Gender and Climate Justice in Canada: Stories from the Grassroots

Climate change has gendered effects across Canada. Extreme weather events, warming cities, melting sea ice and permafrost, ice storms, floods, droughts, and fires related to climate change are directly and indirectly causing widespread economic and social impacts. Fossil fuel extraction, transport, and processing affect many people in Canada. Women and men have different experiences and views regarding climate change, and are affected differently as a function of their gendered social and economic positions. They also have different access to redress and to policy processes shaping public responses. Indigenous women, in particular, are on the front lines of climate injustice and are leading inspiring resistance movements. This paper examines climate justice issues across Canada through a gender lens, using a literature review and interviews with researchers and activists to identify the major themes and knowledge gaps. The paper also summarizes preliminary results of grassroots research into how individuals, community-based organizations, women’s groups and indigenous activists across Canada experience and articulate the gendered impacts of climate change, what their priorities are for action, and how they are organizing -- for example, by incorporating climate change education, outreach, networking, activism, and policy development into their work