Climate Change

Citation:

Löw, Christine. 2020. “Gender and Indigenous Concepts of Climate Protection: A Critical Revision of REDD+ Projects.” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 43 (April): 91–8.

Author: Christine Löw

Abstract:

Gender inequality and discrimination challenge the most important international climate regime mechanism on forests REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries) in achieving sustainable development and protecting forests. The backgrounding of a gender-specific perspective in REDD+ research is often justified from the premise that forests are an inherently male business and REDD+ is only a technical issue. Although millions of women, predominantly indigenous women, are involved in forest work and forestry their importance for natural resource management has been systematically devalued and invisibilized. This paper reviews the gender literature on climate change and REDD+-projects to elaborate on gender-specific subordination of women, with a closer attention to indigenous women, which hinder effective forest protection, fair resource allocation, gender equality and social justice. The paper integrates an autonomous model for climate change adaption lead by indigenous women, that documents not only the local climatic effects on agriculture and forests but develops responses beyond the top downmodel of REDD+. Through relying on knowledge from decades about territories, seasons, trees and cultural life systems indigenous women together with youth and community members were able to sustain food sovereignty in the context of climate change – and the broader goal of people led sustainable development.

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Indigenous, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Security, Food Security

Year: 2020

Citation:

Antwi, Sarpong Hammond. 2020. “The Trade-off between Gender, Energy and Climate Change in Africa: The Case of Niger Republic.” GeoJournal. doi:10.1007/s10708-020-10246-9.

Author: Sarpong Hammond Antwi

Abstract:

This article examines the role of gender in climate change adaptation and energy access in Africa. Drawing on the energy situation in Niger Republic, it argues that redressing gender concerns is critical to mitigating the impact of climate changes and energy poverty in the Sahelean country. A gender sensitivity analysis reveals that Niger is a take-off stage, a state of gender equity verified from the willingness of men to support women, as well as the entrepreneurial mindset of respondents coupled with supporting policies at both macro and micro levels. The study nonetheless recommends a more significant continental effort toward gender integration in energy planning processes. It also justifies the pursuance of alternative livelihood activities and an adjustment of policy frameworks towards universal energy access by 2030, as a means to breaking the vicious circle of limited income, increased vulnerability and narrowed opportunities that thwart gender equality and mainstreaming efforts in the country and across Africa.

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Gender Equity, Infrastructure, Energy, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Niger

Year: 2020

Citation:

Bell, Shannon Elizabeth, Cara Daggett, and Christine Labuski. 2020. “Toward Feminist Energy Systems: Why Adding Women and Solar Panels Is Not Enough.” Energy Research & Social Science 68 (October): 101557.

Authors: Shannon Elizabeth Bell, Cara Daggett, Christine Labuski

Abstract:

Growth in renewable energy does not displace fossil fuel use on a one-to-one basis, but rather increases the total amount of energy that is produced. As numerous scholars have argued, an energy transition away from – rather than in addition to – fossil fuels will require more than technology and financial capital. Here we argue that a feminist perspective on energy provides an important framework for understanding what keeps us stuck in unsustainable energy cultures, as well as a paradigm for designing truly just energy systems. Feminist approaches have been widely taken up in environmental and ecofeminist work, as well as in climate change research. In energy studies, however, gender-related research has tended to focus more narrowly on women's issues. Although this is crucial work, the focus on women represents just one dimension of what feminism can bring to the study of energy. Feminist theory also offers expertise in the study of power more broadly, which is widely applicable to the full spectrum of energy research. This article outlines a feminist energy research agenda that addresses many aspects of energy system design, planning, exchange, and use. We analyze energy along four intersecting coordinates: the political (democratic, decentralized and pluralist); economic (prioritizing human well-being and biodiversity over profit and unlimited growth); socio-ecological (preferring relationality over individualism); and technological (privileging distributed and decentralized fuel power and people power). In doing so, we show that feminism is well-suited for navigating the tangled web of power, profit, and technological innovation that comprises human fuel use.

Keywords: ecofeminism, just transition, energy democracy, fossil fuels, feminist energy, degrowth

Topics: Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Infrastructure, Energy

Year: 2020

Citation:

Mohideen, Reihana, Pankaj Batra, and Prabhjot Khan. 2020. “Low-Carbon Energy Transition in India: Implications for Gender Equality and Social Inclusion.” IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 39 (1): 76-84.

Authors: Reihana Mohideen, Pankaj Batra, Prabhjot Khan

Abstract:

The Government of India has undertaken the ambitious target of 175-GW installed capacity of renewable power by 2022 as part of its climate treaty commitments. This will amount to 37% of projected installed capacity, second to coal and lignite (45%) and more than hydropower (11%). It has also undertaken a program of universal electricity access to all through the scheme called "Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana" or "Saubhagya".

