In the ongoing battle against climate change, women have emerged as powerful agents of change, driving innovative solutions and inspiring transformative actions. This article sheds light on the remarkable achievements of ten women who have made significant contributions in combating the global climate crisis.
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Although women roughly make up half of the global population and are more vulnerable to climate change due to cultural, social, and economic factors, many women are leading the fight to protect our environment.
While not exhaustive, this list includes ten women who are tirelessly working to lead the fight against climate change through action, policy, and education.
10 Women Leading in the Fight Against Climate Change
1. Elizabeth May
Leader of the Green Party of Canada
May is a Canadian environmentalist, lawyer, and politician. She is currently serving as the leader of the Green Party of Canada, and previously covered the same position from 2006 to 2019. This makes her the longest-running female leader of a Canadian federal party. A driving force between indigenous and environmental issues alike, she has recently come out of retirement to ensure that Canada is committed to their targets set in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
“We should face the science clear-eyed with a serious intent that acknowledges we cannot afford to hit the snooze button on this report because this time the scientists are telling us that 1.5°C is far more dangerous than we thought it was,” May said in a statement to the House of Commons.
Throughout her career, her moral compass has not swayed nor has she sacrificed her values to get ahead. She has been a powerful advocate for the environment and marginalised communities. She is a climate change realist who pushes back on Canada’s MPs. In a 2023 interview with Global News, May said Canada is in a “new kind of climate denial by continuing to push policies that won’t meet international obligations to reduce carbon emissions.”
2. Marina Silva
Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Brazil
Speaking at the 28th Conference of the Parties, COP28, Silva discussed the importance of prioritising the environment and pushed developed countries to set an example. Experiencing the deforestation of Brazil’s rainforests firsthand, Silvia has become a driving force for change in Brazil.
In the 1980s, Silvia became one of the architects of a grassroots resistance group against deforestation of the tropical rainforests and indigenous lands in Brazil. The efforts resulted in the protection of two million hectares of forests and the livelihoods of hundreds of indigenous people.
As Brazil’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Silva has helped push for several bills and regulations to protect the Amazon and prevent deforestation, such as the Public Forest Management Bill and the Atlantic Forest Bill. These frameworks helped reduce deforestation rates by 84% between 2004 and 2012.
Following Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat in Brazil’s 2022 presidential elections, Lula announced Silva’s return as Minister of the Environment. Since their appointment, deforestation in the Amazon has decreased exponentially.
3. Kimiko Hirata
Executive Director at Climate Integrate, Japan
Hirata is an environmentalist who catalysed the fight against coal in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Following the accident, the country planned to build coal plants for energy generation. Motivated to stop this, Hirata published a study on the implications of coal pollution, networked with communities near the proposed coal plants, and worked with local politicians and journalists, eventually successfully preventing 13 planned coal plants from being built and thus averting an estimated 42 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year from being released into the atmosphere. In 2021, she was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her environmental work.
4. Eleni Myrivili
United Nations Chief Heat Officer, Greece
In 2021, Myrivili became the United Nations’s first Chief Heat Officer. Her goal is to increase awareness of the implications of climate change, specifically extreme heat. As the former deputy mayor for Urban Nature and Climate Resilience (2014-2019) in Athens, Greece – a heatwave-prone country – she has promoted climate action projects and worked tirelessly to make cities more sustainable by introducing urban green spaces and securing funding for these important projects.
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5. Dayle Takitimu
Co-Chair, Ministerial Advisory Committee, Aotearoa (New Zealand)
Takitimu is an indigenous rights and environmental lawyer, the co-chair on the Ministerial Advisory Committee in Te Whānau ā Apanui – a Māori iwi located in the eastern Bay of Plenty and East Coast regions of Aotearoa’s North Island – as well as Head of School at Toihoukura in Gisborne. Her climate change expertise and drive to fight for indigenous and environmental issues has given her the ability to lead Aotearoa (New Zealand) with integrity. Additionally, Takitimu took on a 40-day protest against Petrobras, a Brazilian petroleum company, successfully preventing a planned exploration of Te Whānau a Apanui deep sea territories for oil extraction.
6. Dorte Krause-Jensen
Professor, Aarhus University, Denmark
Krause-Jensen is a professor in the Department of Ecoscience – Marine Ecology at Aarhus University, Denmark. She is helping to quantify carbon stocks in natural landscapes – in other words, quantify the amount of carbon sequestration – that occur in natural environments – particularly marine environments – with the goal of developing nature-based climate solutions. Specifically, her work involved the role of macroalgae in marine carbon sequestration and the net primary production in coastal environments.
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7. Catherine Sarah Young
Artist, designer, and writer, Philippines/Australia
Young is a Filipino artist based in Australia. Intersecting science, art, and design, she uses perception to communicate the reality of climate change, and call for action. In her 2016 piece, “The Sewer Soaperie”, she used sewer water to make soap. This piece was a statement after one of the most powerful tropical cyclones in the world hit the Philippines in 2013, killing at least 6,300 people. Flooding as a result of the cyclone caused sewer systems to overflow. Young’s art piece highlighted how many cities are not equipped with the infrastructure to support the rate of climate change.
In her 2014 piece, “The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store”, she made perfumes of scents that are set to be lost due to anthropogenic climate change, including coffee, coasts, honey, wine, and ice. This piece is intended for humans to link the scent to memories and motivate them to act to preserve the climate. Another great example is the 2021 artwork “The Weighing of the Heart”, where Young made a human heart sculpture out of remains from the Australian bushfires.
8. Melina Laboucan-Massimo
Founder of Sacred Earth Solar & Co-Founder and Senior Director of Indigenous Climate Action, Canada
Laboucan-Massimo is the founder of Sacred Earth Solar, a company dedicated to bringing renewable energy to indigenous communities across Canada. She is also the co-founder and Senior Director of Indigenous Climate Action (ICA), which incorporates indigenous knowledge and rights into climate change solutions. Specifically, Laboucan-Massimo and ICA have given indigenous peoples a voice in the climate debate by conducting research and publishing several publications, including Decolonising Climate Policy in Canada and Indigenous-led Climate Policy.
9. Nicola Kagoro (“Chef Cola”)
Chef, Zimbabwe
Kagoro, better known as Chef Cola, is a vegan chef from Zimbabwe with the goal to bring vegan culture to the country by providing creative and affordable plant-based food solutions to her community. She recently spoke at the UN climate summit in COP28 in Dubai about the importance of vegan diets and their significantly smaller greenhouse gas emissions compared to carnivorous diets. “The vegan lifestyle accounts for 75 percent less in greenhouse gas emissions than those who eat more than 3.5 KG [kilograms] of meat a day. If this is not a clear solution for a global problem I can not see a better way forward,” she said.
10. Winnie Cheche
Climate activist, Kenya
Last but not least on our list of women leading the fight against climate change is Winnie Cheche, a conservationist, environmental blogger, and communication lead at Kenya Environmental Action Network (KEAN) – a grassroots community promoting environmental protection and policies. Her goal is to educate Kenyan youth and promote the importance of sustainability, conservation, and climate action through her blogs. She stands by the belief that “we are custodians of nature and that it is our duty to protect it.”
Featured image: Marina Silva. Photo: Talita Oliveira/Flickr
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