'We have to bring hope': Mary Robinson, Anne Karpf and Dr Tara Shine on climate action
Former President Mary Robinson: "we have to bring hope". Pic: Collins
Earlier this week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a stark warning: our window of opportunity for acting to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change is rapidly closing.
But even in the face of such a bleak warning, it is important to keep hope alive. Former UN high commissioner Mary Robinson says hope is a necessary currency. Robinson is inspired by Archbishop Tutu’s words: ‘I’m not an optimist. I’m a prisoner of hope’.
“We have to bring hope. It’s non-negotiable,” the former President of Ireland and a founder of The Elders tells the
With International Women’s Day taking place next Tuesday, it’s timely to recall Robinson’s 2018 observation (as she launched Mothers of Invention podcast (https://www.mothersofinvention.online/), which she hosts with comedian Maeve Higgins) that climate change is a manmade problem, which requires a feminist solution. She means ‘manmade’ in a generic sense, she explains. “It includes all of us, men and women.”
A feminist solution, she says, includes all of us too: women – and as many men as possible. “Studies have proven if the board of a company is diverse in gender and race, it will definitely take more – and good – climate action,” says Robinson.
The feminist solution she’s talking about is a perspective on problem-solving. It came out of the women’s movement but is wider than that. “It’s a non-hierarchical, listening, taking-practical-steps approach and, if necessary, taking tough decisions. It’s the modern way of dealing with problems and very much part of young people’s thinking about climate action.”
Robinson is “very inspired” by young women climate activists globally. “Greta Thunberg is the most known but there are equivalent leaders – young women stepping up all over the world,” she says, citing Mexican-Chilean climate activist Xiye Bastida, 19, co-founder of Re-Earth Initiative whose mission is to make the climate movement more accessible to all; Ugandan Vanessa Nakate, 25, founder of Rise Up Movement, which aims to give African climate activists a platform for their voice to be heard by the world; and Mitzi Jonelle Tan, 24, from the Philippines who calls for an urgent end to burning of fossil fuels.
Dr Anne Karpf, author of , is also inspired by the many women working in climate change worldwide. It’s why she feels hopeful in the face of the climate emergency. Referring to the plight of farmers in India, where the spiralling cost of seed has led to great hardship and in some instances suicide, she cites climate activist Vandana Shiva. “She has opened seed banks where farmers can get seeds free,” says Karpf.
A project in Gujarat, where a simple yet sophisticated water-management system called Bhungroo has been life-changing, says Karpf.
“Nine thousand women have been taught how to install and manage it. They’ve done so in many, many places. The social status of these lowest caste women has risen so much people are turning to them for advice – some are getting into politics. It’s a wonderful example of dealing with the climate crisis and inequality at the same time.”
But Karpf warns against charging women – for the most part – with fixing the climate crisis. Thinking about the hours she has spent trying to source non-polyester clothes, she says she has just moved house and is struggling to find a sofa fabric cover that’s not made of polyester. Her efforts are born out of the advice we’ve all received – about small changes individuals can make to live more sustainably. It’s important advice, but Karpf says it doesn’t spotlight those truly responsible for climate change.
“Looking at all the advice about how to mitigate the climate crisis, we see how much is directed at women, partly in their role as shoppers in chief: not to buy food wrapped in plastic, to avoid buying polyester. The emphasis is on individual women being made to feel guilty if they don’t shop organically.
“Yet those responsible for the climate crisis are the companies extracting fossil fuels from the ground and burning them – not Mary Smith who buys something wrapped in plastic.”
Karpf isn’t advocating consuming recklessly while the planet burns.
She recommends focusing some of our effort on a different front. “As young climate activists point out, the limited time we have available might be more effectively spent protesting about a company producing unsustainable products than individually trying to source alternatives.”
The climate crisis – whether in slow-evolving effects or fast disaster strikes – is disproportionally affecting women. In the Global South, Karpf says climate change is making already arduous tasks of collecting fuel and water – traditionally women’s work – even more onerous. “Women have to journey much farther, often on foot. These already onerous tasks are taking hours of labour.” One result, she says, is young girls dropping out of school to do these tasks too.
And when disasters hit, poor families become poorer. “One way to alleviate this is child marriage – there’s one less mouth to feed. Women also become more vulnerable to being trafficked – they’re offered opportunities elsewhere they think mean income and they end up being trafficked.”
