There’s an interesting study by BCG that suggested that trends point to women will be left behind with current efforts on climate change.
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Gender responsive climate budgeting is a new idea for me, will need to learn more.
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Gender pay gap reporting is getting more ‘pointed’ every year. Really loved the Twitter posts this year… (3) Gender Pay Gap Bot (@PayGapApp) / Twitter Wouldn’t it be great to have this for D&I?
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I’m interested that so many of us have highlighted how complex this issue is as compared to a “traditional” human rights framework that business is more accustomed to working within. So long as it feels like a dense forest full of dangers, companies will be reluctant to participate. In part, breaking down the issue so that there are straightforward best practices and starting blocks will be really key.
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Hi LIzzy, It is being done in the public sector but less so in the private sector. I can dig up some info on this from other colleagues.
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OK last question coming up…What role can technology, including social technology, play to ensure that those least represented due to gender, race, age or disability, play an active role in their organisation’s climate change ambitions.
In my former role developing climate justice strategy at U.S. telecom company Verizon, we looked deeply into the role of technology in not only helping advance climate resilience for those vulnerable to physical or transition risks of climate change, but how technology can work in favor of underrepresented communities. This was motivated by Verizon’s aspirations as a technology company – we looked at technology and social innovation through technology as very much material issues. We found many opportunities there – and a lot of pitfalls as well. On the pitfalls side, technology is very often controlled by dominant groups (those with resources, education, access – think Silicon Valley), and co-creation of equitable technologies with communities remains a bit of a fantasy. We created a technology accelerator in Climate Justice (Forward For Good: Climate Justice Cohort) but were not successful in surfacing the work of many founders of color or frontline communities. We were more successful in threading that needle in our later work launching the Verizon Climate Resilience Prize, where we learned from our earlier mistakes not prioritizing founders from frontline communities.
On the social technology side, I have been inspired by the work of the U.S. startup ISeeChange (one of the startups from the Verizon Forward for Good Accelerator), which essentially mobilizes people in climate change-impacted communities as “sensors” reporting the changes they see in their environments, whether from heat, flooding, drought, etc. Their platform functions like a social network and empowers individuals to report what they’re seeing at the ground level, not rely on underfunded agencies or overextended emergency responders to get it right. Their business is mostly fee-for-service at the moment doing stakeholder engagement for large engineering and public works projects, but their potential (and ambition) is much larger.
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Technology can offer access to information and provide an avenue for inclusion in a way that has not previously possible. On the one hand tech can be a tool to support the prioritisation of particularly vulnerable voices, by allowing them to directly draw attention to specific issues e.g. stop Cambo campaign, bringing young people’s and other grassroots Scottish voices to weigh in on the fossil fuel debate via use of social tech.
On the other hand tech can also provide a tool via which data that supports the lived experience of marginalised groups can be collected and disseminated. Here IDH makes the case for using farm level data to make informed decisions on interventions and investments in smallholder farming How to best use farm-level data for impactful smallholder models
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Some suggestions from our Youth Fellows:
There should be a call for every genuine mobile phone company to mass-produce low cost phones to be donated to those least represented because of their different circumstances.
Resources can be shared to those who may not have been able to access them before. Social technology such as Telegram etc. brings a sense of anonymity, which may allow those who usually aren’t able to speak up to do so in a safe environment. Technology can bring about a sense of equality if used in the right way.
Social technology can better convey the trends, the points of connection, and areas of intersection between people. They also act as a medium to help this connection and communication between different stakeholders in climate change ambitions.
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Do you think framing climate justice around the 7 Mary Robinson principles helps give the concept specificity for business ? (the 7 principles being human rights, just transition, sharing burdens and benefits, DE&I, education and skills, participation, partnership)
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Take a look at the IDH Living Wage and Living Income Roadmaps @dylansiegler - this was the aim.
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For us at Mercy Corps, technology within our organisation has allowed us to have much more frank conversations about how we show up, who makes decisions, how we work with local partners. ‘Localization’ is a priority for many non state actors - I wonder how it translates into business…? Our working definition of localization, “The conscious transfer of resources, decision-making and power closer to the communities we serve. To advance localisation, we aim for: increased decentralisation and diversity of representation in Mercy Corps’ staff and leadership; more equal partnerships with local actors; and increased participation of community members themselves in our programs. We will adapt our role as international actors, adjusting our work to specific areas where we can add value and reducing our presence where possible.”
Embracing localization in a way that leads to true transformational change – and not simply cosmetic adjustments – will require time, attention, learning and evolution, adjustments, collaboration with others, and readiness to think and act in new ways. Technology will hopefully speed this up and keep the conversations flowing and transparent…As a recent New Humanitarian article explained, “to meaningfully change the humanitarian sector, reforms must challenge its underlying architecture.” This means consciously and continually working to address inequitable power dynamics in our global culture, operations, programming, and sector more broadly.
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One benefit that technology provides is that it can scale a program and enable greater participation. This is theoretically true but a consideration should also be given to digital adoption especially in markets where IFC operates. The World Bank digital adoption index might be helpful here.
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The skills transition related to climate change shifts – whether shifting from brown/grey to green industry, or moving to more sustainable practices will be significant. Accessible technology platforms for reskilling and upskilling could play an important role, as well as recognised, transferable certifications of skills and qualifications.
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This is exactly the kind of climate justice strategy that comes out when you ask stakeholders what it is they need. At Verizon our inclination had been to go super high-tech – help a startup developing a low earth orbit satellite network, for instance – when what we heard from our communities was much more straightforward. Make available quality broadband. Support grassroots organizations that make our homes livable in extreme heat. It’s not that hard.
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Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice | Principles of Climate Justice @AliceAllan I hadn’t seen these - they’re great. Simple and useful framing. ‘Just transition’ is the one I think many people get confused by.
I think this works at a high level – sort of like the SDGs, however, it’s hard to measure against.
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My hope is that with the need to track scope 3 emissions companies will have to look further down their supply chains…this might make the localisation agenda more front of mind…
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This principle of localization is absolutely becoming more of interest to large corporations. It is incredibly hard to execute on effectively without large NGO partners who are still able to operate at a very grassroots level on behalf of a company. In the U.S., there are very few NGOs operating at a national level on the social impacts of climate change as of yet.
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I 100% think this will prompt companies to have to understand their own risks at the extremities of their supply chains – which will lead them to look into the risks impacting the people in those communities. Scope 3 is fairly opaque to most as of yet and there’s a lot to figure out.
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