Cities 1.5
Cities 1.5
Why Women are Saving the Planet
The UN Women slogan for International Women’s Day 2024 is “Invest in women: Accelerate progress,” and in support of this goal we’re opening Season 3 of Cities 1.5 with a production team takeover! David Miller may be the voice of the podcast, but our amazing production team is all female. Also, we hear from two amazing women who are working to ensure that women’s voices are heard, mainstreamed and amplified, and that their needs are centred in the battle to stop climate breakdown.
Image Credit: Photo by Ruben Hutabarat on Unsplash
Featured guests:
Xiye Bastida is a youth climate activist, co-founder the Re-Earth Initiative, lead organizer of Fridays for Future New York City, and Secretariat Team Member of Future Generations Tribunal. Born in Atlacomulco, Mexico, Xiye is a proud member of the Otomi-Toltec Indigenous community. She is an undergraduate student set to receive her bachelor’s degree from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania this year, and will also be debuting The Whale Lagoon, a film she co-wrote and executive produced.
Silvia Marcon is the Head of Global Leadership at C40. She works with the Chair of C40, Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, her team in Paris, and the C40 Executive Director team to set the Chair’s strategic vision, implement their priorities, and coordinate Steering Committee engagement. Silvia leads the Women4Climate initiative, designed to advance and support the emergence of the next generation of female climate leaders in C40 Cities.
Special thanks to Jess, Peggy, and Dali of the Cities 1.5 Production Team for lending their voices to this episode.
Links
The Lasting Legacy of Women4Climate
Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy
United Nations: International Women’s Day March 8
The Re-Earth Initiative
Xiye Bastida website
How Xiye Bastida Became a Leader in the Climate Fight
If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website: https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/
Cities 1.5 is produced by the University of Toronto Press and Cities 1.5 is supported by C40 Cities and the C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and Economy. You can sign up to the Centre newsletter here. https://thecentre.substack.com/
Cities 1.5 is hosted by David Miller, Managing Director of the C40 Centre and author of the book Solved. It's written and produced by Peggy Whitfield and Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/
Our executive producer is Chiara Morfeo.
Edited by Morgane Chambrin: https://www.morganechambrin.com/
Cities 1.5 music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/
02[Cities 1.5 main theme music] I'm David Miller and you're listening to Cities 1.5, a podcast about how climate leaders are driving global change through local action.[urgent music] Welcome back to Cities 1.5. To kick us off for Season 3, I'm passing the mic to the Cities 1.5 production team because, even though you probably know me as the voice of the show, everything else that happens behind the scenes is thanks to our amazing team of brilliant and international women. And, since it's International Women's Day on March 8th, we thought this would be a nice way of honouring them and all the work they do on the show. Take it away, Jess.
Jess 00:55[upbeat, energetic music] I'm Jess Schmidt and I'm the producer of Cities 1.5. I help organize our schedule, engineer our recordings, support the script writing, edit the show, and get it ready for publication. Basically, I have a hand in almost every stage of the show's production. I like to say that I do everything except sing our theme tune, but even that is woman-created, thanks to our music designer, Lorna Gilfedder. I'm sort of the layperson on the show as my background is production rather than climate, but I love learning about the ways that cities are stepping up to save the world.
Peggy 01:28 I'm Peggy and I work at C40, an organization which has both a woman—Mayor Aki-Sawyerr of Freetown—and a man—Mayor Khan of London—serving as equal co-chairs. Half of C40's Steering Committee of mayors are women, some of whom you'll be hearing from later this season. And also, just over two thirds of our staff are women. My role on Cities 1.5 is to select fascinating guests who can share their stories about all the great work they're doing to stop the climate crisis in its tracks. I also co-create the scripts for what you hear when you tune in, and often come up with weird and wonderful ideas, some of which clear our production process.[music continues]
Dali 02:11 I'm Dali and I work with the University of Toronto Press as an editorial design and production coordinator. My role is representing the Press on the Cities 1.5 production team by assisting with recording and editing episodes before they go live to air. I also have a background in environmental planning and can speak to the importance of using an intersectional lens in sustainable development and climate action.
Jess 02:34 In this episode, we're going to be hearing from two women who are leading the charge in the climate movement. Both of these guests are bringing women to the front in forums that shape the world's policies, whilst ensuring that the particular needs and vulnerabilities of women are addressed properly, not sidelined.
Peggy 02:57[driving music] Women, girls, and many gender-diverse people are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis, but historically and currently, have not had the same opportunities to raise their voices as men have. Despite the fact that the majority of climate activism and non-profits are driven by women of all ages, political leaders are still overwhelmingly male. Just to give one example of what I mean, since the first COP, way back in 1995, only five women have been appointed to serve as COP president. At this rate, it would take until COP44 in 2039 to reach parity, with vital perspectives missed out on as crucial climate deadlines go by.