Keywords: government, employment, gender issues, wind power generation, biomass, capacity planning

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2020

Citation:

Lieu, Jenny, Alevgul H. Sorman, Oliver W. Johnson, Luis D. Virla, and Bernadette P. Resurrección. 2020. “Three Sides to Every Story: Gender Perspectives in Energy Transition Pathways in Canada, Kenya and Spain.” Energy Research & Social Science 68. doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101550

Authors: Jenny Lieu, Alevgul H. Sorman, Oliver W. Johnson, Luis D. Virla, Bernadette P. Resurrección

Abstract:

Transitions toward a low-carbon future are not only technical and economical, but also deeply social and gendered. The gendered nature of energy transitions is often implicit and unexplored. As a corrective, this paper explores energy pathways by applying concepts from innovations and gender studies. We examine gender perspectives and niche energy innovations which could disrupt the regime. The regime represents the mainstream pathway that includes the dominant gender perspective and energy system. We explore different gender perspectives of energy transition pathways by applying an Alternative Pathways framework that includes: (1)  on-stream pathways that exist within the mainstream pathway to promote equal opportunities for women and men, as well as niches for energy innovations without challenging the high-carbon energy regime; (2) off-stream pathways that depart from the mainstream and promote differences across different genders while creating niches outside the energy regime; and (3) transformative pathways that are fundamentally different from the previous mainstream and includes all gender perspectives in a new energy regime. Applying this framing, in Canada, we explored Indigenous perspectives in the oil sands sector; in Kenya, we studied largescale renewable energy impacting Indigneous communities; in Spain, we evaluate the movement away from fossil fuels and towards renewable technologies. The framework helped to identify that mainstream pathways represented the dominant male perspective while woman's perspective were largely left out. Such absence generate energy pathways that are disconnected from local realities, lack public buy-in and slow-down a sustainable energy transition.

Keywords: energy transition pathways, renewable energy, gender, women, intersectionality, Indigenous people

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Indigenous, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Africa, East Africa, Americas, North America, Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Canada, Kenya, Spain

Year: 2020

Citation:

Salleh, Ariel, ed. 2009. Eco-Sufficiency and Global Justice: Women Write Political Ecology. New York: Pluto Press.

Author: Ariel Salleh, ed.

Annotation:

Table of Contents:
1. The Devaluation of Women’s Labour
Silvia Federici

2. Who is the ‘He’ of He Who Decides in Economic Discourse?
Ewa Charkiewicz

3. The Diversity Matrix: Relationship and Complexity
Susan Hawthorne

4. Development for Some is Violence for Others
Nalini Nayak

5. Nuclearised Bodies and Militarised Space
Zohl de Ishtar

6. Women and Deliberative Water Management
Andrea Moraes and Ellie Perkins

7. Mainstreaming Trade and Millennium Development Goals?
Gig Francisco and Peggy Antrobus

8. Policy and the Measure of Woman
Marilyn Waring

9. Feminist Ecological Economics in Theory and Practice
Sabine U. O’Hara

10. Who Pays for Kyoto Protocol? Selling Oxygen and Selling Sex
Ana Isla

11. How Global Warming is Gendered
Meike Spitzner

12. Women and the Abuja Declaration for Energy Sovereignty
Leigh Brownhill and Terisa E. Turner

13. Ecofeminist Political Economy and the Politics of Money
Mary Mellor

14. Saving Women: Saving the Commons
Leo Podlashuc

15. From Eco-Sufficiency to Global Justice
Ariel Salleh

Topics: Development, Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Feminist Political Ecology, Feminist Political Economy, Globalization, Infrastructure, Energy, Water & Sanitation, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods

Year: 2009

Citation:

Ressureción, Bernadette P. 2017. “Gender and Environment from ‘Women, Environment, and Development’ to Feminist Political Ecology.” In Routledge Handbook of Gender and Environment, 71-84. Oxon: Routledge.

Author: Bernadette P. Ressureción

Annotation:

Summary:
“This chapter provides an overview of gender, environment, and development scholarship that explains how early ideas and debates that have shaped subsequent work. My aim is to demonstrate how this field has evolved over time and how it has now come to understand two of the most pressing challenges of this century: climate change and disaster risk. While there remains a number of different approaches to studying gender-environment connections, in the discussion that follows I focus on feminist political ecology (FPE). FPE has evolved as a loose platform of ideas that seeks to theorize differentiated forms of power and resource access primarily but not exclusively in developing county contexts. FPE grew out of a desire to foreground the political aspects of earlier frameworks, as well as to analyze the growing neoliberalization of nature in capitalist development processes. It draws on feminist poststructuralist theory in order to criticize the domination of techno-scientific solutions to environmental change that sidestep more holistic and grounded approaches. I argue that at a time when there is a dire need to address the exigent features of climate change and disaster policy discourses, FPE offers valuable insights into human-nature relations that can contribute to more grounded analyses and better solutions. Understanding how women and men, as embodied and emotional beings, have complex and shifting relationships to the natural world that are embedded in place and shaped by intersections of gender, race, class, caste, culture, age (and so on) is central to the search for environmental and social justice. An FPE lens provides tools for envisioning transformative changes that are much needed in these troubling times” (Resurrección 2017, 71).

