Participation at COP25 Madrid and the Cumbre Social por el Clima:
From 6 to 8 December 2019, I joined a group of 250 Portuguese environmental and social activists who travelled to Madrid during COP25 (2 to 13 December) as part of the global movement against climate change. The group participated in the march on Friday the 6th, which gathered 500.000 people from around the world protesting against the inaction of goverments and political elites in the context of the climate emergency, and attended the Cumbre Social por el Clima during the weekend.
The Cumbre Social por el Clima (6 to 13 December) is an alternative summit organised with the purpose of giving voice to the indigenous peoples who are not heard during the official COP, and of creating a space for the establishment of international networks and alliances between social and environmental activists focused on climate and social justice. Gender equality and the role of men and women in the global climate movement was a very present topic during the Cumbre, as it is well known that despite being frequently ignored or excluded from leadership positions, women are central actors in the fight against climate change.
The organisation of the Cumbre reflected this concern in the way it placed women on the frontlines of environmental action front and center during various of the sessions it held, and during the plenary assemblies that took place at the end of each day. The program for the Cumbre, with all the activities and sessions that took place, can be found here.
During the weekend, I attended two events of particular interest to the Environment and Climate Change thematic area: on 7 of December, a conference and workshop entitled “Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network International – Frontline women protecting and defending rights, land, communities and climate”; and on 8 of December, a meeting at the Minga Indígena (a permanent space held at the Cumbre for indigenous peoples to share their stories and experiences) entitled “Pueblos indígenas en aislamiento voluntario, acceso a recursos naturales y servicios en el nuevo contexto climático”. Although none of these events had a specific focus on masculinities, in both of them remarks were made repeatedly about the need to recognize women’s importance in environmental activism and to create stronger alliances between women and men in the environmental movement.
The representatives of indigenous peoples highlighted how the women in their communities are assuming the leadership of their resistance against extractivist projects threatening their ancestral homelands and livelihoods, and how the men (albeit – with some exceptions – being the official leaders of the communities) are accepting this role and slowly allowing for the transformation of gender dynamics in their homes and decision-making. A good example would be the AMWAE (Asociación de Mujeres Waorani de la Amazonía Ecuatoriana), a group of women who gathered to resist the appropriation, exploitation and destruction of their territories in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It thus becomes clear that climate change is affecting gender roles, femininities and masculinities by creating conditions where gender equality is fundamental, and where men are required to give more space to women to voice their opinions and to stand for their common causes, as the women take on a role of protectors of the Earth, of their homelands and families and of their indigenous culture.
On a more personal note, taking part in the 500.000 people march on Friday was an interesting experience regarding gender: most of the activists, cooperatives and people with whom I shared ideas about the climate and social justice movement showed a strong concern with gender equality, whether they were women or men. All the men I had the opportunity to speak to were very vocal about the importance of hearing womens’ voices and accepting the potential and solutions they bring into the table, as these are often extremely valuable to the common struggle against climate change. They likewise recognised how patriarchal structures on institutional, social and cultural levels have hindered a positive and concerted response to the climate emergency (and are, on many levels, one of the main causes of the problem), therefore demanding a clear anti-patriarchal and gender-equitable stance.
In the context of climate change, it is extremely important to recognize and explore the ways in which hegemonic and toxic patterns of masculinity (such as the petro-masculinity or industrial masculinity of powerful political leaders like Donald Trump or Jair Bolsonaro, as studied by authors such as Cara Daggett or Martin Hultman) are being confronted with new types of masculinity (e.g. caring masculinities) that recognize the importance of gender equality and therefore contribute to the transformation of gender roles in particular geographical and cultural spaces, in order to develop more effective strategies against the climate emergency.
The way media portray and depict climate change is also not gender neutral, which is why there is a current and serious need for a critical analysis of how media contents reflect the gender dynamics of the climate emergency and environmental social movements. This analysis of media representations of masculinities and gender dynamics in the context of the climate emergency is being explored in DeCode/M’s thematic area Environment and Climate Change.
Carlota Houart (DeCode/M)
