Why transforming masculinities is a strategic imperative for climate justice at COP30

Belém, Brazil – November 11, 2025 – MenEngage Alliance is calling on policy makers at the COP30 climate negotiations to recognise that the climate emergency remains rooted in patriarchal systems, and to act to transform them.

As an international civil society network for working with men and boys for gender, climate, and social justice, MenEngage Alliance is calling for the systemic engagement of men and boys alongside women, girls, and gender-diverse people to drive equitable, sustainable, and caring solutions.

Climate justice is inseparable from gender justice

Climate justice is inseparable from gender justice, and vice-versa. Transforming patriarchal masculinities and engaging men and boys as allies and agents of change are essential to achieving sustainable, equitable, and caring futures for people and the planet.

Speaking on behalf of MenEngage Alliance Sohanur Rahman, founder of YouthNet for Climate Justice, a global climate activist and member of the network’s global Climate Justice Working Group, said: ​“The patriarchal norms that perpetuate social inequality are the same ones driving environmental exploitation. To ignore this connection is to address the symptoms of the crisis while leaving its root cause intact.

Strongman politics, fuelled by patriarchal norms, are tearing up decades of progress on global cooperation by promoting nationalistic division and actively sabotaging the climate response.”

In attendance at COP30, Rahman is bringing the joint analysis of MenEngage Alliance to the world’s biggest climate negotiation conference. The analysis has been developed by the Climate Justice Working Group, a body of researchers, practitioners and activists working at the intersection of masculinity and climate.

The Problem: How patriarchy fuels environmental exploitation

The climate crisis is fundamentally rooted in patriarchal and colonial logics of domination, extraction, and profit over care. The Alliance highlights several key points:

• Patriarchal masculinities harm people and the planet: Dominant norms and stereotypes around patriarchy and manhood that glorify control, exploitation, extraction, competition, and power over others drive environmental destruction and social inequalities.
• Men’s and boy’s larger carbon footprint: On average, men and boys consume more carbon-intensive goods, travel more by private transport, and show lower engagement in sustainable practices. A number of factors contribute towards this including gender norms and attitudes, and structural differences in average male and female roles and responsibilities.  underpinned by ignorance and/​​or an attitude taking for granted towards their own consumption patters
• Devalued ​“feminine” traits: Care, compassion, emotional sensitivity, and cooperation — qualities essential for sustainability — are socially discouraged in men and undervalued in leadership and policy.
• Systemic roots in colonialism and patriarchy: Extractive economies, industrial capitalism, and resource exploitation are historically shaped by patriarchal and colonial logics of domination and profit over care.
• Male-dominated decision-making: Climate negotiations, corporations, and governments remain largely controlled by men, many of whom benefit from maintaining extractive and inequitable systems.
• Men in power and the accountability/​​responsibility gap: The wealthiest and most powerful — mostly male leaders — bear the greatest responsibility for emissions yet face few consequences for environmental and human rights harms.

MenEngage Alliance calls for a shift from extractive models to regenerative, care-centered systems, demanding that men and boys actively dismantle the ideologies that sustain inequality and environmental damage.

Recommendations: Policy priorities for COP30 and beyond

The MenEngage Alliance calls on global leaders, especially those attending COP30, to adopt the following policy recommendations:

1. Address patriarchal masculinities in climate actions: Mandate the inclusion of programs working with men and boys — including male leaders — in climate justice and environmental initiatives that challenge harmful gender norms and promote shared responsibility for care and accountability.
2. Integrate gender justice into global climate policy: Embed gender-transformative strategies, intersectionality, and equity at the core of all nationally determined contributions and COP frameworks, ensuring equitable participation of women, indigenous peoples, and gender-diverse individuals in all decision-making spaces.
3. Establish accountability mechanisms: Create systems to enforce gender-transformative climate commitments and hold corporations and governments — especially in the global north — accountable for emissions, ecocide, and human rights violations.
4. Finance climate justice: Honor the global north’s climate debt by contributing necessary public climate finance to the global south, while actively redirecting subsidies from fossil fuels and military budgets toward care-centered, regenerative economies.
5. Commit to system change for transformative economies of care: Move beyond gdp growth as a measure of success, institutionalizing care, collaboration, and ecological balance as guiding principles of economic and social policy.

The MenEngage Alliance Climate Justice Working Group is a global body of researchers, practitioners, and activists working at the intersection of masculinity and climate. It is made up of members of MenEngage Alliance with global expertise in masculinities and climate justice and a shared passion for an equitable and just future for people and the planet. 

Click here to learn more about our work on transforming patriarchal masculinities for climate justice.

-

Photo by Zetong Li