Question: What becomes possible when we stop treating queer justice, feminist liberation, labour rights, and climate action as separate battles and start building the unified movement our survival demands?
Answer: A comprehensive and promising approach to tackling the issues crucial to the survival of us all. On a macro-level, any approach to climate justice must include the Global South. On a micro-level, social injustice disproportionately affects vulnerable people without whom no global solution is possible. If we combine these macro and micro-levels, it quickly becomes clear that queer and feminist perspectives from Africa are uniquely placed to point the way forward.
The Climate Crisis
It disproportionately affects the world’s most vulnerable populations, yet mainstream environmental discourse often overlooks the interconnected nature of social and environmental justice. In East Africa, where countries like Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia face mounting climate challenges while simultaneously grappling with social inequalities, the need for integrated approaches to activism becomes particularly urgent. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms, Africa experiences “widespread losses and damages attributable to human-induced climate change, including biodiversity loss, water shortages, reduced food production” despite contributing minimally to global emissions.
The climate crisis is more than an environmental challenge, it is a deeply rooted social, economic, and political issue, particularly in the Global South. Confronting these complex problems demands the unification of queer, feminist, and labour perspectives, which together offer pathways towards more just and effective climate action.
Vulnerability — The Lived Reality of Climate Injustice
When we speak of climate vulnerability, we are not discussing abstract risk assessments. We are talking about the grandmother in rural Kenya who walks six hours daily to fetch water because the local river has dried up. We are talking about the young lesbian couple in Kampala who were denied access to emergency shelter during floods because aid workers questioned their relationship. We are talking about the fisherman in Tanzania who has watched his catch dwindle by 60% over a decade, unable to feed his family, afford antenatal care for his wife or pay school fees.
Vulnerability operates at multiple, interconnected levels. At the material level, it means lacking resources like money, land ownership; or access to credit, that would enable someone to adapt to climate shocks. A female farmer in rural Uganda might understand perfectly well that drought-resistant seeds would help her survive changing rainfall patterns, but without a land title or access to agricultural extension services, that knowledge remains theoretical. As UN Women reports, women comprise 70% of smallholder farmers yet face heightened vulnerability as changing rainfall patterns and extreme weather events threaten food security and water availability.
At the institutional level, vulnerability means being excluded from decision-making spaces where climate policies are shaped. When government officials design climate adaptation programs without consulting queer communities, they create policies blind to the specific barriers queer people face in accessing resources. In Uganda, where the Anti-Homosexuality Act has intensified persecution, LGBTQIA individuals often cannot access disaster relief because doing so might require revealing their identity to hostile officials or community members.
At the bodily level, vulnerability means facing direct physical harm that is both climate-related and socially mediated. During extreme heat events, transgender individuals may avoid seeking medical care due to fear of discrimination, leading to higher rates of heat-related illness. During floods that destroy homes, lesbian women may face heightened risk of sexual violence in overcrowded displacement camps where heteronormative family structures are assumed and enforced.
The UN Gender Snapshot 2024 reveals alarming projections: by 2050, climate change may push up to 158 million more women and girls into poverty, with 47.8 million more women currently facing food insecurity than men. In countries like Mali, over 50% of women work in agriculture, yet only 5% hold land titles, illustrating how structural inequalities compound climate vulnerabilities.
Theoretical Foundations: Climate Justice and Social Justice
The connection between climate justice and social justice is not coincidental, it is structural. Numerous scholars as I will briefly show, have explored this connection. Benjamin Sovacool, for example, is convinced that, effectively addressing climate change requires confronting interconnected systems of oppression instead of treating environmental issues in isolation. As he puts it, “energy and climate policies cannot be divorced from concerns about racism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, and other forms of structural inequality.”
Jessica Feng takes this further by introducing the concept of “queer climate justice,” which recognizes that “LGBTQ+ communities face unique vulnerabilities in climate disasters while simultaneously offering distinctive forms of resilience and resistance to extractive systems.” She explains that queer climate justice is not simply about including LGBTQ+ people in existing climate frameworks, but about recognizing how heteronormativity itself is implicated in the logic of extraction and exploitation that drives the climate crisis.
This intersectional analysis, which is rooted in Black feminist thought, demonstrates that overlapping systems of oppression, colonialism, patriarchy, and heteronormativity, shape environmental vulnerability and resilience in intertwined ways. Feminist theory has long emphasized how gender mediates exposure to environmental risks and influences the capacity to respond to climate-induced crises. Queer theory informs this analysis by highlighting how non-normative sexualities and genders experience heightened risk and exclusion in climate-impacted contexts.
