In recent years, the urgency of the climate crisis has become increasingly obvious, with successive natural disasters pushing individuals, civil society, businesses, and governments to make tackling climate change a priority.

Research by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that people who are marginalised – including those facing discrimination – are especially vulnerable to climate change.

While there has been important research demonstrating how women and girls are disproportionately affected by natural disasters, this work has rarely differentiated gender identity and sexual orientation within that. This means that LGBTQI people have been, overall, largely forgotten in climate policy and planning, representing a significant oversight that puts our communities at further risk.

GiveOut projects – and we have already seen – that LGBTQI communities will be among the most vulnerable to the direct impacts of climate change related natural disasters, and to longer-term consequences including service disruption, forced displacement and even conflict.

This will be the case especially for LGBTQI people in frontline countries that are most threatened by climate change and where LGBTQI identities are also illegal or repressed. Furthermore, although LGBTQI activists and organisations are already working in the climate justice space, philanthropic knowledge and funding at this intersection remains scarce.