Climate Justice as the Fight for Our Collective Survival

Photo: Dibakar Roy

The river does not discriminate when it swells beyond its banks, but we do. When the waters rise, they lift all boats only in the speeches of politicians. In reality, they drown some communities first, and with particular cruelty. This is the brutal truth: climate change is not the great equaliser, but the great revealer, laying bare the fractures of injustice we’ve ignored for generations.

1. The Child Brides of the Sundarbans

When Cyclone Amphan devoured the rice paddies of southern Bangladesh, it didn’t just take crops; it stole futures. In the aftermath, adolescent girls became currency. Families drowning in debt traded daughters for dowries, their bodies becoming life rafts for survival. The UN estimates "climate disasters will push 1 million+ Bangladeshi girls into early marriage by 2030", each one a canary in our collective coal mine.

2. The Garment Workers’ Death March

Dhaka’s factories stay open even when the streets become rivers. Women like 22-year-old Jesmin walk for hours through sewage-flooded alleys, their saris soaked in contaminated water, because missing work means losing a day’s food. When the choice is between cholera and starvation, there is no choice at all.

3. The Invisible Widows of Char Lands

On Bangladesh’s vanishing river islands, erosion swallows homes whole. The men migrate to cities; the women stay behind, tending children on crumbling patches of mud. When aid arrives, it goes to male household heads, even when those men have long since disappeared.

Photo: Istiak Hossain

These stories share an algorithm of oppression:

Gender + Poverty + Climate = Targeted Destruction

A wealthy woman in Gulshan buys flood insurance. A poor woman in Kurigram becomes the flood insurance. This is what intersectional climate injustice looks like, where your vulnerability multiplies with each marginalised identity you hold.

Why Women’s Justice IS Climate Justice

The solutions already exist in the hands of those most impacted:

- "The indigenous women" replanting mangroves as natural storm barriers

- "The slum organizers" mapping flood-safe walking routes for workers

- "The grandmothers" preserving heirloom seeds that withstand droughts

When we invest in these women, we don’t just adapt to climate change, we "dismantle the systems that caused it". Every dollar for girls’ education, every microloan for women farmers, every seat at the decision-making table is a brick in the levee against catastrophe.

This is not about "saving" anyone. It’s about finally listening to those who’ve been surviving an apocalypse for generations. The Bangladeshi women wading through floodwaters carry more wisdom about resilience than any Silicon Valley climate tech bro.

Photo: Gayatri Malhotra

The path forward is clear:

1. Follow frontline women’s leadership

2. Demand reparations, not charity

3. Rewrite the rules of power

The storm is coming for us all eventually. Our only chance is to build the ark together, this time, with everyone aboard.

Share examples of women-led climate solutions from your community. How can we centre them globally?

Author: Jannat Rahman, Observer of ReGeneration 2030 Board

ReGeneration 2030 is a democratic and youth-led organisation, mobilising youth climate activists and movements from the Nordic and Baltic Sea region. Want to join us? Fill out a volunteer application form here.