Labour theory, particularly the concept of a “just transition,” highlights the importance of protecting workers’ rights as societies transition from fossil-fuel dependence toward greener economies. This approach emphasizes decent work, social protection, and meaningful participation in decision-making as essential components of sustainable transformation. A just transition recognizes that environmental sustainability and social justice must advance together if climate policies are to be both effective and equitable.
Climate Justice Requires Social Justice.
These and other scholars connect climate justice to broader questions of social justice through feminist, labour, and queer perspectives. In his work on pluralizing energy justice, Sovacool argues that climate and energy policies cannot be understood separately from the social structures that shape vulnerability and access to resources. His research demonstrates that energy transitions which fail to address inequalities related to gender, race, or sexuality risk reproducing existing patterns of marginalization.
Feng’s research on queer climate justice directly addresses how LGBTQ+ individuals face disproportionate climate impacts due to discrimination in housing, employment, and healthcare, which reduces their adaptive capacity. She documents cases where queer people have been denied disaster assistance, excluded from climate adaptation programs, and faced violence in climate-displaced populations.
Existing research suggests that climate-related disasters can intensify social exclusion and vulnerability among marginalized populations. For LGBTQIA+ individuals, barriers to housing, healthcare, legal protection, and social support may increase the risks associated with environmental crises and displacement.
Community-based feminist movements often strengthen resilience by mobilizing local knowledge, mutual support networks, and collective forms of action during environmental crises. Such approaches can be particularly important in contexts where vulnerable communities have limited access to formal systems of support and must rely on locally organized responses to climate-related challenges.
Alonso-Epelde and colleagues’ systematic review of climate action from a gender perspective identifies how “non-normative gender identities and sexualities face heightened exclusion in climate policy and practice.” This research maps how climate programs consistently fail to consider LGBTQIA+ communities, rendering them invisible in adaptation planning.
As a final example, the IPCC Africa report identifies “gender inequalities” among key governance barriers hindering climate action across African countries. While the IPCC’s language is often cautious, the report acknowledges that addressing climate change in Africa requires tackling social inequalities, including but not limited to gender.
Innovative Leaders in Practice: Feminist and Queer Movements Advancing Climate Justice Organizations in East Africa
Having outlined some theory, here now are examples of practical applications. Across East Africa, innovative organizations are putting intersectional climate activism into practice, explicitly linking social and environmental justice.
Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA), based in Uganda, provides one of the clearest examples of feminist climate justice in practice. In its policy brief Global South Perspectives on Why the Climate Crisis is a Feminist Issue, AMwA argues that climate change disproportionately affects women and marginalized communities in the Global South, not simply because of environmental exposure but because of pre-existing social, economic, and political inequalities. The organization highlights how women often bear primary responsibility for securing food, water, and household energy while simultaneously facing unequal access to land, resources, financing, and decision-making processes.
AMwA further contends that existing climate governance structures frequently exclude the voices of women, youth, indigenous peoples, and other marginalized groups, resulting in solutions that fail to reflect lived realities. Through its feminist climate justice approach, the organization advocates for inclusive climate governance, locally led solutions, and the transformation of the power structures that perpetuate both environmental degradation and social inequality. This perspective is a clear indication of how climate justice in Africa cannot be separated from struggles for gender justice, economic justice, and democratic participation.
Girls for Climate Action has emerged as a youth-led movement in Uganda demanding environmental solutions while centering marginalized voices. Their campaigns unmistakably connect climate justice to gender justice, recognizing that young women and girls face compounded climate impacts due to their social position.
Universal Humanitarian Aid Initiative(UHAI), the East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative, an indigenous activist fund established in 2008, supports civil society activism around sexuality across East Africa. UHAI’s work explicitly recognizes that LGBTQIA+ rights and environmental justice constitute interconnected struggles. Their funding priorities reflect an understanding that climate disasters exacerbate existing marginalization of sexual minorities. As stated on their website, UHAI works to “strengthen the voice, visibility, and organizing of marginalized communities” while recognizing environmental justice as a sexual rights issue.
Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG), works specifically with young queer feminists, building leadership capacity to address social and environmental challenges simultaneously. Their programming connects queer rights to environmental sustainability, recognizing that queer people must be part of designing climate solutions.
They document gaps in climate services for “vulnerable groups”, build alliances with feminist and human rights organizations to embed queer-inclusive language in broader social justice advocacy.
The African Women’s Development and Communications Network (FEMNET) operates as a pan-African feminist network amplifying women’s voices in policy dialogues, increasingly focusing on climate policy as a feminist issue. Their advocacy recognizes that women’s limited access to “land tenure, social and legal services, political participation, paid livelihoods, governance and infrastructure”, renders them more vulnerable to climate impacts.
