In early 2019, WECAN International co-founded a coalition of women’s rights and climate justice organizations in recognition that feminist analysis must be part of our discourse on a Green New Deal. In a conversation focused on envisioning a healthy planet and communities, these groups knew that gender equality was-and is-key. A feminist intervention was necessary. The coalition for a Feminist Green New Deal, thus, was borne from collective generation. As a collective, we welcome the opportunity presented by the Green New Deal – and by the efforts of advocates and progressive policymakers – to secure rights-based policies and programs recognizing the global implications of US climate action and inaction. 

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As we continue our work through the COVID-19 global pandemic, WECAN is advocating for a feminist response that aims to aims to spotlight the interconnected relationship between economic marginalization and environmental exploitation, please read a summary of our response here. 

 

Please see the Feminist Green New Deal Coalition website here.

 

To truly address the root causes, as well as the scope and scale of the climate crisis, the Green New Deal must be cross-cutting in its approach, steadfast in feminist principles, and strive to combat historical oppressions. It must advance a transformative feminist agenda that centers the leadership of women, and acknowledges and addresses the generational impacts of colonization and anti-Black racism. It must end oppression against and be led and articulated by frontline, impacted communities – especially women of color, Black women, Indigenous women, people with disabilities, LGBTQIAP+ people, people from the Global South, migrant and refugee communities, and youth.

 

The climate crisis has emerged from interlocking systems of capitalism, resource extraction, labor exploitation, the commodification of nature, settler colonialism, imperialism, and militarism. It has roots in the exploitation of enslaved people, whose labor created wealth in the Global North, and of the continuing systemic racism that deepens and institutionalizes global inequity. 

 

To confront this crisis, we need coherence across policy sectors, from trade to military spending to development, to confront these interconnections. We must recommit to multilateralism and a democratic rule of law to build a policy architecture that can stabilize the planet and secure a just transition to post-exploitative economies. 

 

We believe in a Green New Deal guided by principles of justice and accountability that reflect: 

 

• the urgent need for a just transition of all US economic, environmental, and political systems through measures that: 

• redress economic disparity and provide accountability for the global impacts of US policy; 

• shift from the privatization and commodification of resources toward regenerative, sustainable, cooperative, and collective models; and

• divest from the extractive and military-industrial complex and reinvest in social and public goods and the promotion of peace and justice; 

• support for mitigation, adaptation efforts, solutions, and leadership of frontline communities within the US and globally, including commitments to respect and uphold Indigenous rights, to work to end environmental racism, and to confront the criminalization of environmental defenders; and

• the prioritization of women’s leadership, gender justice, and human rights in policy-making and public discourse, including through the disruption of patriarchal and male-dominated power structures, informed by the voices of feminist activists and movements.

 

The 10 key principles call for advancing reproductive justice, the creation of regenerative economies centered on feminist analysis and understanding of the care economy, a shift from exploitative and unsustainable production patterns and a rejection of false solutions to the climate crisis, and more. To read all the feminist principles and to endorse the Feminist Agenda for a Green New Deal, please click the button below.