About

CFUW advocates for communities across Canada and around the world to be safe and healthy, allowing all women and girls to realize their potential. This includes advocacy for preserving the environment, combating climate change, and providing equitable, high-quality, public healthcare. For the sake of Safe and Healthy Communities, we focus our actions in relation to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including Goal 13 on Climate Action: "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts."

Operating under the umbrella of our Safe and Healthy Communities as a national priority for CFUW, the Environment and Climate Change (ECC) Subcommittee responds to federal or provincial public consultations on request. Committee members monitor the annual UN Conference of the Parties (COP) proceedings and other events that bring together decision-makers from across the globe to address the climate crisis; we host webinars to encourage collaboration on national and international projects, and we educate CFUW members about the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation and how to reduce our personal environmental footprint.

 CFUW has long advocated for the preservation and stewardship of the environment. We believe that the responsibility for environmental protection must occur on both a personal and collective level. This is why CFUW has called on various levels of governments to develop and support programs to educate adults and children about the gravity of environmental problems by clearly outlining the consequences of resource depletion, the degradation of natural systems, the dangers of pollution, and the destruction of fragile ecosystems.

CFUW is concerned with the gendered impacts of environmental degradation and climate change. We believe that gender sensitive approaches and women’s participation are essential to address environmental problems. Click here to access a CFUW infographic on women and climate change.