2020 is the year for meaningful impact...

According to the UN, women make up half of the agricultural labour force in the least developed countries, there are about 2 million deaths of mainly women and children per year due to indoor air pollution from the use of biomass for household activities and IPCC stated that flood-related mortality in Nepal among girls was twice as high than men.

Climate justice, as defined by Mary Robinson and adopted by the UN, “insists on a shift from a discourse on greenhouse gases and melting ice caps into a civil rights movement with the people and communities most vulnerable to climate impacts at its heart”.

However, the climate movement, in general, has been occupied by mostly Western white women. From my limited research experience, I have heard a lot of male voices in small communities, through leaders and organisations. There was something missing and it showed.
 
How many female leaders can you think of who are active in the climate justice space? How many of those are women of colour, and women active in developing countries? When the word “climate justice” comes to mind, despite studying in this field, the first two people who I can think of are: Greta Thunberg and Mary Robinson. This is not just a systemic problem with media coverage, but is also common in think-tanks, such as C40. Last year they held a conference with 20 Women Mayors, with only 4 from middle-income countries and none from the least developed countries. It is shocking even when progressive organisations cannot bring women from developing countries into the conversation. 

The problem with a rhetoric, where it is enough to support mostly white women fighting for climate change, is our willingness to ignore the predecessors and OGs. Bangladeshi ministers started talking about climate refugees in 2008 and the global platform of COP17 yet there  were no headlines about the very present issue. In the 1990s the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) was formed as a tool for UN advocacy. Small island developing states have a reputation in climate negotiations for being at the forefront of climate justice. Yet where are the bestselling books for Sunita Narain, Isra Hirsi and Vandana Shiva?

Perhaps this is because society is happy to showcase messages which are non-threatening and show that there is some kind of hope.  Instead of acknowledging a problem which cannot be solved easily, or at all, because it does not impact the most privileged individuals. It is dangerous to say “you are stealing our future”, making it seem as though there is time for us all. It’s easy to retreat strategically from a problem which we can’t see the impact of, and which we can’t link back to our actions.

We are facing the normalisation of climate change, from a Western perspective, as something manageable. We march, we paint government buildings red, we stop using plastic straws, we post a quote on social media, as if this is enough. Simply because all these actions are easy to get our head around. We ignore the need for difficult, actionable and systemic change for those facing very real impacts.
 
2020 will be a key year for climate change and specifically show whether the rules based international system that the Western powers have created works to tackle global issues. Let me break it down for you. COP25 took place last year in Madrid and was seen a failure by observers and participants alike. There was no accountability from major economies and the agenda seems to have been pushed to COP26. 2020 will be the year where national leaders finally realise there is something missing which they need: the voice of minority women. 
 
Perhaps 2020 is the year where we can finally move onto meaningful change. I’m talking about change which brings along women who experience the impacts of climate change.  Change which goes beyond the shallow surfaces of the current climate movement to include more diverse voices, and 2020 may just be the year where we realise there is a space for all women.

Mehak Mehta is a WIFP alumna with a background in law.