks, civil society, and grass-roots organizations present affirmed that ‘climate change is a rights issue. It affects our livelihoods, our health, our children and our natural resources’.1 The movement for climate justice has grown ever since introducing issues related to ethics, equity, and human rights into the climate change debate. The loosely associated networks that are calling for climate justice demand that strategies to redress the systemic crises of today’s development recognize the disproportionate burden on countries of the South as well as the historical responsibility of industrialized nations in the level of emissions that have contributed to the current problem of climate change. Climate justice aims at ‘building greater awareness amongst political leaders and the broader public about the interconnectedness of climate change with issues of development and social justice’. It aims to ensure that those who are most affected by environmental changes are genuine partners in all efforts and that the gender dimensions are fully recognized, taking into account the particular way in which women are affected by the phenomenon (McDonald, 2010).