Reflecting on the National Emergency Briefing on the climate and nature crisis and the need for a gendered, intersectional response, grounded in reproductive justice.
Today’s National Emergency Briefing on the Climate and Nature Crisis, held for MPs and decision makers, is an important moment. It brings together evidence on the threats posed by extreme weather, global heating, pollution, the degradation of nature, and the fragility of our food and housing systems.
This emergency already affects every aspect of life in the UK and globally. But for pregnant women, new mothers and babies, especially those experiencing inequality and disadvantage, the stakes are even higher.
As MPs hear the latest evidence today, Birth Companions is focused on our call for a gendered, intersectional response to the climate emergency, grounded in reproductive justice and the lived experiences of the women and babies most affected.
Because the climate and nature crisis is not gender neutral; and it is already undermining women’s health, safety and reproductive rights.
Last year, Birth Companions and Wen (Women's Environmental Network) published a joint paper examining how the climate emergency is impacting reproductive justice in the UK.
Drawing on the reproductive justice framework, developed nearly 30 years ago by women of colour in the United States, our report centred four fundamental rights:
The climate emergency threatens every one of these rights and we are already seeing the impacts.
Scientific evidence shows us that climate change and environmental harm directly affect women’s ability to conceive; their health and safety during pregnancy and birth; the physical and mental health of newborns, infants and mothers; and our collective ability to raise children in safe, healthy and sustainable communities.
Air pollution, extreme heat, drought, toxic chemicals, water contamination, mould and damp housing, and the decline of nature and biodiversity are all contributing to a growing public health crisis, disproportionately affecting women and babies who are already navigating poverty, racism, insecure immigration status, and poor-quality housing. And yet - their needs have been largely absent from UK climate plans.
These realities must now be central to every discussion about national climate emergency preparedness.
While today’s National Emergency Briefing is a welcome step, responses to the climate emergency have so far been not sufficiently gender-informed, overlooking how deeply reproductive health, wellbeing and justice are shaped by environmental conditions.
We need an approach that recognises:
As Dr Ranee Thakar, the outgoing President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, wrote in the foreword to our report:
The climate crisis is “already a threat to maternal and infant health, and must be treated with the urgency it demands.”
As decision-markers turn their attention to the climate and nature emergency today, we urge MPs, policymakers and practitioners to:
If we are to protect women, infants and future generations, climate action must move beyond carbon targets and infrastructure, and into the everyday realities of pregnancy, birth, parenting, and care.
The climate emergency is already here. It is already affecting women’s bodies, births, homes and futures. Now is the moment to ensure that reproductive justice is at the heart of the UK’s climate response.
Read the full report from Birth Companions and Wen
