Advocacy in Action
Nov 13, 2025
WEDO ED Bridget Burns and Jane Fonda at the launch of the Fund.
WEDO ED Bridget Burns and Jane Fonda at the launch of the Fund.
“There is no just energy transition without gender equality. Women are not just impacted by energy injustice, they are leading the solutions. If we are serious about moving beyond fossil fuels, we must invest directly in the community-led energy systems rooted in equity and care.”
Bridget Burns, WEDO Executive Director
On September 24, during Climate Week 2025 in New York, partners gathered to mark the launch of the Jane Fonda Gender and Climate Justice Fund.
WEDO was proud to support and advise the creation of this Fund, hosted by Frontline Women’s Fund and SHINE Collab, because it represents something we have long fought for. Climate finance that moves urgently and directly to feminist leaders on the frontlines of a just energy transition.
For decades, women, particularly Indigenous women, rural women, and women in the Global Majority, have been organizing to protect land, defend forests, expand clean energy access, and challenge extractive fossil fuel systems. They are not waiting to be included. They are already leading.
What they have lacked is not vision or strategy. It is sustained, flexible, political funding.
Named in honor of Jane Fonda, a lifelong champion of social justice and climate action, the Fund invests directly in women leading climate solutions around the world.
Jane’s advocacy for a transition away from fossil fuels did not begin recently. She stood alongside feminist environmental leaders, including Bella Abzug, on the beaches of Rio during the 1992 Earth Summit, insisting that environmental protection and women’s rights were deeply intertwined. Decades later, she continues to call clearly and unapologetically for an end to fossil fuel expansion. She has organized, mobilized, and used her public platform to demand a just energy transition rooted in equity and accountability.
For WEDO, this connection is not symbolic, it reflects a shared political history and a consistent alignment on the urgency of moving beyond fossil fuels.
The inaugural grantees reflect the bold and grounded leadership this moment requires:
These organizations are advancing community led renewable energy, protecting ecosystems, resisting extractive industries, and strengthening women’s political power in climate decision making. This is what a just energy transition looks like in practice.
Learn more about the Fund and how to contribute here:
https://frontlinewomensfund.org/gender-and-climate-justice/
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