As COP30 kicks off in Belém, Brazil, the need for bold, intersectional feminist climate action has never been more urgent. Ten years after the Paris Agreement, promises to protect people and the planet remain largely unfulfilled. Emissions continue to rise, while women, girls, and racialised and marginalised communities, both here in the UK and across the world, face the harshest impacts of a crisis they did not create.
At Wen, we believe this must be the decade of delivery. It is time to centre care, justice, and equity in the fight for a sustainable future.
What is COP and why it matters
Every year, governments from almost every country come together for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP. It is where the world decides how to respond to the climate crisis.
The decisions made at COP affect everyone, but especially women, girls, and racialised and marginalised communities who are already living with the consequences of a warming world. From rising food insecurity to the loss of homes and livelihoods, the climate crisis is not gender neutral.
Here in the UK women, particularly racialised and marginalised women, are also on the frontlines of environmental injustice – from exposure to toxic chemicals in our environment and period products to the burden of rising energy and food costs and the unequal distribution of unpaid care work.
That is why Wen’s work aims to bring intersectional feminist and decolonial perspectives into climate spaces like COP, where the voices of those most affected are too often missing.
Why COP30 is so important
COP30 will take place in Belém, Brazil, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. This will be the first time a COP summit has been hosted in the Amazon region, which is a powerful reminder of what is at stake.
The summit also marks 10 years since the Paris Agreement, when countries promised to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. A decade on, those promises are far from being met. Emissions continue to rise, and people on the frontlines are paying the price.
COP30 has been called the “delivery COP.” It must be the moment when world leaders finally turn words into action, with funding and policies that deliver for people and the planet.
What’s at stake for women and marginalised communities
The climate crisis is a justice crisis. It deepens existing inequalities and hits women and marginalised groups hardest, particularly those facing multiple forms of discrimination linked to race, class, disability, or migration status.
Across the world, women are more likely to depend on natural resources for their livelihoods, yet have less access to land, finance, and decision-making power. Climate breakdown fuels hunger, poverty, unpaid care work, and gender-based violence. And it is the global majority, those least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, who are already experiencing the greatest impacts.
In the UK, the same systems of inequality play out differently. Women, especially those on low incomes or from racialised and marginalised communities, are more likely to live in sub standard housing, experience food insecurity, and shoulder the invisible labour of care during times of crisis.
An intersectional feminist approach to climate action means recognising and supporting women’s leadership and ensuring that their voices, in all their diversity, are central to every decision made.
What Wen wants to see at COP30
Wen wants to see a bold and just response to the climate crisis, one that puts care, equity, and sustainability at its heart.
At COP30, governments must:
- Place gender justice at the heart of climate action, with funding and policies that recognise and resource women’s leadership and lived experience.
- Embed an intersectional feminist approach, ensuring that women’s voices, in all their diversity, are central to every stage of climate decision-making.
- Adopt a decolonial approach that shifts power and climate finance to local and Indigenous communities.
- Provide new, grant-based climate finance that reaches grassroots, community-led and women-led solutions.
- Ensure accountability and transparency, so governments and corporations are held responsible for delivery, not just promises.
- Guarantee a just transition that protects workers’ rights and uplifts women and girls, and racialised and marginalised communities.
Building a movement for change
Wen is helping to drive a feminist vision of a Green Caring Economy, a future where care, sustainability, and equity are at the heart of our society and economy.
Our current economic systems prioritise profit and exploitation over the care of people, communities, and the planet. A Green Caring Economy shifts this focus, putting wellbeing and environmental protection first.
This means creating policies that:
- Support care work and caregiving roles, as care jobs are green jobs.
- Promote green jobs and sustainable industries
- Address systemic inequalities and uplift marginalised voices
We are working in multiple ways to bring this vision to life:
- Raising racialised and marginalised women’s voices: Ensuring those most affected by climate and economic inequalities in the UK are heard.
- Advocating for a Feminist Green New Deal: Promoting policies that address climate change and systemic injustice through an intersectional feminist lens.
- Driving system change: Challenging exploitative systems and championing a shift toward care, equity, and sustainability.
Take action
Join Wen in calling for climate and gender justice at COP30. Follow our updates, share our campaigns, and stand with the women and communities creating a vision for a fairer, greener future.