Alongside climate change impacts has come a growth in ‘climate violence’. It happened in Australia after the bush fires and in New Zealand after the floods, says Karpf. In Australia in 2020, local officials and public health experts warned that domestic violence was spiking as the country dealt with the fallout from catastrophic fires paired with Covid-19.
Environmental scientist Dr Tara Shine is co-founder and director of Cork-based Change by Degrees, a sustainability consultancy. Shine sees climate change disproportionally affecting women because many women don’t enjoy full human rights. “They may not be economically independent or have equal rights to health and education. If she’s not economically independent, a woman faced with any extreme event – whether flood or economic crash – has fewer options. When you put a shock on top – Covid, climate change – these women are more exposed.”
Has the pandemic pushed climate change up the political agenda? Shine is not so sure. “Climate impacts have pushed climate change up the agenda. It used to be we had to point to the Global South to see examples of climate impacts. But in recent years every developed country has had to deal with severe climate impacts – dreadful floods in Germany, fodder crisis in Ireland, storms barraging the UK, wildfires in Australia and New Zealand.”
Shine says we also used to think climate change was in the future. It’s right now. “And what the pandemic showed is: the most vulnerable are the hardest hit, whether the crisis is a virus or climate.”
Karpf recalls being asked: ‘If women were running fossil fuel companies, would things be different?’ The answer is no, she says, because “if you’re extracting fossil fuels from the ground, you’re creating all these problems – it’s not just about swapping genders”.
So what is the solution to climate change? It must be just, says Shine. “Climate justice zooms in on why climate change is unfair – and it is unfair. People experiencing the worst effects are least responsible for causing the problem. In solving climate change, we have to make policy and [give] responses that don’t unintentionally make life even more unfair for the most vulnerable and least responsible.”
Climate justice is about just transition – fair transition to a zero-carbon world. “So we don’t leave behind workers who lose jobs because the way we live changes. So we protect the poor from increased energy costs as we transition to renewable energy,” says Shine.
How we dealt with the pandemic has lessons for tackling climate change. “The pandemic showed when something is really an emergency, there are no rules you can’t change,” says Shine. “If we were really dealing with climate change as an emergency, we’d be making policy and spending money differently.”
Lockdown was one way Covid was controlled, but it involved sacrifice. “People lost jobs. The mentally unwell got sicker. It made loneliness worse.
Solving climate change will not be ‘business as usual’, says Shine – it will be business most unusual. “We have to change the old system, not little bits of things but completely. We need systems [to] change from the bottom up, top down, that’s led by people. It has to be beyond individual change – CEOs, town planners, engineers, politicians must be involved. Citizens need politicians to make brave, big-ticket decisions.
“As an individual, you can’t kid yourself using a Keep Cup instead of a disposable one is going to save the planet, but bringing that ethos into every aspect of your life – how you vote, invest your money – can have a big impact.”
People are the solution to climate change, says Shine. “If you care about yourself, your children, your wellbeing, your future, money in your pocket, nature, you should care about climate change. You’ll want to be part of the solution.”
Karpf says women can’t save the planet on their own and they shouldn’t be charged with that. “We need to listen to voices of disenfranchised people, to women in the Global South. We need men to be supportive allies. Men like this exist – we need them.”
And through it all, it's crucial we have hope. “I’m aware we are not on course yet for a safe world – but there is a great sense of urgency and that gives me hope,” says Robinson.
Women leading climate change initiatives in Ireland – just three of many women who are making an impact:
, chief operations officer with EIH2, Ireland’s green hydrogen production company. An energy professional with 20 years utility experience, Sheridan’s key focus in her EIH2 role is to help Ireland, and Europe achieve Net Zero 2050 through green hydrogen and energy system integration. To achieve this she says we need a diversity of voices in the rooms where decisions are made.
is Bord na Móna’s chief ecologist. Working nationally, and as part of an international network of peatland restoration researchers and practitioners, she developed a number of projects on greenhouse gas emissions from drained peatlands, rehabilitated areas and restored bogs. A founding member of Irish Forum on Natural Capital, she works with businesses and nature agencies to bring the role of nature into broader discussions around ecosystem health, ecosystem services, natural capital and natural capital accounting, and sustainable environments.
is a climate policy adviser at Oxfam. Her work focuses on climate justice, with key areas of focus including loss and damage, climate finance and staying within 1.5 degrees celsius. In a recent article, she said: “Let’s continue the fight for climate justice by making sure the people and communities impacted by the climate crisis are supported, and not left to pick up the pieces by themselves. That means real money from rich countries to address loss and damage.”
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