Unpacking the care society: Caring for people and the planet

The world is facing two seemingly distinct yet deeply intertwined crises, whose links are often overlooked in climate discussions. 

The first crisis centers around the unnoticed and unequal distribution of unpaid care work, primarily borne by women and girls. The second is the looming climate emergency, characterized by rising temperatures and the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While these crises may appear unrelated, they are inextricably linked, demanding our collective attention and action.

Remarkably, just 11 per cent of Nationally Determined Contributions—the measures and actions that parties of the Paris Agreement plan to adopt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions—mention the unpaid care work of women and girls, and only Cambodia’s include actions to reduce their workloads.

The sixty-sixth Commission on the Status of Women has sounded the alarm warning that “natural resources and ecosystems and women’s labour are treated as infinite and are undervalued in the current metrics of economic growth, such as GDP, despite being essential to all economies and the well-being of present and future generations and the planet”.

Within this complex snapshot, the concept of a care society emerges as a pressing alternative to the current economic and development model based on the extraction and exploitation of natural resources, fossil fuels, and human lives. It emphasizes the crucial role of both caring for people and the planet. Recognizing the irreplaceable value of care is essential, as is addressing the unequal care burden that women and girls currently bear, and increasingly so amid the climate emergency. The provision of care should be a shared responsibility involving the state, markets, communities, and families.