By Mumbi K.
The latest IPCC report reminds us that the window for action is not yet closed, but is narrowing quickly. We still have a chance to prevent climate devastation.
The weight of the multiple interconnected global crises has just become heavier as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shared its latest report – and things are not looking good.
The fundamental points are not new. Scientists have been warning us for decades that climate change is happening now and that, if changes are not made quickly, all hope for a habitable planet will be lost. From March 14–25, feminist activists and civil society attended the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) and demanded that decision-makers course correct in order to achieve transformative systemic changes that protect human rights and promote environmental justice.
"[The] CSW [session] is not happening in a vacuum," said Emilia Reyes, the Program Director at the Mexican organization Equidad de Género: Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia [Gender Equality: Citizenship, Work and Family] and a contributing author to the IPCC report. "To ignore the grave and multiple crises [that] we, and the ecosystems we are part of, face would be a significant failure. It is of the utmost importance that, at CSW66, governments include a definition of climate and environmental justice with a feminist lens to really deliver on their mandate this year." "Without this, any commitments and progress on structural issues, gender equality, women's human rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, ending gender-based violence, and reducing inequalities would amount to rhetoric and be rendered redundant, further solidifying the failures we saw at COP26."
“The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, a co-chair of the working group producing this report. It is evident that the erosion of a livable planet is not only here, but has been present for many years. In the late 80s, when the first report was published, the effects of climate change were evident but the devastation felt like something that would occur in the distant future. Today, a significant number of people have spent their entire lives living in a state of climate emergency.
The IPCC report, which has been previously criticized for sticking to cold scientific language, also touches on global inequalities that worsen the climate crisis and notes the need for systemic transformation: “gender and climate justice will be achieved when the root causes of global and structural issues are addressed, challenging unethical and unacceptable use of power for the benefit of the powerful and elites.”
Climate and gender
Women and girls continue to be disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis, but if resources and power were to be directed towards them, the results could be transformative. According to the IPCC report, half of the planet is already being severely impacted by climate change, with women and girls from the Global South bearing the worst of its effects. Women make up 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people living beneath the breadline and are generally more dependent on natural resources that are currently at risk. On the global stage, women are still not properly represented: only five of the 26 climate negotiation summits that have taken place so far have been led by women. At last year’s negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland, only a third of formal positions were held by female government delegates.
The historical responsibility of the Global North
Feminist activists, particularly from the Global South, have been calling for restorative climate financing for developing nations, with wealthy nations taking responsibility for their disproportionately high contribution to the climate crisis and providing finance for frontline communities that are already suffering. “The reality of loss and damage, as reported by the IPCC, is not new. Women in our communities have always had clear evidence of this, and it is now backed by science,” said Wanun Permpibul, Executive Director of Climate Watch Thailand. “Governments need to address loss and damage and provide communities with dedicated and direct access to the funding as it is a matter of life and death for those on the frontlines of the war against the climate crisis.”
Indigenous communities and climate
The report recognizes that securing the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, livestock herders and farmers promotes a more sustainable approach to farming and forestry, protects habitats and enables people to lead environmentally friendly lives off their land. The IPCC report stresses that we have a closing window to act and that exceeding a 1.5ºC rise in global temperatures will create irreversible damage. Safeguarding the natural world and those who live in harmony with it is one of our best approaches to recovery. Reyes said it was important to find ways to engage with indigenous communities and to understand how those communities would like their knowledge to be shared.
The latest IPCC report reminds us that the window for action is not yet closed, but is narrowing quickly. We still have a chance to prevent climate devastation. By accelerating emission cuts, halting deforestation and addressing the interrelated inequalities and human rights violations that exacerbate climate change, can we prevent the worst-case scenario. As Pörtner said, “any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future”.
(Photo by Matt Palmer)