The Climate Crisis Is Already in Our Homes: Why We Need a Feminist Voice on the Road to COP31

When we think of the climate crisis, many of us still picture melting glaciers, parched land, vast wildfires or floods in distant countries.

Yet the climate crisis is now much closer.

It is in our homes. In our kitchens. In our working lives. In our care responsibilities. In food prices. In the cities we live in. In whether we can reach a safe place when disaster strikes.

Perhaps this is precisely where we need to begin talking about the climate crisis: in our everyday lives.

The Same Temperature Does Not Mean the Same Experience for Everyone

When temperatures rise above 40°C on a summer day, we all feel the heat. But we do not all live under the same conditions.

If you are responsible for caring for a young child, an older person or a family member who is ill, extreme heat means much more than “the weather is very hot.” It means reorganising daily life, monitoring health risks, trying to create a cool space and continuing to provide care.

As drought intensifies, the issue extends beyond crops in the fields. When harvests decline, food becomes more expensive and making ends meet on the same household budget becomes harder, this too involves invisible labour.

Nor does everyone face a flood, wildfire or earthquake from the same starting point. If you have children with you, care for an older family member or a family member with a disability, have no income of your own or have limited access to safe housing, the same disaster can have very different consequences.

The climate crisis does not specifically “target” women.

It unfolds in a world that is already unequal, deepening existing inequalities.

For us, the climate crisis is therefore more than an environmental issue. It is also a matter of care, livelihoods, disaster preparedness, access to rights and equality.

But discussing its impacts on people alone is not enough. The climate crisis is transforming land, water, forests, species and entire ecosystems. Human life cannot be understood as separate from this web of life. That is why, for us, climate justice also means defending all life and the commons.

Why Is ÇemberDE Talking About the Climate Crisis?

This is not an entirely new field for us.

At ÇemberDE, our work on disasters brought us to the climate crisis.

Over years of working in disaster-affected communities, we have seen that crises cause more than physical destruction. They also deepen existing inequalities in housing, care responsibilities, income security, safety and access to services.

We also know that the role of women’s organisations in disasters goes far beyond distributing aid. Local knowledge, solidarity networks, everyday experience and knowledge rooted in caregiving are vital resources for preparing for crises. In ÇemberDE’s disaster-related work, we emphasise that this experience on the ground is integral to feminist knowledge production and policy development.

This is why we do not see disaster preparedness and climate adaptation as two separate issues.

Nor do we see women solely as people affected by crises.

We also recognise them as part of the solution, bringing local knowledge, care experience and solidarity networks.

Today, we are working to develop this approach through feminist disaster preparedness, collaboration with local governments, climate adaptation, work on food and public space, and participation and cooperation in national and international networks.

We are developing this work in dialogue with movements beyond the women’s movement. We believe that thinking and working together with the ecological movement matters. Gender inequalities and ecological destruction are interconnected outcomes of the same economic and political systems.

What Is COP31, and Why Are We Talking About It So Much Now?

COP31 is the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Put simply, it is one of the most important global gatherings where governments from around the world come together to negotiate climate policy.

This year has particular significance for us because COP31 will take place in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026.

COP31 also has a different leadership arrangement from previous COPs. Türkiye holds the COP31 Presidency and hosts the conference, while Australia has a distinct mandate to lead the formal negotiations through its role as “President of Negotiations.” This arrangement creates a new avenue for cooperation between the Mediterranean and the Pacific.

But viewing COP solely as a meeting of governments means missing an important part of the picture.

The decisions made at those negotiating tables affect all our lives.

And for us, the central question is:

Whose knowledge, whose experiences and whose needs are placed at the centre of those decisions?

Some Voices Remain Outside the Negotiating Room

Governments are at the centre of COP negotiations. Decisions are made primarily by national delegations.

Yet the demands of those who bear the everyday impacts of the climate crisis—women’s organisations, feminist movements, local communities and climate justice movements—do not automatically find their way to the centre of those discussions.

What happens to care work?

How will women’s organisations and local organisations access climate finance?

When we speak of a “just transition,” for whom will that transition actually be just?

Will women’s local knowledge inform policies on disaster preparedness and preparedness for the climate crisis?

Will women merely be consulted, or will they have real influence over decisions?

This is precisely why feminist engagement in the COP process matters.

The aim goes beyond gaining entry to the room.

It is about ensuring that questions excluded from the negotiations are heard within them.

Feminists Are Preparing for COP31 Too

As women’s and ecological organisations in Türkiye, we are coming together to develop shared feminist demands and advocacy priorities on the road to COP31.

This work also extends beyond Türkiye.

Through the Women and Gender Constituency, we are connecting with feminist organisations in Australia, working to bring our experiences, strategies and demands into dialogue.

The Women and Gender Constituency is one of the recognised civil society constituencies within the UNFCCC process, advancing women’s rights and gender justice. Through this network, feminist organisations in different countries can discuss both their national priorities and shared global demands.

This is particularly important to us.

The climate crisis knows no borders.

Drought in one country can contribute to a food crisis elsewhere. Rising sea levels in one region can drive migration. An energy transition in another can create new challenges for workers and livelihoods.

Feminist climate justice must therefore also extend beyond national borders.

What Is Our Shared Agenda?

As we approach COP31, certain questions are particularly important to us.

Who can access climate finance?

Do climate adaptation and disaster preparedness policies genuinely address gender equality?

How can just transition policies be designed without creating new inequalities?

How can women and local communities participate meaningfully in decision-making?

Do climate policies treat ecosystems and non-human life merely as “resources,” or can they embrace an approach that protects the integrity of the web of life?

And perhaps there is a larger question that encompasses them all:

What kind of future do we want?

Our answer goes beyond “a lower-carbon future.”

We want a more equal, more resilient, rights-based future that places the value of care at its centre.

By care, we mean more than caring relationships between people. We also include caring for land, water and ecosystems, and sustaining and regenerating life itself. Climate justice is inseparable from justice for all life.

The purpose of transformation must extend beyond changing the economy or the energy system. We also need to rethink how we sustain life.

17 September: Coming Together to Shape a Collective Voice

This is precisely why 17 September matters.

The Women and Gender Constituency is calling on feminist organisations around the world to come together, discuss and take action. The name of this call is especially meaningful:

Gather, Resist, Reimagine.