Dali 03:39 Studies show that climate change is a threat multiplier, meaning that it exacerbates the inequalities that women and girls face around the world. They are more affected by the health impacts associated with the climate crisis – poor mental health, domestic violence, trafficking, food insecurity, and illnesses related to water and air pollution.
Jess 04:01 In many parts of the world, women and girls suffer from higher mortality rates during extreme weather events like heat waves in France, China, and India, and cyclones in Bangladesh and the Philippines. Because women and girls tend to have less access to the resources required to adapt quickly to the impacts from climate—namely education, money, and power—they're also more likely to be injured by climate-related impacts and less likely to recover their health, housing, and work in the wake of disasters and extreme weather events.[music continues]
Peggy 04:33 Globally, women and girls are also disproportionately poorer and have lower levels of both education and literacy in comparison to men and boys. Despite this, women make up nearly half of the agricultural labour force in lower-income countries. If provided with the same access to resources as men, women could increase agricultural yields by 20–30%, which could help boost productivity and reduce world hunger by an estimated 12–17%. However, women are more likely to make their money from informal employment, which leads to decreased work stability, coupled with the lack of rights and workers' protection.[music continues]
Dali 05:20 Women from the global south, and especially members of varied Indigenous communities, often lead the charge in climate action. Despite these many prominent climate defenders, scientists, and activists hailing from lower-income communities, their leadership is not reflected in seats at the table in international climate fora. This is where decisions are made and the people doing the hard work deserve to see themselves properly represented.[music continues]
Jess 05:50 Women's voices must be heard.
Peggy 05:53 Women's voices must be listened to.
Dali 05:55 And women's voices must lead.[music continues then ends]
Jess 06:03 This year, on International Women's Day, the UN is calling on the world to invest in women and accelerate progress. The planet faces a stark choice– either we include, platform, and elevate women, or we risk being defeated by the climate crisis.
David 06:21[light, gentle music] Today, we'll be hearing from two very different women, living on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, who are both ensuring that women's voices are heard, mainstreamed, and amplified, and that their needs are centered in the battle to stop climate breakdown. One of them is a C40 colleague who's been instrumental in leading global climate mentorship for women. But first, I speak with an amazing and inspiring youth climate leader.
Xiye Bastida 06:52[rotary dial telephone rings][clicks] My name is Xiye Bastida. I'm a climate justice activist, and I'm calling in from Philadelphia.[receiver chimes, replaced in cradle]
David 06:58 Xiye Bastida was born in Mexico and brings to her activism the traditional wisdom of her Otomi-Toltec Indigenous heritage, along with a hefty dash of New York savviness, having moved there at the age of 13. Xiye is only 21 years old, but she's already been inspiring millions with her words aimed at both those pounding the pavements of global cities, calling for climate action, and world leaders at climate summits from Glasgow to Dubai.[music ends] Xiye, thanks so much for being on Cities 1.5.
Xiye Bastida 07:37 Thank you for having me. I'm really excited.
David 07:39 Can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, what you do, and what a normal day in your life looks like?
Xiye Bastida 07:48 I study here but I'm originally from Mexico, from a very small town about an hour away from Mexico City, and I'm part of the Otomi-Toltec Indigenous community, so I grew up with a lot of Indigenous philosophies and cosmovisions, and that kind of led me into my climate work now – my activism work. So, I've been in the climate space, organizing nationally and internationally, for about 5 years now. And my parents met at the first ever UN Climate Conference in Rio in '92, [chuckling] so I'm also a pretty established climate baby.
David 08:23 I did not know that. That is a wonderful little fact. Well, you're certainly living the life that your parents might have imagined at that time. It's, I think, very interesting to people who are listening, your Indigenous background. Can you talk a little bit about your upbringing, your life in Mexico, how the fact that your parents were at Rio influenced your thinking on climate and, you know, your path to getting to one of the most prestigious universities in the world in the United States, the University of Pennsylvania?
