A greener CEDAW: Adopting a women's substantive equality approach to climate change

Climate change seriously inhibits women’s ability to enjoy their rights and freedoms on a basis of equality with men. The shared conceptual roots between the domination of women and of the environment point towards approaching climate change as a matter of women’s equality. But what does this approach entail? Do climate change policies need to be engendered Is eliminating women’s inequality the key to tackling climate change? This chapter answers these questions by exploring the work of the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The CEDAW Committee is centring the role of women and adopting an intersectional, equality-based approach to the effects of climate change. Climate change is also pushing forward the boundaries of CEDAW, prompting the CEDAW Committee to focus on aspects of women’s equality that it has previously ignored. Going forward, the CEDAW Committee, can challenge dominant ideologies on that underpin women’s inequality in light of ecological degradation.