Care as Climate Infrastructure: The Missing Foundation of Climate Action
Climate action depends on forms of work that are rarely recognised as climate solutions. Care for children, families, communities, health, and wellbeing sustains societies through crisis, supports resilience, and enables people to participate in economic and civic life. Yet care remains largely absent from climate policy, finance, and investment discussions, where infrastructure is more often understood in terms of energy systems, transport networks, and physical assets.
This discussion will explore the growing case for treating care as essential climate infrastructure. Participants will examine the relationship between care economies, climate resilience, and social transformation, including the role of paid and unpaid care work, collective care practices, mental health, and community wellbeing. The conversation will consider how ecological breakdown and climate impacts place increasing pressure on care systems, often disproportionately affecting women and frontline communities.
A particular focus will be the implications for policy and finance. How can climate strategies better account for the value of care work? What would it mean to invest in care as a resilience-building measure? And how can funders, governments, and institutions integrate care into climate planning, measurement frameworks, and decision-making processes?
As climate impacts become more complex and prolonged, sustaining collective action will depend not only on physical infrastructure but on the human systems that support communities and enable adaptation. This conversation will explore how recognising care as climate infrastructure can open new pathways for climate justice, resilience, and long-term transformation.
Discussion Group Leaders
Georgia Nicolau is Executive Director at Procomum, advancing community care, culture, and the commons as foundations for climate resilience and social transformation.
Laura Senan is Director of Strategic Partnerships at Fundación Avina, fostering partnerships that advance sustainable development and climate action across Latin America.
Discussion Questions
What does it mean to treat care as climate infrastructure, and how would that change climate policy and investment priorities?
How are climate change and ecological disruption affecting care economies, and who bears the greatest burden?
What role do collective care, wellbeing, and mental health play in sustaining long-term climate action and resilience?
How can governments, funders, and climate institutions better measure, value, and invest in care as part of a just climate transition?