Xiye Bastida 08:55 Yeah, of course. So, I grew up thinking that my parents were a little crazy because they were the only people talking about climate all the time. They met when they were around my age. I'm 21 right now and they were already at these international conferences, representing youth. My mom just told my dad, "I'm going to marry you," after she heard him talk about his experience in Mexico and his fight on protecting Indigenous rights, and she thought, "That's what I want to do with my life." And so, I definitely had this experience of feeling that my parents were just on a fully different wavelength than most people around me, and that's because I saw this massive disconnect in my own community of what our philosophy was and what we were seeing. So, our philosophy in Indigenous communities across the world is reciprocity. We give back to ourselves, we give back to our community, we give back to the earth because we receive from all of these different places. It's also a philosophy of reverence. We're here to pay respect to Mother Earth. We're here to protect and respect our ancestors, but also future generations. And there's also really strong principles of that intergenerational collaboration, not only in the passing of knowledge, but also in the sense that now there's conversations between youth and elders. It's in internships and mentorships. It's not part of our community, the way that our society is organized, to actually have these wisdom circles where youth learn from elders. There's this quote that I love—this African proverb—that goes, "The youth run the fastest, but the elders know the path," and that is something that I live my life through. I am really open to learning from wisdom because I know that a lot of my generation has actually been saying,"The elders took our future away. They're throwing away our future and our present," and my theory of change is actually, "We're not going to get anywhere if we're just reinventing the wheel, each generation, each movement,” so all of that cosmology that I had, and philosophy, all around me in my own community. You know, because we're so close to Mexico City, we have one of the largest industrial areas in the country, and we make pharmaceuticals, auto parts, food, and all of that waste goes into our waterways, into our rivers, into our aquifers. So, how could I hear that our role on this planet was to take care of the Earth and what I was seeing is these massive amounts of waste, of pollution, destruction, disrespect, and also all of that mixed in with a climate crisis which happened when my hometown flooded when I was 13 years old? So, for me, my own town gave me everything, all the tools that I needed, to not only have the tools to see the world in an interconnected way, but also show me what disconnect looks like, and that's why I'm an activist.
David 11:52[somber music] Very interesting that you saw that disconnect so clearly when you were a relatively young person. Can you speak a bit more about how seeing a disconnect between everyday life and the underlying philosophy that you've been taught drove your interest in climate action and your path to speaking up? You've spoken up in forms around the world—quite famously to President Biden and a group of senior leaders, but not just there—and I think it's interesting to understand how the very clear vision it sounds like you had as a very young person, of what was happening being inconsistent with what was believed, has driven that.
Xiye Bastida 12:38 Yes. I think a lot of youth, especially in the activism space, you know, people call us naive or they call us idealistic because we don't know what the real world looks like; we haven't learned. You know, we get all of these things said about us and to us, but the reality for me is—[chuckling] and I said this in front of Biden—I said, "The naive thing is to think that we can continue living in this way and that things will be okay." It's actually brave and it's actually norm-breaking and groundbreaking that we are trying to protect the world. But for me, because that's how I grew up, it's just a given that I am on this planet to make sure that I can pass it on. I want to make sure that my kids and future generations can experience joy. I am seeing that there's this injustice. I am seeing that there's a disconnect. I know that these things can be preventable.[music fades out]
David 13:27 Xiye, what does climate justice mean for you?
Xiye Bastida 13:29 For me, climate justice means recognizing the way in which communities have been disenfranchised from access to nature, resources, and kind of autonomous decision-making. Communities have just been sidelined and it's systemic. I think that's the essence of climate injustice – that most communities that are breathing polluted air and where all their refineries are, waste facilities are in, or the pipelines, are going through are communities of colour – Indigenous communities. And the global south has been a place of extraction for the past hundreds of years, so climate justice means recognizing that these relationships have been broken, and then doing what we can to remediate that. I think it's irresponsible to think of climate in only carbon in the atmosphere, because if that was the only issue, it would be really easy to address it. I think the essence of the climate fight is that we need to make sure that communities are given back their dignity and that they're not scared of the future.
David 14:32 It's brave of you to say to world leaders that they're the ones who are naive, but you have to be right. There's a certain naivety in assuming that we can keep going the way we have when our actions are destroying local environmental systems, as you highlighted. You can't drink dirty water, for example. What was the reaction when you said that?
Xiye Bastida 14:52 The reaction was that this activist had to be paid by somebody because how could she believe those things without having an agenda to further? And that is something that it kind of breaks my heart a little. I think Indigenous cosmology is about interconnection. It's about interconnectedness and interdependence. We need to use that power that we have of being youth to challenge those who maybe, throughout their lives, had to reduce their vision.
David 15:20 And I just want to pick up on that point about your clarity of vision being a special power. It's a really interesting and powerful point on its own. Did you receive pushback because you're a young woman? You know, are there challenges to being a young female activist in the environmental movement? And how have you experienced that? Has your voice been welcomed? Do you think you've been treated differently by the media or political figures because you have an explicit cultural identity or Indigenous, you're a woman, you're youthful?