Mama Cash, although based in the Netherlands, plays a significant global role in resourcing feminist, queer, and grassroots climate justice movements across the Global South, including East Africa. Through its funding model, Mama Cash supports organizations led by women, girls, trans people, and LGBTQIA+ communities whose work connects environmental justice to broader struggles against patriarchy, economic inequality, colonial legacies, and social exclusion.
In its 2024 publication, Resourcing the Feminist Movements Driving Climate Action, Mama Cash argues that feminist movements are not peripheral to climate action but are central to building sustainable and community-based responses to ecological crisis. The report emphasizes that grassroots feminist organizations often respond to climate injustice through collective care practices, food sovereignty initiatives, land rights advocacy, mutual aid systems, and resistance to extractive economic systems. Rather than treating climate change as a purely environmental issue, the publication frames it as inseparable from questions of labour exploitation, gender inequality, bodily autonomy, and political exclusion.
Importantly, Mama Cash highlights that many feminist and queer-led organizations in the Global South are already practicing forms of climate adaptation and resilience, even when they are not formally recognized as “environmental organizations.” This is particularly relevant in East Africa, where LGBTQIA+ and feminist groups frequently operate at the intersection of human rights protection, community survival, and environmental vulnerability. Their work demonstrates how climate justice becomes more effective when rooted in lived realities and intersectional organizing.
Mama Cash’s funding philosophy therefore reflects an integrated climate justice framework: one that recognizes that communities most marginalized by gender, sexuality, poverty, and colonial histories are often those most affected by climate breakdown, yet also among the most innovative in creating sustainable alternatives. By resourcing these movements directly, Mama Cash challenges traditional climate funding structures that often prioritize large technocratic institutions over grassroots transformative work.
Integration Matters in Theory and Practice
It would be hard to understate the need for an integrated approach uniting queer, feminist, and labour activism — especially in practice. An integrated approach brings multiple vital benefits, including the following:
- Frame bridging” or different diagnostic outlooks on social and ecological problems, enabling broader coalitions and transformative impact. As Feng explains, “when climate movements embrace queer perspectives, they expand their analysis to recognize how all forms of oppression including heteronormativity are implicated in environmental destruction.”
- Transcending the ‘single-issue’ view of marginalization: the integration approach, which uses holistic definitions of vulnerability, considers how gender, sexuality, and labour status intersect to make individuals and communities more susceptible to climate harm. For example, Alonso-Epelde and colleagues document how “vulnerability assessments that ignore sexuality and gender identity produce incomplete and ineffective climate adaptation strategies.”
- Innovative organizing practices: movements led by queer and feminist organizers contribute skills in mutual aid, collective care, and challenging the concentration of power which are foundational to community climate resilience. Movements led by queer and feminist organizers often contribute practices of mutual aid, collective care, and community-based support that can strengthen resilience during climate-related crises. Such approaches are evidence on how social solidarity can complement formal adaptation strategies.
- System transformation: Integrating feminist, queer, and labour perspectives shift climate action from a purely technical exercise to a socially grounded process that addresses underlying structures of inequality. Such approaches emphasize participation, accountability, and the equitable distribution of resources and opportunities.
A Queer Perspective — The Crucial Component
Within an integrated global approach, a queer perspective provides an important lens for understanding how climate vulnerability intersects with broader systems of exclusion and marginalization. A queer perspective is the dimension that brings the need for holistic action into high relief.
When applied to climate justice, a queer perspective operates on multiple interconnected levels. First and foremost, it challenges the heteronormative assumptions embedded in climate policy and disaster response. When emergency shelters are designed assuming nuclear families headed by heterosexual couples, or when agricultural extension programs target “male household heads,” these policies render queer people invisible and inaccessible.
Second, a queer perspective highlights how climate impacts intersect with existing persecution. The Notre Affaire à Tous special report on LGBTQIA+ rights and climate justice documents how queer individuals face “compound vulnerability”; they experience both the direct impacts of climate change and the secondary impacts of being unable to access help due to discrimination. In East Africa, where many countries have laws criminalizing same-sex relationships, this compound vulnerability can be life-threatening.
In addition, as Feng notes, a queer perspective brings distinctive forms of resilience and organizing to climate activism. Queer communities have long practiced mutual aid, created chosen families, and built support networks outside traditional institutions. These practices born of necessity in hostile environments, offer models for the kinds of community-based climate adaptation needed in the Global South.
A well-meaning queer person engaged in climate justice is not simply someone who happens to be LGTQIA+ and also cares about the environment. Rather, they understand how their own experiences of marginalization, including as queer people of colour, transgender individuals, or economically disadvantaged queer communities, connect to larger systems of oppression that also drive environmental destruction. They recognize, as Feng explains, that “the same logic that insists there is only one ‘natural’ way to organize families, sexualities, and genders is the logic that insists there is only one ‘natural’ way to relate to the environment through extraction and domination.”
