In honor of Women's History Month, The Solutions Project Launches First-Ever Women's Climate Week

OAKLAND, Calif., March 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of its highly successful first-ever Black Climate Week, The Solutions Project announces the first-ever Women's Climate Week, running today through Sunday, March 28. The Solutions Project will publish multi-media resources on its website and social media channels celebrating the extraordinary contributions of female-identifying solutionaries to the climate movement.

"Women are on the frontlines of climate change, and they are also at the forefront of developing solutions," said The Solutions Project President and CEO Gloria Walton.

Through Women's Climate Week, The Solutions Project hopes to shine a spotlight on women leading transformational change in the climate movement, from running inclusive and collaborative campaigns to mentoring young people. Just as February's Black Climate Week shook up the status quo and put Black leadership front and center, Women's Climate Week celebrates the legacy and dynamism of women, present and past, who have all too often been ignored and pushed aside simply because of their gender. The Solutions Project hopes Women's Climate Week will encourage other organizations to keep women of color at the forefront as they plan their Earth Day celebrations.

"We achieved our goals for Black Climate Week," Walton said. "We brought attention to disparities in thought leadership opportunities for Black people in the climate movement, especially Black people who identify as female. As a result, Climate Week NYC invited us to organize a high-profile event this year that is inclusive of Black people, Indigenous people, Immigrants and other people of color. It promises to be their most inclusive event to date." 

Now Climate Week NYC is joining Seventh Generation and TED Countdown in participating in Women's Climate Week.

"We are really excited to work with The Solutions Project to amplify Black, Indigenous and people of color in the environmental movement," said Amy Davidsen, executive director, North America at the Climate Group. "As the host of Climate Week NYC, it's important that we use our influence to be inclusive of the communities who have been at the forefront of climate impacts and grassroots action. We welcome Women's Climate Week to highlight the voices of women who have been leading the fight against climate change and discuss how the crisis disproportionately affects them around the world."

The inaugural Women's Climate Week will celebrate female solutionaries including:

• Elizabeth Yeampierre, a Puerto Rican attorney and environmental and climate justice leader of African and Indigenous ancestry born and raised in New York City. As the executive director of UPROSE, she supports intergenerational leadership in the climate movement, including hosting the biannual Youth Climate Justice Summit, the largest convening of youth climate justice leaders.
• Winona LaDuke, an economist and author, co-founded Honor the Earth to support Indigenous struggles for environmental justice. Winona is a leader in culture-based and rural sustainable development strategies, renewable energy, and sustainable food systems. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in Minnesota, where she is fighting to protect the water and land from the Enbridge oil sands pipeline Line 3.
• Miya Yoshitani is executive director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. APEN fights polluters and develops leadership and power of poor and working-class Asian American immigrant and refugee communities, winning policy solutions in occupational safety, affordable housing, transportation and land use. She co-authored the Principles of Environmental Justice — a blueprint for movements in the U.S. and globally.

Women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change because of social, economic and cultural forces, including systemic sexism. The UN says 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in conditions of poverty are women.

Women's Climate Week reflects The Solutions Project's everyday mission to reduce racial and gender disparities in climate philanthropy, media coverage, and thought leadership. According to a recent report, only 0.5% of the total $66.9 billion of U.S. philanthropic giving supports women and girls of color. The Solutions Project, however, instituted a 100% Commitment to Justice to devote at least 95% of its grantmaking resources to organizations led by people of color, with at least 80% going to organizations led by women.

Additionally, Women's Climate Week is consistent with The Solutions Project's work to promote feminine leadership in the climate movement. Feminine leadership prioritizes a bottom-up and collaborative approach to leadership, rather than a top-down and competitive approach. Research shows that organizations led by women tend to be better equipped to handle and recover from crises, a critical finding as we reckon with the climate crisis.

"As a woman in the climate movement, I am encouraged by The Solutions Project's Women's Climate Week," said Elizabeth Yeampierre. "Across the nation and especially here in New York, women have been at the forefront of some of our biggest climate and environmental justice wins. Our most recent example: NYSERDA's $200 million investment to make the frontline community of Sunset Park an offshore wind energy hub. This project will generate thousands of local jobs and accelerate New York's transition to a carbon-free and more just and equitable future."

"Women are problem solvers, leaders, creators, and the backbones of our families, communities, organizations, businesses – nearly everything," Walton said. "We've seen this throughout history and throughout the evolution of the climate movement. Please join us in celebrating these climate history makers this week and every week."

About The Solutions Project

The Solutions Project is a national nonprofit organization that promotes climate justice through grantmaking and amplifying the stories of frontline community leaders in the media. The organization seeks to accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy and equitable access to healthy air, water, and soils by supporting climate justice organizations, especially those led by women of color.

Media contact: Carina Daniels
[email protected]
510-847-1617

SOURCE The Solutions Project

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