Xiye Bastida 15:55 I have a lot of thoughts about that. The thing is, a lot of the media that we consume about climate and a lot of our cultural perception of the world and the future is one of apocalypse. Like, that is just what has been fed to us, and that is extremely, extremely damaging because how are we supposed to think of 50, 100, 150 years into the future if our collective imagination is one of downhill and destruction? So, what we're saying is, especially as Indigenous communities, we're saying our world already ended when colonization happened. Our world ended when a company displaced people. Our world ended when our water got contaminated and we had to switch our way of culture because we cannot fish anymore. Stop thinking that something bad is coming, but start behaving as if we're already building from the bad thing that happened in the past. And that power of creativity, that power of imagination, and that power of clarity, I think it has a lot to do with feminine qualities that have been stripped away from a lot of international and national decision-making spaces. If you look at most of our ways of ruling the world and how the world behaves, it's based on these theories of realism and excluding any type of emotions and feelings in decision-making, because those things make you weak. These more masculine, cold qualities have permeated all levels of decision-making, but the truth is that, if we're not considering the human, if we're not considering that people suffer from war, that people suffer from oil extraction, from oil spills, then our decisions aren't actually going to reflect what's best for humanity. And that is why it's so essential to have women in these spaces because we are going to bring in a different theory of collective action. And, obviously, that trickles down to the individual; the way that male colleague is welcomed into an interview is very different than the way that I am welcomed in. In the youth climate space, it's mostly run by young women and young women of colour, as well. Almost every single city's climate leaders for the climate strikes were young women. Why? Because we're seeing that the attack on Mother Earth is an attack on women. It's an attack on the future. It's an attack on the past. It's kind of an instinct to protect the world.
David 18:14 Can you talk a bit about, from your very strong perspective, grounded in your Indigenous values with the reflections that you've given about being a young woman, how we should all think about that kind of hopeful message that what we're trying to do is build a future that is actually sustainable and real? That it's not about terrifying people with ideas of an apocalypse; it's about building a common future together.
Xiye Bastida 18:45 Yeah, I love this question because I think where we can be the most successful is when we start imagining what the future holds – the positive that we can build and be part of. A lot of people are drawn into this work based out of anger and common anxiety, and I believe that, if we do our work with anger, we're going to build an angry world. But, if you are coming from this with an attitude of not naivety and kind of like unwarranted optimism, but realizing that optimism is our survival tool, because without optimism and without the hope that comes from action, then things are just going to actually end up wrong. So, I always show up to my work from a deep, deep place of care, and I know it sounds like rosy and whatever to people, but imagine how hard it is to care in a world that does everything to strip that ability away from you. And so, when I show up in that way, the world that I'm building is the one that is built for care and is built for protection and is built for knowledge-sharing. And, if every single activist shows up like that, and every single person across architecture and economics and mathematics and physics shows up like that, the world that we build is going to be one that sustains life.
David 19:57 Action builds hope.
Xiye Bastida 20:00 Yes.
David 20:00[light, gentle music] Do you have any thoughts about what cities, the mayors that lead them, and the climate movement in general, including the youth climate movement, can do to help build that sort of hopeful, optimistic future that's about real action in a way that includes women, climate leaders, and others, particularly those outside of the global north?
Xiye Bastida 20:27 So, cities are an incredible place of movement building and also of community creation because, in activism, we have this concept of citizenship, movement and post-citizenship movement.[music fades out] Citizenship movement is something that furthers the rights of people, like the right to vote, the right to education, rights of protection of labour, etc., and a lot of our movements throughout time have been citizenship movements and they have been led by people who are concentrated in cities and want to address whatever social issue they care about. But, because there are more of these citizenship rights across cities in the world, then we can start to focus on post-citizenship movements that include more intersectional things – things like climate. People need to know—especially leaders in cities need to know—no change will actually be successful if it doesn't come from the community wanting it. And all mayors will be familiar with communities organizing and demanding that a city has a new bus line, or that they have better recycling facilities, or better urban planning, or deals with salinification better. All of these things are going to come because the community is seeing this effect, this impact. So, the best thing that a leader in a city can do is hold spaces for the community to meet and give the community what they've organized for. That is why, when I moved to New York when I was 13 because my parents got a job in New York, all of a sudden, I was in this city that was a stage in the world. New York is, for me, kind of this magnificent place, so I thought, "Why are we in a small classroom, telling people to bring paper straws to school when we could be in City Hall, talking to media and showing the world that youth in New York"—from all over the world, because a lot of us are immigrants or whatever from different places—"we care?" So, that's what we started doing, and that's why the movement in New York grew from six people the first week to 300,000 two months later, because we used the stage that is a city to make our demands global, to make other cities feel invited, other people feel invited, but also our identities—because cities are so diverse—made our communities also rise up with us. And then, our responsibility is to speak on behalf of our communities, always give back, but also, yeah, be those communicators for the intersections of the world, because that is what the world is now. All my friends are global citizens. All my friends have parents from two different countries and live in a third one and study in a fourth one and go to a conference in a fifth one. And because of that, we need to be able to stay grounded locally, but bring in that global perspective. That is the only thing that will allow us to build these movements that are truly grassroots while having global perspectives. And also, if you are only inviting one person from that community, that is not going to represent that community well, because that community member needs somebody else from the community to feel that they can communicate the perspective and the needs of that community. When I'm the only youth in a room, I feel so different than when there's another youth with me because I feel encouraged to actually share because I know that I have support. So, that's another note there for leaders– always have at least two people from that community for that demand and that ask.
