Alison Barrett writes:
Climate wars are expected to dominate Australia’s next election campaign following Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s comments this week that the Coalition party intends to strive towards nuclear energy, long linked with climate denial.
In an interview with The Weekend Australian (paywalled), Dutton also said he will oppose Labor’s 43 percent carbon emissions reduction target by 2030, but will keep to zero emissions by 2050.
These comments spread fear, uncertainty and doubt, and create “the opportunity for dangerous and destructive people like Trump, Dutton and others to profit the dark interests that they appear to serve,” according to Giles Parkinson, founder and editor of Renew Economy.
And while Labor’s climate policies and targets require much more effort, Dutton’s comments make it clear that “Australia cannot afford a lurch back to the federal Coalition”, Parkinson wrote.
This week’s climate discussions raise questions for the health sector’s advocacy in the lead up to the Federal Election – particularly following concerns about the wider sector’s general silence on climate and public health initiatives, the National Health and Climate Strategy and the Australian Centre for Disease Control, following last month’s Federal Budget.
Gender and climate change
Meanwhile, a groundbreaking new report by Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia (WELA) puts a spotlight on the gendered impacts of climate change in Australia.
While the intersections between gender, climate and environmental justice have been recognised internationally for some time, this “foundational” report – titled ‘Gender, Climate and Environmental Justice in Australia’ – provides information and first steps for the conversation in the Australian context.
Importantly, it took an “intersectional feminist approach”, recognising the many factors that influence environmental impacts, and privileged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ knowledges about caring for Country.
First Nations’ “profound knowledge and philosophy of working with nature should inform our broader national approach, particularly – for our purposes – the custodial practices of First Nations women in caring for Country,” the report states.
Dr Carla Pascoe Leahy, report author and WELA’s Project Manager, said last month in an online briefing that underpinning the report recommendations is a “conviction that Australia needs to develop a clean and a caring economy that’s focused on both care for people and care for place”.
However, a cultural shift is required to recognise, understand and value “care as foundational to our economy, our society and our environment,” Pascoe Leahy said.
Gendered responses to climate and environmental issues are also required for a transition to a “fair, just and sustainable future”.
Domestic policy
The report acknowledges recent positive climate and environmental policy developments in Australia, including the National Health and Climate Strategy.
“However, more needs to be done to comprehensively embed an understanding of the links between gender and climate across domestic policy areas,” the report states.
The report notes that the Health and Climate Strategy recognises climate’s disproportionate impact on women and children, as well as other priority populations including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The report also discusses the “significant role of Country” as a source of identity, strength and healing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, as outlined in the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Report.
It did not include analysis of other recent relevant national policy initiatives, the Australian Centre for Disease Control or Measuring What Matters Framework.
Disproportionate impacts
Globally, women are disproportionately impacted by climate change – research shows that women are 14 times more likely than men to “perish in a disaster” and represent 80 percent of people displaced by extreme weather.
Sometimes people term this current era the Anthropocene, Pascoe Leahy told the audience, where “human actions exert more force on the natural world than any other factor”.
“Other people have suggested that it would be more accurately labelled the Manthropocene”, Pascoe Leahy said.
By that they’re highlighting that the problems associated with the climate crisis are “rooted in patriarchy and colonialism, and in philosophies of extraction” in unsustainable ways, caused by elite white men who continue to dominate decision-making.
“And that’s really problematic for us solving these challenges moving forward,” Pascoe Leahy said.
While women and gender diverse people are disproportionately impacted by environmental and climate challenges, “they also have distinctive perspectives and approaches to solving these challenges”, the report shows.
First Nations knowledges
Solutions tend to achieve more effective and equitable outcomes when women and gender diverse people lead or are involved, preferring to be nature-based, relational, locally responsive and sustainable solutions.
The online briefing included commentary by Bianca McNeair, co-chair of the National First Peoples Gathering on Climate Change, Maddy Braddon, Climate and Health Alliance, and Emma O’Neill, Good Shepherd, in addition to Pascoe Leahy.
McNeair, a Malgana woman from Gutharagadu/Shark Bay, told the audience that First Nations women “are really the knowledge-carriers” and “bring a strong gentleness”, resilience and strength to a crisis.
One of the first things McNeair was taught was to “slow down and take a breath”, ensuring we are walking together when issues need to be addressed.
When asked how she slows down conversations and resists the fast-pace policy environment, McNeair replied: “Connect to Country, that’s how we do it. We stop, we pause, we connect to Country.”
Braddon encouraged the audience to be brave and courageous and continue to make space for diversity – disasters are an intersectional issue.
O’Neill said that McNeair’s call to pause and bring everyone around the table is critical.
Because “climate politics have been so incredibly toxic in Australia over the past decade or more”, we’re having to play catch-up really quickly, she said. In that environment of rapid policy making and rapid interventions, “the dominant voices rise up”, resulting in increasing risk of exclusion, marginalisation and compromised rights.
Recommendations
The report recommends:
- Support for more women and gender diverse people in positions of leadership and decision-making across government, industry and the community – including by gender-based quotas and investment in leadership development for women and gender diverse people.
- A gender lens on Australian climate and environmental policy-making including the National Climate Adaptation and Risk Program, Net Zero 2050 Plan, as well as gender responsive budgeting.
- Gender lens to climate and environmental financing for impacts and solutions by industry, government, philanthropy and the community sector.
- Development of a gender, climate and environment strategy.
- Funding and resources to address increasing climate and environmental disasters should include a clear gender lens, including on disaster recovery funding, training for emergency service providers.
- Inclusion of diverse voices and sectors in shaping environmental and climate solutions and responses through genuine collaboration and engagement.
- Centring of a clean and caring economy: “underpinning all of these recommendations is the need to transform the way we think about our economy in the 21st century”.
- Adoption of a Climate Budget Statement at the federal, state/territory and local government levels, similar to the Women’s Budget Statement.
Further reading and watching
Full report: Gender, Climate and Environmental Justice in Australia
Watch the report briefing: Gender, Climate and Environmental Justice in Australia
Peter Dutton’s latest salvo on Australia’s emissions suggests our climate wars are far from over, in The Conversation
Women are 14 times more likely to die in a climate disaster than men – it’s just one way climate change is gendered, in The Conversation
Two years to save the world, in John Menadue’s Public Policy Journal
From X/Twitter
See Croakey’s extensive archive of articles on climate and health.
