Climate change, care provisioning, and inequality: transitioning towards a sustainable economy

This paper examines the interconnection of the care crisis and the climate crisis. With a focus on childcare and eldercare, it discusses how climate change impinges on these types of care systems by heightening the demand for care and posing challenges to the carers and societies in general. It also demonstrates how underlying structural inequalities in society shape the ways in which climate-related shocks and stressors impact people and their capacities to respond to them. The paper then provides examples of innovative efforts in building a resilient care system and argues that a transformative shift is necessary towards the integration of care in climate discourses and agendas and in the mitigation and adaptation plans of governments, businesses, and households. Only then can we improve our capacities for care in a warming world and achieve a sustainable future.