"So we refuse that idea that we can accept any forms of gender-based violence and any forms that kill ourselves, other species and the living planet."

Noelene Nabulivou, Pacific Islands Feminist Alliance for Climate Justice Fiji

Every day around the globe women are protecting and defending human rights and nature.

At the recent Global Women's Assembly for Climate Justice (link is external) grassroots and frontline women leaders from fifty countries gathered virtually to speak about solutions for climate and humanity. They demonstrate the collective strength of women as diverse intersectional climate leaders resisting, disrupting and transforming systems of power.

In this episode of Earth Matters we share excerpts from three of the one hundred and twenty-five voices from the Climate Assembly forum:

• Turtle Island USA native rights activist Yolanda Fulmer (Tlingit) speaks about indigenous experiences of climate change in the Tongass rainforest, Alaska.

• Nigerian researcher and ecofeminist Adenike Titilope Oladosu speaks about climate injustice for women in sub-Saharan Africa. Adenike is the Founder/Director of the I-Lead Climate Action Initiative and Fellow of The New Institute in Hamburg Germany on Black Feminism and the Polycrisis.

• Pacific human rights activist and leader of the Pacific Islands Feminist Alliance for Climate Justice Fiji , Noelene Nabulivou explains how applying a feminist lens increases women’s participation in transformative change when it comes to climate justice. 

The event was organised by the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (link is external)(WECAN) in the lead-up to COP30 in Brazil this November.

Image credit: Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)

Full recordings from the Climate Assembly available here. The event schedule is a useful guide.

Further reading:

Why Women? The Crucial Role of Women at the Center of Climate Solutions

How gender inequality and climate change are interconnected