Climate Change

Citation:

Kronsell, Annica. 2013. “Gender and Transition in Climate Governance.” Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 7: 1–15.

Author: Annica Kronsell

Abstract:

This article demonstrates how gender is relevant to governance of a transition to a low-carbon economy. It does this through insights derived from gender and transition studies in combination, applied and illustrated through a study of climate governance in Sweden. The approach is constructive and uses as central concepts: transition arenas, niches, regimes and landscapes in combination with theories from gender studies. The article suggests that the two fields are linked through three processes that are necessary to make a transition: to strengthen participation, to deal with oppressive power relations and to challenge institutionalized norms. It illustrates how masculine norms seem to permeate the landscape of climate transitions and argues that gender regimes tend to dictate planning, measures and implementation. Finally, the article proposes that a gender perspective on climate governance would analyze participation in transition arenas and niches by asking who is included in climate governance and what ideas influence climate policies.

Keywords: climate governance, equal respresentation, gender parity, gender regime, masculine norms, transition theories

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, Governance, Infrastructure Regions: Europe, Nordic states, Northern Europe Countries: Sweden

Year: 2013

Citation:

Räty, R., and A. Carlsson-Kanyama. 2010. “Energy Consumption by Gender in Some European Countries.” Energy Policy 38 (1): 646–9. 

Authors: R. Räty, A. Carlsson-Kanyama

Abstract:

Household total energy use has been estimated in numerous studies in recent decades and differences have mainly been explained by levels of income/expenditure. Studies of gender consumption patterns show that men eat more meat than women and drive longer distances, potentially leading to higher total energy use by men. In this study we calculated the total energy use for male and female consumption patterns in four European countries (Germany, Norway, Greece and Sweden) by studying single households. Significant differences in total energy use were found in two countries, Greece and Sweden. The largest differences found between men and women were for travel and eating out, alcohol and tobacco, where men used much more energy than women. We suggest that these findings are policy relevant for the EU, which aims to mainstream gender issues into all activities and to lower its total energy use.

Keywords: energy, gender, consumption

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Europe, Central Europe, Nordic states, Northern Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Germany, Greece, Norway, Sweden

Year: 2010

Citation:

Brault, Claire. 2017. “Feminist Imaginations in a Heated Climate: Parody, Idiocy, and Climatological Possibilities.” Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience 3 (2). doi: 10.28968/cftt.v3i2.28847.

Author: Claire Brault

Abstract:

This paper proposes to imagine an alternative climate scenario of our future. Through a parodic rewrite of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate scenarios, I challenge the rise of geoengineering technologies as a mitigation "solution" for the current ecological crisis. Showing that the IPCC is offering capitalocentric visions of ecological futurity and more-than-human economies that contribute to mainstreaming dangerous, hubristic geoengineering, I advance that feminist imagination and conviviality is a more capacious way to face climate change, one that climatology would benefit learning from. I do this drawing from Isabelle Stengers’ conceptualization of stupidity, which I argue can describe the IPCC’s futurology, and from her figuration of the idiot, a conceptual character who poses questions that cause us to pause and think, opening up possibilities.

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms

Year: 2017

Citation:

Schofield, Daniela, and Femke Gubbels. 2019. “Informing Notions of Climate Change Adaptation: A Case Study of Everyday Gendered Realities of Climate Change Adaptation in an Informal Settlement in Dar es Salaam.” Environment & Urbanization 31 (1): 93-114.

Authors: Daniela Schofield, Femke Gubbels

Abstract:

This paper examines the gendered dynamics of climate change adaptation in a rapidly urbanizing area of the global South. As climate change adaptation gains increasing prominence in global environmental policies and development strategies, there is a tendency to conceptualize adaptation as a technical process, disconnected from the everyday reality of how adaptation is practised by people facing negative climate change impacts. We present evidence from a small-scale case study of a flood-prone informal settlement in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to provide a contextually grounded contribution to a growing body of literature on gender, climate change and cities. We argue that the way climate change impacts are perceived, experienced and adapted to on an everyday level is characterized by gendered differences (among others). We demonstrate that a greater understanding of these gendered nuances highlights the disconnect between everyday gendered realities and a high-level technical notion of adaptation deployed at strategic and policy levels.

Keywords: climate change adaptation, Dar es Salaam, flooding, gender, Tanzania, urban informal settlements

Topics: Development, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Infrastructure, Urban Planning Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Tanzania

Year: 2019

Citation:

Asher, Kiran. 2019. “The Brilliant, Monochromatic Red of Climate Leviathan.” Rethinking Marxism 32 (4): 442-50.

Author: Kiran Asher

Abstract:

Climate Leviathan argues that to address the climate crisis we must extend the critique of capitalism and that to imagine a just world we need radically open democracy. This reviewer shares the book’s deep anticapitalist politics and Gramscian critique of climate science, but its lack of engagement with feminist, anticolonial, and other critical theories and philosophies of difference undermines its theoretical and political possibilities. Yet the book must be widely and critically read, and its shortcomings must be supplemented to make a world with space for both the diversity of humankind and also for companion and other species.

Keywords: climate crisis, critical theory, feminism, planetary sovereignity, radical democracy

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Democracy / Democratization, Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms

Year: 2019

Citation:

Di Chiro, Giovanna. 2020. “Mobilizing ‘Intersectionality’ in Environmental Justice Research and Action in a Time of Crisis.” In Environmental Justice: Key Issues, edited by Brendan Coolsaet. Abingdon: Routledge.

