Gender-wise climate giving — “It’s all upside”

Integrating gender equity into climate funding isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s a proven strategy for achieving better, more sustainable outcomes.

Capital is never neutral.

All capital flows — whether investments or philanthropic grants — carry consequences that extend beyond their immediate financial returns or charitable intention. This is especially true when it comes to gender equity and climate change. For funders committed to gender and environmental justice, it’s imperative we understand what these consequences are.

A good starting point is this fundamental premise: that while a changing climate affects everyone, it doesn’t affect everyone equally. Furthermore, climate solutions that fail to consider gender dimensions are likely to entrench inequality.

Over a decade of research has generated plenty of evidence that women are disproportionately impacted by climate change, and that gender-diverse leadership and gender-wise solutions are critical to addressing the crisis.

For example, in 2021 Boston Consulting Group predicted that adaptation and mitigation strategies as currently designed could delay gender equity by up to 20 years, largely due to the vast under-representation of women in the fast-growth green economy. (Closing the skills gap is also essential to building the workforce needed for large-scale decarbonisation.) Australian Government data highlights this disparity, with women currently making up just 4% of wind turbine technicians and only 2% of electrotechnology electricians in the country’s clean energy sector.

Similarly, Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia’s (WELA’s) 2024 report, Gender, Climate and Environmental Justice in Australia, points out that minimal attention has been paid to the care-based and feminised sectors that will be hardest hit by environmental change, such as childcare, aged care, disability care and social work, all of which carry a higher load during disasters.

The WELA report draws connections between gender and climate and recommends that “a gender lens is needed across all funding from government, industry, investors, philanthropy, academia and the NFP sector so that climate and environmental finance is more effective, equitable and gender-responsive”.

There are plenty of international examples of gender-responsive climate action, and in Australia, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is ahead of the curve. DFAT’s recently released International Gender Equality Strategy includes gender-equitable climate action amongst its five key priorities, and Australia’s most recent International Development Strategy establishes targets for climate change and gender equality objectives in its investments.

How we put our capital resources to work matters, not least for the people, places and causes we seek to serve. In the absence of clearly defined targets within philanthropy, there are still a few simple steps that climate funders can take to significantly improve the flow and impact of their capital, including to:

• align grant-making efforts with diverse leadership within the climate movement, ensuring that women and gender-diverse people lead and influence decisions;
• prioritise organisations and projects that are gender-aware — those that actively consider gender-specific issues and demonstrate a commitment to advancing gender equality; and
• develop a deeper understanding of the gender dimensions inherent in climate work, recognising that these aspects are not always immediately obvious.

At a recent event focused on gender-wise climate funding, it was heartening to see much of this work underway, with numerous examples of funders deploying a gender lens to amplify the effectiveness, fairness and sustainability of climate action.

As Climateworks’ CEO Anna Skarbek reflected during the event, philanthropy’s investment in grassroots climate leadership is already translating into structural change, we just need to keep going and scale. Her fellow panellist CSIRO CEO Doug Hilton echoed this sentiment, adding that the more diverse voices and diverse experience we can bring to bear on the climate crisis, the better we are all going to be as a community — it’s all upside.

To learn more, explore these resources:

• Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network’s Climate Lens
• Australians Investing in Women’s Gender-wise research & resources
• Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia’s Gender & Climate Report