David 23:50 You've co-founded an organization called the Re-Earth Initiative. Can you speak a bit about that and what you'd like to achieve with Re-Earth?
Xiye Bastida 23:59[driving music] Our mission at Re-Earth Initiative is to distribute resources to frontline communities across the world, but mainly we're focused right now on Latin America and parts of Asia. And by distributing resources, we mean actual money and also knowledge because a lot of the information about climate is in English. And when I mean climate, I'm talking about food systems and agriculture and all of these solutions are mostly in English, so we are trying to get that information to people. And then, out of all of the philanthropic dollars that go into the environment and to the social arena, only 2% goes to environmental NGOs or nonprofits, and out of that 2% that goes to environmental nonprofits, 0.76% goes to youth-led organizations.[music fades out] So, we are getting like a drop of the drop, basically, and we believe that, if you are part of the climate movement and climate space, yes, you're doing it because you care, but it shouldn't mean that you cannot have a dignified life where you can pay your bills, etc. And now, you know, we all started when we were in high school and money wasn't an issue because striking is free, but once you want to restore ecosystems, once you want to have community gatherings and education and courses, they require resources. Last year, our fiscal year, we distributed$250,000 to 45 youth-led nature projects and community-building projects across the global south, and we're super proud of that because that is why there's such a high level of anxiety among youth, because we are told that we're only focusing on problems but, when we want to focus on solutions, there's little support. So, that is what we're doing at Re-Earth. We want to make sure that people see the common movement as interconnected and as diverse and also as collaborative in the sense that youth are going to be entering into all of these adult spaces. Like, we are open to talking with politicians and business leaders and telling them, "You need a youth advisory." For example, the UN Secretary General has a Youth Advisory Board that has changed his approach to climate because, when you have the voices of youth in your spaces, inherently, you are already thinking of the next 50 years and the stability of your organization, business, government for the next 50 years. And most of our leaders are not thinking intergenerationally in that way.
David 26:26 Well, finding ways to channel significant amounts of resources to places where they're used the best is incredibly important. It sounds like you've found the way to do that with Re-Earth, so congratulations and continued success. What's next for you? What are your dreams? Where are things going to go for you?
Xiye Bastida 26:44 I actually have a film coming out. It's called The Whale Lagoon and it's going to be coming out in stages, but hopefully first in Mexico and across Latin America. It follows the story of an environmental win in Mexico, 20 years ago, that got the largest protected area instituted all across Latin America, but it also is about the present and the future. I followed the gray whale from Baja, California, all the way to the Arctic Circle in Alaska, and I talked to communities and I learned from that whole journey, so it's a story of success, but also how we can use past success for future success. And I'm about to graduate college in May of 2024, so I'm so excited about that, and just going to keep showing up to every single UN climate conference, organizing around every single gathering, and showing world leaders that we will never back down and we will get that future that was promised to us because we want to be responsible ancestors. My friends and I are also working on something called the Future Generations Tribunal, so if you would like to learn more about that project, you can also look it up, but we're doing basically everything that we can to make sure that the present and the future is protected.
David 27:59 Final question for you – is there a message you'd like to give to women and girls who want to get more involved in climate action and activism?
Xiye Bastida 28:11 Do what you are being called for because I know, for me, it was a calling. So, answer the call, show up, go to the meeting. Once you leave your house, go to that meeting, sit through it, take notes, ideas start to come in, community starts to build, and I would say whatever skill you have is what we need to fix the climate crisis.
David 28:29[pensive music] Thanks so much for taking the time to be with us here on Cities 1.5. But more importantly, thank you for your own leadership, your commitment, and bringing that sense that reality is about building a future that works with climate, based on the principles and practices that you grew up with. More of us need that hope and optimism to build the right kind of future. We really appreciate your efforts. Keep fighting because we can succeed.
Xiye Bastida 28:59 Yes, we can. Thank you for having me.