Author: Giovanna Di Chiro

Abstract:

This chapter reviews the concept of “intersectionality,” describing its roots in Black feminist thought and social justice activism, and its focus on the synergistic relationship between critical inquiry and critical praxis. It examines how scholars and activists use intersectionality to reveal multiple and interlocking identities and injustices that, when made visible, enable coalition building to eliminate all systems of oppression across a wide spectrum of social movements. I analyze how environmental justice activists mobilize intersectionality for environmental change by building coalitions across racial, gender/sexual, class, ethnic, and national differences, contrasting this approach with mainstream environmental and climate movements’ use of the universalizing discourse of the “global commons.” Further, drawing on the social and political construct of the “undercommons,” a critical, abolitionist praxis focused on dismantling colonial institutions and co-creating new forms of research and action, I conclude with examples from my engagement with intersectional environmental justice theory and coalition building with my students and community partners in Philadelphia.

Topics: Class, Environment, Climate Change, Ethnicity, Feminisms, Gender, Intersectionality, Race

Year: 2020

Citation:

Gupta, Joyeeta, Joeri Scholtens, Leisa Perch, Irene Dankelman, Joni Seager, Fülöp Sánder, Michael Stanley-Jones, and Isabell Kempf. 2020. “Re-Imagining the Driver–Pressure–State–Impact–Response Framework from an Equity and Inclusive Development Perspective.” Sustainability Science 15 (2): 503–20.

Authors: Joyeeta Gupta, Joeri Scholtens, Leisa Perch, Irene Dankelman, Joni Seager, Fülöp Sánder, Michael Stanley-Jones, Isabell Kempf

Abstract:

The Driver–Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) framework has been used by environmental agencies and others to assess environmental challenges and policy responses. However, in doing so, social justice or equity issues tend to come as an afterthought, while there is evidence that environmental challenges and policy responses are not equity (including gender-) neutral. Hence, this paper addresses the question: why should, and how can, equity issues and environmental justice be incorporated into the DPSIR framework? It presents a structure for including equity within DPSIR and applies it. It reviews the literature to bring together data that demonstrates that there is a clear equity perspective along the entire DPSIR analysis. It concludes that although individual environmental policies may succeed to achieve their specific goal in the short term; if they ignore the equity aspects, the policy strategies as a whole are likely to be environmentally unjust, and lead to exclusive and unsustainable development, which, in turn, could further exacerbate environmental challenges. This highlights the need for an integrated approach in efforts to achieve environmentally sustainable development.

Keywords: DPSIR, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (BESS), equity, gender, environmental justice, inclusive development, environmental challenges, inequality

Topics: Development, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Justice

Year: 2020

Citation:

Johnson, Ayana Elizabeth, and Katharine K. Wilkinson. 2020. All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. New York: Penguin Random House Publishing.

Authors: Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Katharine K. Wilkinson

Annotation:

Summary:
There is a renaissance blooming in the climate movement: leadership that is more characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist, rooted in compassion, connection, creativity, and collaboration. While it’s clear that women and girls are vital voices and agents of change for this planet, they are too often missing from the proverbial table. More than a problem of bias, it’s a dynamic that sets us up for failure. To change everything, we need everyone.
 
All We Can Save illuminates the expertise and insights of dozens of diverse women leading on climate in the United States—scientists, journalists, farmers, lawyers, teachers, activists, innovators, wonks, and designers, across generations, geographies, and race—and aims to advance a more representative, nuanced, and solution-oriented public conversation on the climate crisis. These women offer a spectrum of ideas and insights for how we can rapidly, radically reshape society. (Summary from Penguin Random House)

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Gender, Women Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2020

Citation:

Seager, Joni. 2019. “Gender Equality and Environmental Sustainability in the Age of Crisis.” Expert Paper, sixty-fourth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 64) New York, September 25-26.

Author: Joni Seager

Abstract:

Gender and environment are mutually constitutive. In the last 25+ years, activists and scholars have identified, revealed, puzzled over and analysed the multiple dimensions of these relationships. But the uptake of gender-environment knowledge into official analytical and policy frameworks -- including, notably, the SDGs -- has been tentative, light, and often resisted.

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Year: 2019

Citation:

Kellogg, Molly. 2020. Women Building Resilient Cities in the Context of Climate Change: Lessons from Freetown, Sierra Leone. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security.

Author: Molly Kellogg

Annotation:

United Nations Security Council Resolution 2242 recognized climate change as an important consideration for the peace and security of women and girls. Women – marginalized in economic, political, and social spheres in many contexts – have even fewer available resources to cope with climate-related disasters as they face unique and often disproportionate risks.

Yet despite the challenges posed by climate change and gender inequality, evidence shows that women are actively contributing to building resilient cities. In urban contexts, women are carving paths to inclusion across multiple levels of local governance and helping communities become safer and more prepared to cope with disasters.

Field work in Freetown, Sierra Leone, reveals that women engaged in local governance are leading the charge for resilience building. This report distinguishes two key modes of engagement: formal representation, and community-based organizations or civil society networks. Local government shapes how residents experience risk, through providing services such as water or waste management, or planning future land use. In informal settlements, where local government is less reliable, informal structures of organizing can help build resilience, as through designing community-based early warning systems or forming savings cooperatives that allow households to bounce back after a disaster. Interventions from NGOs can fill gaps in service delivery and help link community-based initiative to government planning.

While the gender narrative for climate-related risks in urban areas has focused on women’s vulnerabilities, this report illustrates that women are also making important contributions to building resilient cities. Its findings point to five key recommendations for policy-makers and development practitioners to empower the voices and actions of women in local governance:

• Invest in community-based organizations in informal settlement communities.
• Promote collaboration between formal and informal governance bodies.
• Design projects that are climate-responsive and gender-responsive.
• Amplify the voices – and actions – of women change agents.
• Conduct gender-responsive data collection in informal settlements.

Topics: Civil Society, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Women, Governance, Infrastructure, Political Participation Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2020