Their efforts often involve coalition-building with diverse social and political movements, based on the view that advancing queer rights is linked to addressing broader social inequalities and environmental sustainability.
The Path Forward: No Climate Justice without Social Justice
All experts cited here show how separating climate justice from social justice undermines the transformative potential of both. Climate policy cannot be truly equitable or sustainable if it ignores the systemic injustices that marginalize certain groups, including queer communities. Speaking from my own personal and political experience, this perspective reveals a critical gap in mainstream environmental discourse, namely the tendency to address “the planet” without addressing its people, and specifically those most affected by overlapping systems of oppression.
For example, Sovacool’s compelling form, energy transitions are not neutral processes. If left unexamined, they reflect and reproduce structural inequalities and power hierarchies. By identifying heteronormativity and patriarchy as barriers to justice, he illustrates how social hierarchies shape who benefits and who remains excluded from environmental policies. This aligns with intersectional feminist theory, which contends that justice cannot be achieved through technocratic fixes but only through transformative inclusivity.
Similarly, Feng’s insistence that queer climate justice is not about “special treatment” reframes inclusion as a structural necessity rather than a token gesture. The exclusion of queer people from climate discussions represents a deeper ideological problem: the same logic of extraction, domination, and disposability that fuels climate degradation. She reframes climate advocacy as a fight not just for environmental protection, but against all systems that devalue certain lives and bodies.
Building on these ideas, intersectional climate justice frameworks emphasize the importance of procedural, distributional, and recognitional justice. These dimensions provide a clear analytical framework for evaluating whether policies are equitable or merely symbolic.
Placing queer and feminist voices at the centre of decision-making ensures that climate solutions are not only inclusive but also contextually grounded, drawing on local and lived experiences of resilience.
Finally, the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP’s) observation of increased gender integration in African National Determined Contributions (NDCs) signals progress, but the lack of explicit LGBTQIA+ considerations indicates persistent institutional hesitancy. Recognition alone is insufficient; it must be coupled with material action ranging from funding, and representation, to legal protection in order to realize the vision of inclusive climate justice proposed by these scholars. All these arguments and the data they draw on categorically reject compartmentalization. Climate justice requires dismantling systemic exclusions and ensuring that marginalized voices are recognized as central agents not peripheral participants of change.
In my view, the path that can take us forward toward global survival will have to integrate climate and social justice, or in other words ensure that systemic inequalities are actively addressed within climate policies. This involves amplifying marginalized voices, including LGBTQIA+ communities, and embedding principles of procedural, distributional, and recognitional justice into all decision-making processes. International frameworks like the UNDP and NDC commitments must translate priorities on equity and participation into tangible, inclusive policies. Only through such comprehensive and equitable strategies can meaningful progress be achieved towards a sustainable and just future for all.
Conclusion
The Global South sits at the crossroads of climate change’s worst impacts. However, it is also home to some of the world’s most innovative, intersectional organizing. By drawing on the transformational capacities of queer, feminist, and labour movements, it’s no doubt that climate action can transcend carbon accounting and become a force for deep, lasting social change. The climate crisis is fundamentally a crisis of justice. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) Sixth Assessment Report emphasizes that limiting global warming to 1.5°C would “substantially reduce damages to African economies, agriculture, human health, and ecosystems,” but achieving this requires addressing underlying inequalities including those based on gender, sexuality, and economic status.
In East Africa, environmental challenges intersect with complex social inequalities, making movements for gender equality, LGBTQIA+ rights, and labour justice essential components of environmental action. Organizations like AMwA, Girls for Climate Action, UHAI, and Freedom and Roam Uganda demonstrate that integrated approaches are both possible and necessary. As we face mounting climate challenges, the lesson from East African activists is clear: our planet’s future depends on recognizing that environmental and social justice are inseparable. As Feng argues, that “queer climate justice reminds us that different ways of being in the world; different sexualities, genders, and forms of kinship can inspire different ways of relating to the environment, ways that move beyond extraction toward care, reciprocity, and regeneration.”
Only by uniting across movements, centering marginalized voices including queer voices, and recognizing the interconnected nature of all liberation struggles can we build the transformative change our world desperately needs. Climate justice initiatives that fail to consider marginalized communities risk reproducing the very inequalities they seek to address.
Emmy Lubega*
*Emmy Lubega is a Ugandan labour migration specialist, social justice advocate, and community engagement practitioner with over 12 years of experience advancing the rights of vulnerable populations. Holding a Master’s degree in Labour Policies and Globalisation, his work bridges labour rights, climate justice, and community-led development, with a particular focus on amplifying marginalized voices in policy and practice.
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