David 29:02 You're very welcome.[music continues then ends][light, driving music] This episode of Cities 1.5 is produced by University of Toronto Press with generous support from the C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and Economy. Want more access to current research on how city leaders are taking climate action? We also publish the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy. Our mission is to publish timely, evidence-based research that contributes to the urban climate agenda and supports governmental policy toward an equitable and resilient world. The Journal serves as a platform for dynamic content that highlights ambitious, near-term climate action, focusing on human-centered solutions to today's most pressing climate challenges. To read the latest issue, visit JCCPE.utpjournals.press or find the link in the show notes.
Silvia Marcon 30:00[rotary dial telephone rings] I'm Silvia Marcon. I'm C40 Deputy Director for Inclusive Climate Action, and I'm calling from France.[phone receiver chimes, replaced in cradle]
David 30:16 Silvia Marcon led the groundbreaking Women4Climate Initiative, which was created by the then C40 Chair, Mayor Anne Hidalgo of Paris. Women4Climate aimed to empower and nurture the next generation of women climate leaders through mentorship programs, training opportunities, networking, and tech challenges. The Initiative highlighted women's essential role in advancing climate action through research on gender equity in climate action.[music ends] Silvia, welcome to Cities 1.5.
Silvia Marcon 30:51 Thank you, David. Bonjour. Comment ça va?
David 30:53 Ça va bien, merci beaucoup. For our guests, can you just say a little bit about who you are, what you do, and your background?
Silvia Marcon 31:03 For sure. I'm Silvia Marcon. I've been working for C40 in different roles for the past seven years, and I'm currently working with the Inclusive Climate Action Team. I am Italian and, as many Italians, I enjoy living abroad so currently in France, and France is what brought me to C40 as I joined the network when the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, became the first woman chairing our organization.
David 31:33 It's interesting, Anne Hidalgo's influence on C40 and on the climate issue, not just as a very strong, effective mayor, but as a woman. And, really, that's what I want to talk to you about today is the role of women in climate. No question, there are some fabulous and effective women climate leaders, yourself included. Is there a gender issue in climate? Are the issues, globally, of women's rights and the climate crisis linked?
Silvia Marcon 32:09 I mean, climate acts as a magnifying lens on many of the equity and inclusivity challenges that our society faces, so climate does exacerbate some of the already-existing inequalities, and gender is a structural one in our society, as many other vulnerabilities of many other underrepresented groups lies in the economic, social, and political inequalities. So, women will be disproportionately impacted by climate crisis, but it also depends on what is the path of life, which regions they are living in, and what is their economic social status. Women are more likely than men to work in the informal sector, and this limits her access to social protection, employment benefits, health insurance, and so on. So, it makes it harder for women to cope with shocks such as extreme weather events when they appear. They don't have this safety net that men in formal jobs can experience. And then, of course, there are the many and very specific regional and geographical nuances in the way that climate change can affect women differently in many regions of the world. Women have greater dependency to raw materials, and they're just more present in climate-vulnerable sectors such as agriculture, fishery, and forestry. And very similarly, when a climate event strikes, then their livelihood and their resources will be affected differently.
David 33:59[somber music] The International Labour Organization, or the ILO, defines informal work as all paid work, both self-employed and wage employed "that is not registered, regulated or protected by existing legal or regulatory frameworks," as well as unpaid work "undertaken in an income-producing enterprise." Informal workers do not have secure employment contracts, workers' benefits, social protection, or workers' representation. One of the things that recently caught a lot of attention in the news and the climate side about power, and on a gender basis, was the fact that the initial Azerbaijan COP presidency—that's the country that's hosting the big climate conference this year—was all male. And it received huge global coverage, and then they quickly tried to change it, of course. What did you think when you heard that news that the COP presidency was going to be all male?
Silvia Marcon 35:04 Well, it's a shocker, it's upsetting and, at the same time, I guess we need to maybe have a broader look of, “What does it mean, this, for climate?" It speaks to many other challenges, I guess, that we observe when we look at gender decision-making and, as you put it, actually power – where this power lies.
David 35:24 Silvia, I think you and I probably take it for granted, but it's important to say – what do we miss when women aren't at the table?
