Abstract
Feminist environmentalist debate explores possible linkages between women and environmental issues such as inequality. One of the most pressing global problem at the centre of this debate is climate change vulnerability. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) creates global policy awareness on the realities of climate change vulnerability, women in the poor coastal regions of the periphery societies such as the Niger Delta, Nigeria, prone to environmental degradation seem to be missing out. This subject matter has been of immense policy concern. The increase in recent decades of environmental disasters, deleterious effects of oil resource exploitation by the Multinational Corporations (MNCs), pollution, gas flaring, acid rain, sea level rise, ozone layer depletion, global warming and related pressures, provide the need to explore feminist environmental challenges. As all such problems manifest with divergent climate related implications, the most fundamental challenge they pose to women seem less talked about. Niger Delta women who are largely bread winners in most rural households are at risk as their subsistence relies heavily on the natural environment such as farming, fishing, petty trading, gathering of periwinkles, oysters, crayfish etc. To explore this dynamic, the study deployed a desk review of relevant secondary data to examine possible linkages between feminist environmentalism and climate change mitigation. Findings suggest that climate change, mitigation has been minimal. The paper made some policy recommendations. Key words: Environmental security, climate change, women, development, Niger Delta
Highlights
The 1990s have often been dubbed “The Decade of the Environment.” Certainly the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 brought the countries of the world together to address such issues as biodiversity, global warming, acid rain, pollution, deforestation and desertification, species endangerment, preservation of wilderness, and energy consumption to international attention (Warren, 1996)
This paper argues that while climate change studies have taken different dimensions since the 1990s following the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, policy framings on feminist environmentalism among the coastal areas have been elusive
This study provides a systemic exploration of the nexus between climate change and feminist environmentalism
Summary
They must unite the demands of the women’s movement with those of the ecological movement to envision a radical reshaping of the basic socioeconomic relations and the underlying values of this (modern industrial) society (p.204) We have chosen this framework to understand the existential realities of the Niger Delta women in environmental contexts and for global policy discourse among the coastal areas and the wider periphery societies of the global South. Issues such as feminist environmentalism are important to developmental researchers and policy makers seeking for more equitable and sustainable resource use and possible gender mainstreaming in climate change vulnerability and mitigation. The concerns raised are necessary for any adequate environmental policy
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