Read the session “In case you missed it” notes here.
Key takeaways
1. The “climate crisis as equalizer” is a false narrative. Climate change impacts magnify inequities and inequalities for people marginalized by poverty, gender, sexuality, disability, and/or migration status.
Before a disaster, these people are hit hardest and recover slowest afterward. And the Caribbean region as a whole rarely gets a chance to fully recover between extreme weather events which leads to an ever-widening gap in access to support and resources.
2. LGBTQ+ and disabled people are systematically and systemically excluded from disaster planning and data, and the subsequent relief efforts born out of them.
Real examples surfaced: gender-binary shelters that leave trans and gender-nonconforming people with nowhere safe to go; masc-presenting women and trans women are often turned away from women’s shelters; disaster death/recovery counts that don’t even include LGBTQI+ people or migrants (e.g., Haitian migrants post-Hurricane Dorian). Speakers noted this exclusion starts long before a disaster hits, rooted in decision-makers’ biases and a general lack of understanding of the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity.
3. After disasters, women and girls carry unseen burdens that add up. They often lose access to hygiene products, are expected to provide unpaid care for family and community and face greater risks to their safety.
Disasters multiply unpaid care work (often for people outside one’s own family), erode dignity (e.g., lack of menstrual products or privacy in shelters), and increase risks of gender-based violence and sexual exploitation as people compete for scarce aid during tense.
4. Ignoring intersectionality within vulnerable communities undermines climate justice for all. Closing the gap in disaggregated data on these subgroups is essential to address this.
Heartbreaking anecdotal stories of elderly women left without repaired homes years after a disaster, women with smaller families overlooked for aid, undocumented/unbanked people unable to access digital recovery systems demonstrate that even within “women” or “LGBTQ+” categories, sub-groups face very different levels of neglect. Without the data present and available, it is difficult to provide these intersectional groups redress or provide them adequate access to support and resources.
5. To achieve climate justice for marginalised groups, coalition-building, youth leadership, and structural/legal change in tandem are critical.
Growing solidarity across women’s rights, LGBTQ+, labour and environmental movements; rising youth involvement; grassroots organizations (e.g., the Sugarcane Collective, Solidarity Yaad); and international momentum like the UN vote affirming the ICJ’s climate justice ruling have been cited as reasons for hope amongst these populations. However, meaningful legal protections and sustained funding for civil society are still in high demand and critically needed for forward movement towards climate justice.