Silvia Marcon 35:32 We miss a lot. We miss half of the society experience of life, of public spaces, of cities, of riding in transport, of riding a bicycle, buying groceries. When we don't have a woman in the room to share her perspective and her life experience of social spaces in cities, we lack all the differentiated experience we can have of these spaces, so we're not able to understand, "What are the barriers—physical, cultural and whatnot—that she experiences every day?" and we end up missing out on the specific ways in which public policies can address such lived experience and such need. And I think that we also miss something that now we have evidence, from research and from data, which is that women are actually engaged in decision-making differently and are more prone to take sustainability and social equity decisions when it comes to local, national, and global policies. So, they are supportive of more ambitious environmental and climate goals and equally on other topics such as education and professional opportunities. So, I think that we miss also important alliances in the climate movement because these are the better decisions that we would like all decision-making processes to make in local and global areas. Unfortunately, despite some advancement and progress towards gender balance, including into the structure and the policy commitment of the UN itself, the UNFCCC spaces continue to fall short in being gender balanced, so there is a really good organization that I encourage everyone to follow, which is WEDO (Women's Environment and Development Organization) who consistently track the progress made since 2008 and observe the percentage of women across all national delegation. And, although it has been raising a little bit, starting in 2009, it still falls short because it was 30% in 2009 and it was 38% at its peak in 2021, and it was back at 34% in 2023 in Dubai, so very limited progress. We need to acknowledge that women's participation in climate—as in every decision-making process—it's a human right, and if the decision-making process and the decision-making table in the room doesn't make the space for women to speak and to voice their experience and lived experience of climate change, they will keep producing decisions that are not good decisions, or in any case, that are decisions that do not address women's specific needs and do not answer to the specific threats that women experience.
David 38:31 How should we respond to that? You've been working in this area for years with C40. You're involved in something called Women4Climate. Is that part of a response? Can you talk about that initiative and what it's trying to do?
Silvia Marcon 38:43 Yes, with very much pleasure because it has been a fantastic experience, professionally, and a human experience that has been starting in 2016, which was, I think, a very exciting moment for the climate movement. We were just out of COP21 with, finally, an agreement—the Paris Agreement—so I think the morale was high and it was an agreement that was led by incredible women leadership. So, there was a moment where I think there was a good alignment and interest on this topic, and it was also a moment where our network has seen a growth in women leadership in most of the global cities. We have been starting with 84 cities in the network and only four of the 80 led by women, while in 2024, there were actually 20 women leading capitals all over the world. So, there was tension to design a program and initiative that both raised awareness on the specific vulnerability of women to climate, but equally, the intention of highlighting what we can call the incredible hidden figures of climate action in cities. While we were actually designing such an initiative with different C40 teams, because it has been a great organizational and collaborative effort, we have met great partners in the L'Oréal Foundation, and previously the L'Oréal Group, that have supported this initiative in the past seven years. And the Women4Climate Initiative, in a nutshell, has been built on a big block, which is a mentorship program and support emerging women climate leaders as mentees and share their experiences, share their knowledge, open the door, and support them in becoming influential leaders in their field, and progress the climate project in cities. One of the most important efforts of this initiative was also going a bit beyond C40 cities and beyond the women engaging in the network, and we have been setting up an online free course of about four weeks which provides a free certificate to people that complete the course, gaining leadership skills to implement climate projects, rooted in inclusivity and equity.
David 41:06[light, gentle music] The approach about mentoring sounds very powerful. Can you give a couple of examples so the listeners can understand what the results of that are, cities that are working on Women4Climate and how they are approaching it?
Silvia Marcon 41:20 In seven years, he had been working with 22 cities and 44 mentorship programs locally, so this is really the size of the network. And I think it was a fantastic opportunity to observe also how these women, of course, brought their knowledge and skills on climate and climate policy, but together with also the support of city officials acting as mentors, they don't just boost their ambition and the project, but they can also better understand how city policy processes implementation can actually work and support cities and projects. But equally, I think the city also gets inspired and better understands from the communities how climate change and climate policies are experienced, and can also take inspiration from the project, led by the women and grow this community in their cities.[music fades out] In 2023, actually, Freetown in Sierra Leone published its first climate action strategy, the first one in any case that really looks at the adaptation to climate reach and the flooding coastal erosion, which are big problems in the region. And in the same year, but afterwards, Freetown launched the second edition of the mentorship program and it has really closely aligned the mentees project selection with the strategy on climate resilience priorities. So, many of the projects selected currently are focusing on inclusive approaches to sanitation, waste, and water management. And the city has been fantastic in giving also the opportunity to these women to visit the city-led project and this is really a very insightful experience when you're a young professional, not sure about how your project can be relevant, how it can support the public policy. And getting these insights and these support and guidance from more senior professionals is really not just a great opportunity, but you really gain confidence, gaining validation also from the peers because there is also the effect of working collectively.
David 43:36 The example of Freetown interests me. You have a woman mayor. You have real, immediate issues, as you mentioned, and you have issues of informality and inequality that are quite significant. So, in that context, in Freetown, can you just speak a little bit about why it matters that women are becoming engaged in the climate action, including through this mentoring program, and any specific challenges that might be faced by a woman activist or climate leader in the global south, in a place like Freetown?
