Gender and Climate Justice

Abstract

Ana Agostino and Rosa Lizarde explore the concept of climate justice as a rights approach to climate change. They propose that those in the South who are most affected by environmental changes need to receive justice from those in the North who are most responsible for climate change. They apply a gender lens to climate change, analyzing how women have been specifically hit by the phenomenon and how they are responding.

Critical climate justice

“…Women have been at the forefront of climate justice movements (Terry, 2009). They have raised awareness of the importance of paying attention to the differential gendered burdens and harms worldwide (Agostino & Lizarde, 2012; Cochrane, 2014). Increased intersectional gendered marginalisation, inequality, and vulnerability results from climate change (Kaijser & Kronsell, 2014; MacGregor, 2010; Osborne, 2015; Sultana, 2014).…”

Ecofeminism and climate change

“…This report established "sustainable development" as a desirable strategy, defined as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"-which sounds reasonable enough, until one reads the document's renewed call for continued economic growth on a finite planet, a fundamentally unsustainable endeavor. The report completely omits discussion of the First World/North's 2 over-development and its high levels of production, consumption, and disregard for the environment (Agostino & Lizarde, 2012). Nonetheless, the Brundtland Report's "sustainable development" concept has shaped climate change discourse for the subsequent decades, producing techno-solutions such as "the green economy" that have perpetuated capitalist and colonialist strategies of privatization, and fail to address root causes of the climate crisis (Pskowski, 2013).…”

Seeking Legal Protection for Environmental Refugees

“…From a human rights perspective, domestic law as well as international law should ensure the protection of groups of individuals considered more vulnerable to climate change (Agostino & Lizarde, 2012). Nevertheless, international law and its branches lack specific protection for climate refugees.…”