Climate Caucus: supporting women leaders to enact climate solutions

January 2026

“I was just trying to work on climate change as a woman. I didn’t wake up every day thinking I’m a woman working on climate change. I was getting a job done,” said Catherine McKenna, a lawyer and Canada’s former Minister of Environment and Climate Change. “And then I got called Climate Barbie. I knew … that what was being said [was] I was a bimbo.”

McKenna was speaking at the launch of Women’s Caucus, a new initiative from Climate Caucus to create a space to uplift and connect women in climate leadership across Canada. The Women’s Caucus was imagined in the context of increased polarization, a growing lack of respect for female politicians and the associated rise of threats.

“We know women face more and worse abuse, that leadership fatigue is on the rise, and that [women] are either leaving their posts midway through their terms or not rerunning and we are losing really, really good leaders,” says Zoe Grams, Executive Director at Climate Caucus, a non-partisan, national non-profit that supports local politicians to advocate for and enact climate initiatives.

“We also know that women are two and a half times more likely to support climate policy and … are extremely adept at taking a more holistic view of community development and what long-term planning for community health and safety looks like. Women’s leadership is incredibly valuable.”

The Women’s Caucus is designed to build connections and relationships between women elected at a local level, collectively address the challenges unique to women leaders and support those who want to continue their journey in politics.

When plans to launch the Women’s Caucus were announced this summer, the response was overwhelming with hundreds of people signing up for the celebratory kickoff with McKenna. “The response has been really terrific,” says Grams. “There was an instant recognition amongst genders of why this was so important.” Spring 2025 funding from the Catherine Donnelly Foundation supported the launch of the Women’s Caucus.

Regular Women’s cohort meetings will feature formal and informal opportunities for discussion and connection and members who are racialized, Indigenous, or LGBTQ+ will have access to specialized support and spaces.

Training and small-group practice opportunities will address topics such as dealing with challenging work environments, handling difficult conversations or creating physically and psychologically safe spaces. To smooth the entry for newly elected politicians, they will develop materials focused on topics including common challenges and building consensus. Additionally, a series of resources and workshops for men will discuss how to be an ally to women in leadership.

“Canada ranks 59th globally in women’s representation in national parliaments. Only one in five mayors in Canada are women and just over a third of councilors are women. Supporting women elected leaders is a crucial component of building our democracy, improving social trust and enacting meaningful change that folks see in their communities,” said Grams.

Women’s Caucus is a natural extension of the work Climate Caucus carries out across their four pillars: network building, advocacy, resource sharing, and innovation and collaboration. Much of the heavy lifting is done through their BC, Prairie, Atlantic, National and Rural chapters and they recently added climate misinformation and disinformation and high-hazard lands working groups.

Local elected leaders can access an extensive library of resources on topics as diverse as anti-idling, bee cities, climate justice, environmental racism and much more, as well as case studies of policies that have been successful in other communities, sample motions and bylaws, to facilitate an expedited path for climate solutions through local councils. Climate Caucus offers regular meetings, webinars and access to experts. Listening to local elected leaders and conducting surveys helps Climate Caucus access emerging trends and ideas and prioritize the development of resources.

Focusing on local politics means providing climate solutions related to how constituents can more effectively heat their homes, what it looks like for their kids to go safely to school or address the threat of wildfires in communities. Grams notes that study after study show that when you focus on local climate policy and it’s successful, that can increase support for energy transitions at a federal level. “It can build resilience and it can increase trust in politics and in our democratic structures,” she adds.

In early 2025, Climate Caucus and 100 mayors, councilors and regional leaders launched the Elbows Up Climate campaign which advocated for national building projects that meet both climate reality and economic needs. Since then, more than 270 local politicians have become involved. Through other campaigns, such as Help Cities Lead, the organization lobbies for federal policies ranging from clean growth to electrical grid expansion.

“Making sure that local leaders have a support network is crucial, especially in times of growing polarization and disinformation. So, we see the work we do, including Women’s Caucus, as an important pillar of supporting local democracy and climate policy,” says Grams. “Having a place where people can co-create and problem solve for really tangible [climate] policies or solutions for their communities is not only what’s needed, but it also provides a sense of hope and momentum.”

For more information on Climate Caucus and Women’s Caucus visit their website here.