This year’s theme for #internationalwomensday is #InspireInclusion, so at ClientEarth we hosted a lunch with an amazing group of women – partners, donors, and friends – to discuss how we can champion trust and collaboration in the environmental movement.
We know that women, especially women of colour and indigenous women, are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, facing heightened risks in disasters and witnessing greater threats to their livelihoods and education compared to men.
We also know that women are critical to an effective response. National parliaments with more women tend to adopt more stringent environmental policies. Women’s participation in natural resource management at a local level tends to lead to better resource governance. And in the corporate sector, women’s leadership is associated with increased transparency around climate impact.
But women are still not represented equally in leadership positions in the environmental sector. At COP26, only 29% of speaking time in plenaries was allocated to women, and the COP29 presidency initially unveiled an all-male organising committee in January.
So how can we #InspireInclusion, champion women’s leadership, and empower women to step into the arena, and lead?
At ClientEarth we use the law to do just that: training women judges, lawyers and prosecutors, for example in our law clinics in the Philippines, or using the law to ensure women can lead local forest governance in West Africa.
But there’s more we can all do. At our lunch, and in conversation with Lea Main-Klingst, Cheryl King-McDowall and our guests, we agreed we need to actively push for inclusion, as we did (for example) with the open letter, coordinated by SHE Changes Climate, calling for more female representation in Azerbaijan’s COP29 organising committee. We also need to build women up: with mentoring, connections, resources, and by providing opportunities to lead.
Trust, collaboration and networks are critical: both in supporting and empowering women, and driving the change we need to see. When I changed career – and sector – in 2022, I was met with nothing but warmth, welcome and support from everyone in the environmental movement. We can’t do any of this alone – and that’s why gatherings like this week’s lunch, and all our networks and communities (including here on LinkedIn), are so important.
Cheryl King-McDowall, Lea Main-Klingst, Hannah Braithwaite, Emily Thomas, Athena Ko , Tatiana von der Pahlen, Alice Garton, Bianca Pitt, Jess Ayers (PhD), Emma Dearnaley, Tatiana Luján, Joyce Melcar Tan, Jessica Simor KC, Lucy Macnamara, Arizona Muse, Veronika Covington, Sarah Butler-Sloss, Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Shirley Rodrigues, Grace Archibald, Ally Winter-Taylor, Abby Williams
Senior Director - TRC Renewables Engineering Team
3wCongratulations Hillary!!!