Silvia Marcon 44:11 I have been seeing them and absorbing them in interaction with other colleagues from the global network of women for climate, probably one of the fantastic perks of joining, not just a local mentorship program where you build your local community and sustainability network of professionals, but you also have a chance to look at how other women face similar challenges in other cities and how they are approaching them, how they are finding solutions for them. And I think that global south activists and global south climate leaders face very different challenges from what we can observe in other regions. Some of these projects start as a community project, as small NGOs, and it's sometimes a burden for a person, an activist, to have to deal with livelihood and finding a job, but equally, starting, in a challenging context, their own NGO or community-led initiative and activity. So, I think we have also the opportunity to learn from this example and project.
David 45:18 You've given a few lessons we might see from what's happening in Freetown. Any lessons from what you're seeing in Canada, including the collaboration between participants between cities– Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver? Anything comes out from that about the impact of women, particularly in this space, and how this collaboration between cities, as well as deepening the engagement of women within cities, is helping broader climate action?
Silvia Marcon 45:48 I think what the Women4Climate interest and traction shows on three Canadian cities engaged in the program, is that even if, at the national level, there is progress in general presentation and gender equality, there is still a need for spaces for women to engage.[driving music] And back to the question of the background of women from any walk of life, I think one of the most interesting things I observed from Toronto is actually a very strong equity, diversity, and inclusivity lens has been put into considering how mentees and mentors can be recruited and how the program can also be very intentional in reaching out to a variety of different internal and external partners. The cities have been working with the Indigenous Affair Office and the city's Environmental & Climate Division, and many community partners, and as many as 400 organizations serving equity-deserving communities in order to disseminate the call for application. And I think this was really groundbreaking for us because we haven't, you know, observed this in other cities, and I really hope that this is also what they can bring to other cities in the region.[music fades out] It was new, so I'm looking forward for the next edition of the mentorship to do this. But also, something that they have piloted was an innovative rotational mentorship model, so instead of pairing one woman, less experienced, with one woman more experienced, they have been pairing less experienced women with two or three different, more experienced mentors for probably less amount of time and focusing on particular skills, and I think that this speaks to what we need for climate action today. We need business skills. We need finance skills. We need communication skills. We need educational skills.[pensive music] And these have been giving mentees exposure to a variety of perspectives, and I think that this really speaks to what climate leaders need to be, in cities, to be able to work with everyone, to reach out to any communities. It was definitely an impactful measure that they have been putting in place.
David 48:01 I'm recording today from the historic territory of the Coast Salish people, and their perspectives on climate and the environment are really interesting and very much worth learning from. Silvia, I'm afraid that's all the time we have today. I could have this conversation with you forever. Thanks so much for spending this time with us and sharing your insights.
Silvia Marcon 48:22 Thank you very much. I'm looking forward to having more of these conversations.[music continues then ends]
David 48:29[upbeat, energetic music] The impacts of the climate crisis are existentially terrifying for everyone, but especially for those who are disproportionately impacted, namely women and girls. Fortunately, many prominent leaders, activists, and climate defenders also happen to be women and are perfectly positioned to understand the increased risks, allowing them to speak up in an informed way. However, for these views to be properly heard, these women leaders must be included at all levels of decision-making, especially the top. And cities, mayors, national governments, climate nonprofits and all of us must continue to invest in and give support to women working in the climate space.[music ends][Cities 1.5 main theme music] Next week's episode sees us exploring where the world stands after one of the most contentious COP meetings in recent memory, but also one which gave rise to a potentially agenda-setting breakthrough– the agreement to transition away from fossil fuels towards clean energy. We'll be talking to C40 Executive Director Mark Watts and world-leading climate academic, Xuemei Bai to get their inside takes on COP, why mayors are increasingly getting the seat at the table they so deserve, and how urban climate action is key to avoiding crucial and deadly climate tipping points.[music continues] This has been Cities 1.5, leading global change through local climate action. Thanks for listening to Cities 1.5. I'm David Miller. I was the Mayor of Toronto, Canada, and know, first-hand, the role cities can play in solving the climate crisis. I'm the Editor in Chief of the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, published by the University of Toronto Press in collaboration with the C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and Economy, where I'm also the Managing Director. C40's mission is to help our member cities halve their emissions within a decade, while improving equity, building resilience, and creating the conditions for everyone, everywhere to thrive.[music continues] Cities 1.5 is produced by University of Toronto Press in association with the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy and C40 Cities. This podcast is produced by Jessica Schmidt, and our executive producers are Peggy Whitfield and Dali Carmichael. Our music is by Lorna Gilfedder. The fight for an equitable and resilient world is closer than you think. To learn more, visit the show's website, linked in the episode notes. See you next time.[Cities 1.5 main theme music continues then ends]
