Decolonial feminism challenges the status quo by asking fundamental questions: Who is being listened to? Who is seen as an expert? Who holds power? Nnenna Onwuka, Wen’s Feminist Climate Justice Policy Campaigner, looks at why it’s vital for shifting us towards accountability and justice.
Climate breakdown is not only an environmental crisis, it is the result of long histories of colonialism, racism, patriarchy and capitalism. These systems shape whose lives are protected, whose knowledge is trusted, and who is left to bear the worst impacts of climate change.
Decolonial feminism helps us see these connections clearly. It insists that climate justice must centre the people and communities most affected – not as victims to be helped, but as leaders with vital knowledge and solutions.
Colonial Legacies and Climate Harm
Countries, in the global South, have contributed least to the climate crisis but are experiencing the harshest consequences. This imbalance is not accidental. Colonialism extracted land, labour and resources, reshaped economies around exploitation, and disrupted Indigenous and local knowledge systems – patterns that continue to structure today’s global inequalities. Patriarchy also was and is fundamental to this agenda.
In the UK, these legacies show up in who experiences environmental harm. Communities of colour and women, particularly racialised and marginalised women, are more likely to live with toxic pollution, poor housing conditions and extreme heat, yet their experiences are often sidelined in climate policy and planning.
Who Counts as Human?
Colonial and patriarchal thinking relied on dividing the world into what was considered fully human and what was not. The white European man, particularly upper and middle class, sat at the centre of this hierarchy, while women, people, land and nature deemed ‘non-human’ were treated as resources to be used and extracted.
This logic still shapes how we relate to the natural world and to one another. Seeing nature as separate from humanity allows environmental destruction to continue, while the ongoing dehumanisation of racialised and Indigenous communities makes their suffering easier to ignore.
Whose Knowledge Matters?
Colonialism also created hierarchies of knowledge. Western scientific expertise was elevated, while Indigenous, local and lived knowledge was dismissed or excluded.
In climate spaces today, this often looks like technical solutions being prioritised over community wisdom, or communities being consulted without being given any real power. As a result, policies can fail to reflect lived realities and may even deepen existing inequalities.
A Decolonial Feminist Approach
Decolonial feminism challenges these patterns by asking fundamental questions: Who is being listened to? Who is seen as an expert? Who holds power?
It is not a checklist or a one-off commitment, but an ongoing process of reflection, unlearning and action. By recognising how race, gender, disability, class and geography intersect, decolonial feminism pushes climate movements toward shared leadership, accountability and justice.
Why This Matters
Climate action will only be truly just when it is shaped by the people living with its impacts every day. Decolonial feminism makes this unmistakably clear: climate justice begins with centring those voices that have been historically ignored, redistributing power, and recognising community knowledge as expertise. It challenges the systems that created the crisis in the first place and insists that solutions must be rooted in equity.
At Wen, these principles guide how we work in practice.
Read our blog on how decolonial feminism shapes our programmes and partnerships.
Read the Wen briefing ‘Decolonial Feminism and Climate Justice’
NNENNA ONWUKA, FEMINIST CLIMATE JUSTICE POLICY CAMPAIGNER
