---
title: "Women in climate change"
chunk: 15/15
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_climate_change"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:51:30.301743+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Women climate change policy makers and activists ==

Franny Armstrong: British documentary film director known for films including The Age of Stupid, a reflection from 2055 about climate change. She founded the carbon reduction campaign 10:10 in 2009.
Gro Harlem Brundtland: Former prime minister of Norway and author of the Brundtland report on Sustainable Development who has served on countless international committees on the environment.
Kotchakorn Voraakhom: Thai landscape architect, public green space campaigner,  Echoing Green Climate Fellow and chief executive officer of Porous City Network. She is also the founder of the Koungkuey Design Initiative.
Helen Clark: Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand (1999-2008). Clark's government implemented several major economic initiatives including the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier:  Canadian Inuit activist who has focused on persistent organic pollutants and global warming, among other issues.
Christiana Figueres: Costa Rican diplomat who has served in negotiations over climate change instruments since 1995. She became the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010.  She was the founder of the Global Optimism group and was also the head of the UN climate change convention which led to the Paris agreement in 2015.
Fiona Godlee: Anglo-American doctor, editor and journalist. Founder member and board director of the Climate and Health Council. Executive committee for the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change.
Genevieve Guenther: Founder and director of End Climate Silence and a nominee for the 2020 EcoAmerica American Climate Leadership Awards.
Katharine Wilkinson: a writer and climate change activist and vice president at Project Drawdown. She is among the 2019 Time magazine's list of women who will save the world.
Marie Christina Kolo: Climate activist, ecofeminist, and social entrepreneur from Madagascar, who has raised global awareness of the effects of climate change in Madagascar and requested international solidarity in addressing its impacts. She is the founder of Green N Kool and Ecofeminism Madagascar.
Anne Simpson: CalPERS' director of board governance & strategy. She was part of Time magazine's list of 15 women leading the global fight on climate change, GreenBiz's list of 25 "kickass" women on climate change and Barron's (Dow Jones) list of 100 Most Influential Women in US Finance. She was previously senior faculty fellow and lecturer at the Yale School of Management, World Bank's head of the global corporate governance forum, first executive director of the International Corporate Governance Network and joint managing director of Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Limited.
Wu Changhua: Chinese policy analyst and China/Asia Director of Office of Jeremy Rifkin. She is the Greater China director of The Climate Group, director of China studies of World Resources Institute, and editor of the English edition of China Environment News.
Julia Marton-Lefevre: Hungarian environmentalist and academic who was Director General of IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, from 2007 to 2014 and formerly Rector of the UN University for Peace.
Jacqueline McGlade: Marine biologist and environmental informatics professor. Her research focuses on the spatial and nonlinear dynamics of ecosystems, climate change and scenario development. She was head of the European Environment Bureau.
Catherine McKenna: Canadian human rights and social justice lawyer and Minister of Environment and Climate Change in Justin Trudeau's cabinet.
Mary Robinson: Former president of Ireland and UN Commissioner on Human Rights who now serves as the UN special envoy on climate change
Margaret Klein Salamon: Executive Director of the Climate Emergency Fund, founder and principal of Climate Awakening, co-founder of The Climate Mobilization, and the author of the book, "Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth."
Marina Silva: Brazilian environmentalist, politician, Minister of Environment and former colleague of Chico Mendes. She ran in the 2010 and 2014 Brazilian elections.
Greta Thunberg: Swedish activist who began protesting outside the Swedish parliament about the need for immediate action to combat climate change, also credited with initiating the school strike for climate movement in 2018 and 2019. She spoke for the UN Climate Action Summit in New York in September 2019.
Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim: Chadian environmental activist and geographer, coordinator of the Association des Femmes Peules Autochtones du Chad (AFPAT, the association of indigenous Fulani women of Chad) and served as the co-chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change.
Miranda Wang: Co-founder and CEO of BioCellection, 2018 UN Environment Programme's Young Champions of the Earth award for North America. She is also an Echoing Green Fellow, TED Speaker, and CNN Tomorrow's Hero.
Jeanny Yao: Co-founder and CEO of BioCellection
Rhiana Gunn-Wright: Director of climate policy at the Roosevelt Institute, formally the policy director for New Consensus. she is a Chamberlain Fellow of Women and Public Policy at the Institute for Women's Policy Research, and served on the policy team for former First Lady Michelle Obama. Worked with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as an author of the Green New Deal.
Hilda Heine: First female president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands elected in January 2016, she served as Minister of Education during the tenure of former President Christopher J. Loeak. She is the co-founder of the women's rights group Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI). She is one of the Pacific leaders who are focal about climate crisis and the chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum.
Tessa Khan: co-director of the Climate Litigation Network, and received an award from the Climate Breakthrough Project in 2018. She is known for her focus on international human rights law as a tool to dramatically increase national climate mitigation ambition.
Rachel Kyte: Chief executive officer of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All), and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All. She previously served as World Bank Group vice president and Special Envoy for Climate Change and International Finance Corporation Vice President for Business Advisory Services. She is currently the dean at Fletcher School Inc.

== See also ==
Climate change and gender
Climate justice
List of women climate scientists and activists
List of climate scientists
Women in science
Women4Climate (C40 Cities)

== References ==