Leading the way//The solutions + the women proving them

LEADING THE WAY

The book doesn't stop at the problem – it shows what works.

1//What works

Fair solutions are better solutions

What is gender-responsive climate policy? Climate action that builds equality in from the start instead of bolting it on afterwards. In practice it comes down to three things: collect the data on how climate impacts differ between groups; involve women – and everyone the old process overlooks – in consultation, planning and implementation; and back it with budget, because what isn't funded doesn't happen. The Paris Agreement explicitly calls on countries to consider gender equality, women's empowerment and intergenerational equity in climate action.

And what makes a solution fair? It cuts emissions and inequality at the same time. That is not idealism – it is what the evidence says works best:

Early warning, designed with women

After the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh, in which around 90 percent of the victims were women, warning systems and shelters were redesigned with women's leadership at the center. The gender gap in disaster mortality has since been reduced by up to 65 percent.

Equal access on the land

Give women farmers equal access to land, resources and credit, and agricultural yields in low-income countries could rise by 20–30 percent – food security and climate resilience in one move.

Nature-based, women-led

In Vietnam, women planted mangrove forests that cut wave heights by up to two-thirds and store three to five times more CO₂ than tropical forests – protection, income and carbon storage at once.

Energy support where it counts

Energy poverty in Europe concentrates in women-headed households. Aim insulation and clean-energy support exactly there, and climate policy doubles as social policy.

Finance that actually arrives

Climate money too often stalls in large institutions. Fund women-led and locally led initiatives directly – the people closest to the problem are usually closest to the solution.

An economy that serves life

The deepest solution is systemic: meet everyone's essential needs within planetary boundaries. Tax pollution instead of labor, measure wellbeing instead of just growth – and move the money: coordinated pressure led Dutch pension giant ABP to exit roughly €15 billion in fossil investments. In the new economy, fairness isn't a side effect – it's the design principle.

The pattern behind all of it: inclusive climate action is more effective climate action. Countries like Cambodia, Nepal and the Marshall Islands are building gender equality into their national climate plans – not for show, but because it delivers.

"None of this is theory. Women are already proving, on every continent, that it works."

– the argument of Part II & IV, Planet vs. Patriarchy

2//The inspiration

Women leading the way

Every solution above has faces that help make them a reality. These eighteen women – all from the pages of Planet vs. Patriarchy – show what the way forward looks like in practice. Click any of them for her story and contributions.

Sweden

Greta Thunberg

Fridays for Future

Her school strike sparked a global movement of millions. Her strength: saying what the science says, without political correctness – and calling out greenwashing wherever she sees it.

Fair solutions are better solutions

Early warning, designed with women

Equal access on the land

Nature-based, women-led

Energy support where it counts

Finance that actually arrives

An economy that serves life

Women leading the way

Greta Thunberg

Vanessa Nakate

Xiye Bastida

Malala Yousafzai

Melati Wijsen

Severn Cullis-Suzuki

Wangari Maathai

Mia Mottley

Hilda C. Heine

Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner

Christiana Figueres

Elinor Ostrom

Kate Raworth

Vandana Shiva

Mariana Mazzucato

Marjan Minnesma

Mary Robinson

Katharine Hayhoe