Shortcomings in climate policy highlighted by new report launched in Cork

IRISH climate policy impacts us all, but is it inclusive and fair for women and marginalised communities?

Three leading UCC academics, Dr Fiona Dukelow, Dr Catherine Forde, and Edith Busteed, of the Department of Applied Social Studies at University College Cork, created a first-of-its-kind baseline report to examine the gaps in knowledge, understanding, and policy action concerning climate change and its impact on women and marginalised communities in Ireland.

The Feminist Climate Justice Report, commissioned by Feminist Communities for Climate Justice through a t project between the National Women’s Council of Ireland and Community Work Ireland, was launched last week at an event at Lapp’s Quay, UCC, Thursday April 11.

The report’s six key areas of investigation include a Just Transition, Care, Energy Poverty and Housing, Transport, Food, Land Use, Agriculture and Biodiversity, and Health.

The study points out the many shortcomings in the existing climate policy, including the lack of women and marginalised communities in climate decision-making, insufficient gender-specific data surrounding the impacts of climate breakdown, neglecting to include care work in national climate policy, and an overall failure of the current Just Transition plans to reduce inequalities for women and marginalised communities.

The government’s present response to climate change, according to the report, is making the disparities already faced by women, elderly people, persons with disabilities, travelers, and asylum seekers worse.

Individuals are expected to take climate action under current government policy, yet the obstacles that impede people from making climate-friendly decisions are being left unaddressed.

Dr Fiona Dukelow, who led the report project, said: “Existing issues and inequalities including energy poverty, housing poverty, food poverty, mobility and spatial injustices experienced by these groups and communities risk being exacerbated by the climate crisis and prevailing policy responses. Conversely, climate policies can also confer benefits which are not equally distributed.”

She shared how policies favour those who can afford to invest in electric car upgrades and retrofitting houses, and how this gives people already advantaged further advantage.

On the other end of the economic scale, policies such as carbon taxation applied to fuel and transport to encourage reduced use can have a regressive impact and disproportionately affect lower income groups where such costs take up a higher proportion of their income.

Those who are benefiting the most from climate policies in the upper-income brackets are also those most responsible for our carbon footprint in Ireland and throughout the EU, with an analysis based on 2019 revealing that the top 10% of income groups are responsible for 28% of consumption-based emissions, compared to 29% for the bottom 50%. This translates to one high earner creating the same level of climate footprint as five lower-income ones.

Those on higher incomes are contributing much more to climate emissions; however, they are buffered through having greater means to protect themselves from climate change impacts, while the marginalised remain vulnerable and the least able to cope with and adapt to climate policies.

The report shares how a study revealed that within the Traveller Community, 73% are going without heating, and 60% cannot keep their household warm. Their average spend on energy is five to six times higher than that of the general population, yet Government schemes for retrofitting remain inaccessible for Travellers who live in trailers.

Collette McEntee, Project Coordinator for Feminist Communities for Climate Justice, shared: “This report clearly shows that the government has a blind spot when it comes to the overlap of the climate crisis and its impact on women, disabled people, Travellers, and many others. 

This has to change. If we are to meet our climate goals and make a Just Transition, it must be a fair, sustainable transition for everyone, not a select few.

Report co-author, UCC researcher Edith Busteed spoke about the need for Irish policy to go beyond place-specific analysis to incorporate gender and intersectional lens, and spoke about how a lack of adequate public transport leads to social exclusion, resulting in people being locked into car use.

The lived experiences of women and marginalised groups were brought to life by two inspiring speakers at the launch: Princesita ‘Queenie’ O’Riordan, Founder of Sister Hub Cork, and Orla Burke, Member of Independent Living Movement Ireland.

You could hear a pin drop as Princesita ‘Queenie’ O’ Riordan, Founder of Sister Hub Cork, shared the stories of Sister Hub impacted by the floods in Midleton last year. She spoke of the grim consequences for Anna, a hairdresser whose business was damaged and closed for months; Ellen, a single parent losing her job as a seamstress due to business closure; and Marie, a carer with transport challenges for her ill husband. She spoke with pride about how, at the SisterHub, a multicultural network for women in Cork, they take small but substantial steps to raise awareness and collaborate with groups.

Orla Burke, a member of Independent Living Movement Ireland, an organisation by and for disabled people, described a challenging background narrative around disabilities growing up.

Securing her current role as Community Climate Action Officer with Cork City Council hinged on her having a full driving license, an impossibility due to her disability. She shared how she thinks of the moment when someone within the council changed the criteria from being a requirement to preferred, and this small act of a more inclusive green job specification changed her career trajectory.

Orla urged everyone to to vote to ensure the needs of all are heard, giving agency to voices that were for too long hushed, noting that, when united, these voices make up 22% of the Irish population and are powerful if they stand together.

The report is complete, but the work of creating a more just transition for all is just beginning. In the words of Ann Irwin, National Coordinator of Community Work Ireland (CWI); “Analysis isn’t enough; we need action.”

While the Irish government’s policies to date may have been blind to how the climate crisis intersects with women and marginalised communities, this report is a powerful catalyst that provides evidence-based research to make them see the glaring inadequacies of current policies and will serve as an important benchmark against which further progress can be measured.

The launch is a proud moment, not only for the organisations and researchers behind this inaugural report but for all Irish women and marginalised groups.

We finally have a powerful tool that makes our invisible climate policy experiences and challenges visible, that can serve as a lever to push policy in a more just direction.

To view the full report and find out more see https://www.nwci.ie/discover/what_we_do/feminist_communities_for_climate_justice