Topics: Development, Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Gender Roles

Year: 2017

Citation:

Nyantaki-Frimpong, Hanson. 2019. “Visualizing Politics: A Feminist Political Ecology and Participatory GIS Approach to Understanding Smallholder Farming, Climate Change Vulnerability, and Seed Bank Failures in Northern Ghana.” Geoforum 105: 109-21.

Author: Hanson Nyantaki-Frimpong

Abstract:

Over the past three decades, seeds banks have emerged as a major strategy for building seed systems resilience to climate change. Often initiated and funded by non-governmental organizations, seeds banks have grown prolifically, but questions remain concerning their long-term sustainability. Despite their precipitous rise, and effectives during initial years, many seed banks cut back on activities or stop altogether once external NGO funding is withdrawn. This rise and fall of seed banks raise three questions worthy of examination: (1) What factors shape the sustainability of community seed banks? (2) Do community seed banks function as they are designed to be? (3) How well do seed banks target farmers based upon true underlying need? Drawing upon insights from feminist political ecology (FPE) and Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS), this paper examines these questions with data collected from drought-prone northern Ghana. The empirical research includes participant-observations; 144 in-depth interviews; participatory geospatial data analysis; gender-disaggregated data validation workshops; and analyses of seed bank inventory, lending, and payment records. Contrary to previous work emphasizing the role of climate variability and crop failure, this paper highlights the centrality of rural politics in the sustainability of seed banks. Specifically, the findings show that the lack of respect for indigenous knowledge, pseudo seed borrowing, and local elite capture, all work together to undermine the sustainability of seed banks. When seed banks do not meet farmers’ needs, the paper also demonstrates how farmers covertly resist such projects. Finally, the paper shows how through a repertoire of gender politics, village men undermine seed banks’ vision of ensuring equitable and democratic access to seeds. Overall, the paper contributes to existing research by demonstrating how FPE and PGIS could be used in parallel to permit a more rigorous testing of claims of village and gender politics on the ground.

Keywords: seed banks, smallholder agriculture, climate vulnerability, feminist political ecology, participatory GIS, Ghana

Topics: Agriculture, Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Indigenous, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, NGOs Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana

Year: 2019

Citation:

Basu, Soumita, Paul Kirby, and Laura Shepherd, eds. 2020. New Directions in Women, Peace and Security. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

Authors: Soumita Basu, Paul Kirby, Laura Shepherd

Annotation:

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Climate Change, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Law, International Organizations, Peace and Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, Weapons /Arms

Year: 2020

Citation:

Buechler, Stephanie, and Anne-Marie S. Hanson, eds. 2015. A Political Ecology of Women, Water and Global Environmental Change. New York: Routledge.

Authors: Stephanie Buechler, ed. , Anne-Marie S. Hanson, ed.

Annotation:

Anne-Marie Hanson and Stephanie Buechler

2. Interrogating Large-Scale Development and Inequality in Lesotho: Bridging Feminist Political Ecology, Intersectionality and Environmental Justice Frameworks
Yvonne Braun

3. The Silent (and Gendered) Violence: Understanding Water Access in Mining Areas
Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt

4. Urban Water Visibility in Los Angeles: Legibility and Access for All
Kathleen Kambic

5. Advances and Setbacks in Women’s Participation in Water Management in Brazil
Andrea Moraes

6. Climate-Water Challenges and Gendered Adaptation Strategies in Rayon, a Riparian Community in Sonora, Mexico
Stephanie Buechler

7. International Partnerships of Women for Sustainable Watershed Governance in Times of Climate Change
Patricia E. (Ellie) Perkins and Patricia Figuieredo Walker

8. Women’s Contributions to Climate Change Adaptation in Egypt’s Mubarak Resettlement Scheme through Cactus Cultivation and Adjusted Irrigation
Dina Najjar

9. Shoes in the Seaweed and Bottles on the Beach: Global Garbage and Women’s Oral Histories of Socio-Environmental Change in Coastal Yucatán
Anne-Marie Hanson

10. Heen Kas’ el’ti Zoo: Among the Ragged Lakes – Storytelling and Collaborative Water Research with Carcoss/Tagish First Nation (Yukon Territory, Canada)
Eleanor Hayman with Mark Wedge and Colleen James

11. Pamiri Women and the Melting Glaciers of Tajikistan: A Visual Knowledge Exchange for Improved Environmental Governance
Citt Williams and Ivan Golovnev

12. Conclusion: Advancing Disciplinary Scholarship on Gender, Water and Environmental Change through Feminist Political Ecology
Stephanie Buechler, Anne-Marie Hanson, Diana Liverman and Miriam Gay-Antaki

Topics: Agriculture, Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Women, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Intersectionality, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, MENA, Central Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, Americas, North America, South America, Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, South Asia Countries: Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Lesotho, Mexico

Year: 2015