Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International

In 2019, WECAN International was one of the groups that helped establish the Feminist Green New Deal Coalition alongside the Sierra Club, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), the NAACP, MADRE, and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance. The coalition was formed to combine the left-of-center economic and environmental policies put forward in the Green New Deal with a “transformative feminist agenda.”  ^{2 3}

Background

The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International is an environmental and social advocacy organization. The group engages in movement building, advocacy, and training on environmental and social issues. WECAN claims that women are “disproportionately impacted by climate change and environmental degradation,” but claims that due to “institutional patriarchy, gender inequality, [and] racism,” women do not have sufficient influence over environmentalist activism.  ¹

WECAN International claims that “Indigenous women, Black and Brown women, women from low-income communities, and women from the Global South” are particularly harmed by “colonialism, racism, sexism, and inequality.”  ⁴

The group advocates for the Paris Climate Accords’ stated goal of limiting the rise of the global average temperature to 1.5 degree Celsius.  ¹

The group states that “dangerous” nuclear power plants, geo-engineering, bioenergy, and carbon capture and storage are “false solutions” and cannot be part of its “Just Transition.”  ¹

The name WECAN was initially an initiative of the Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus (WECC), before the latter organization changed its name to WECAN in 2018.  ¹

Activities

In 2021, the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International was one of 715 groups and businesses listed as a co-signer on a letter to the leadership of the U.S. House and Senate that referred to nuclear energy as a “dirty” form of energy production and a “significant” source of pollution. The letter asked federal lawmakers to reduce carbon emissions by creating a “renewable electricity standard” that promoted the production of weather-dependent power sources such as wind turbines and solar panels.  ⁵

In 2019, WECAN International was one of the groups that helped establish the Feminist Green New Deal Coalition alongside the Sierra Club, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), the NAACP, MADRE, and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance. The coalition was formed to combine the left-of-center economic and environmental policies put forward in the Green New Deal with a “transformative feminist agenda.” This agenda included advocating for the placement of women, LGBT-identifying individuals, and migrants at the forefront of the movement and demanding that potential solutions be analyzed through an “intersectional gender” lens. The coalition’s core principles include legal acknowledgement of what it claims is Indigenous people’s rights to own 25 percent of the earth’s land surface and “bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive rights in all circumstances.”  ^{2  3}

Funding

In 2023, the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International reported $1,850,754 in revenue, $968,822 in expenses, and $3,689,193 in total assets.  ⁶

In 2024, the Open Meadows Foundation gave $50,000 to WECAN International.  ⁷

In 2023, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors gave $200,000 to WECAN International, and $100,000 in 2022.  ⁸

In 2023, National Philanthropic Trust gave $51,200 to WECAN International.  ⁹

In 2023, the Tides Foundation gave $10,000 to WECAN International, and $25,000 in 2022.  ¹⁰

In 2023, the Rockefeller Foundation gave $30,000 to WECAN International.  ¹¹

In 2022, One Earth Philanthropy gave $60,000 to WECAN International.  ¹²

In 2022, the Earth Rising Foundation gave $25,000 to WECAN International.  ¹³

In 2022, the Freedom Together Foundation gave $200,000 to WECAN International, and $100,000 in 2021.  ¹⁴

In 2021, the Chicago Community Trust gave $50,000 to WECAN International.  ¹⁵

In 2020, the Windward Fund, a nonprofit under the management of Arabella Advisors, gave $300,000 to WECAN International.  ¹⁶

In 2020, the Peterffy Foundation gave $75,000 to WECAN International.  ¹⁷

People

Osprey Orielle Lake is the founder and executive director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International. Lake is also the co-director of the Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegations and sits on the Executive Committee of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. She has also organized various International Rights of Nature Tribunals. Previously, she was on the board of the Praxis Peace Institute, the Steering Committee for UN Women’s Major Group for the Rio+20 Earth Summit. She has also written a book titled Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature.  ¹⁸