“What might have seemed too radical a few years ago is now something we are actively considering, namely a feminist approach to foreign climate policy”.
Invited to a CAN Europe webinar on Friday 5 May, Sheena Anderson, representative of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP), spoke about foreign climate policy solutions, particularly within the EU. The panel, entitled “How can the EU progress towards ambitious and feminist foreign climate policy?” was part of the ongoing Petersberg Climate Dialogue (see EUROPE 13173/6).
According to Ms Anderson, the recent recognition of this feminist approach to climate foreign policy is “the result of a decade of effort by feminist civil society”. “Women and other marginalised people are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis”, she said.
Nevertheless, according to the CFFP, major climate conferences remain “very exclusive, very elitist and anything but feminist”. To counteract this, Ms Anderson says, the climate crisis should be approached as an intersectional challenge: “This is not a crisis that we will solve with technological solutions or by living a more sustainable life. This is a social crisis, and the most marginalised people, who are the first to be affected, are also the first to find solutions”.
This approach would therefore tend to rethink foreign and security policy so that it does not prioritise the security of states, but that of individuals. By challenging “oppressive structures”, this approach would also ensure “the protection of the planet and the life on it”, said Ms Anderson.
Several countries have already initiated processes for a feminist foreign policy. Within the EU, this is the case in Sweden, Spain and France.
However, according to Sheena Anderson, if you look at all the countries that have so far adopted a feminist foreign policy, “climate and feminist foreign policy or gender are generally treated not as linked issues, but quite separately”.
“Germany is now the first country to develop these strategies at the same time and allow us to see how they are implemented, which I think is a unique opportunity to set an example”, she said. Berlin recently published its guidelines “Shaping Feminist Foreign Policy” and its strategy for a feminist development policy.
At the end of the discussions, CAN Europe nevertheless noted that there are gaps in the feminist approach to EU climate diplomacy.
CAN Europe Director Chiara Martinelli suggested, as starting points for a gradual shift to a feminist approach, to ensure, among other things, that gender justice is a mandatory component of the monitoring and evaluation of the EU’s progress on the external dimensions of the ‘European Green Deal’ and to work to ensure that gender justice is actively integrated into all climate diplomacy work undertaken by the European External Action Service. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)