ABSTRACT
Indonesia faces multiple challenges, both geophysical and socio-political, from impending climate change. As a tropical island nation located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, it is particularly vulnerable to the disasters, extreme weather events, and ecological and environmental depredations rising temperatures bring. As an emerging economy that has made significant progress in achieving development goals of increasing economic growth, reducing poverty, and nurturing a new democratic polity, climate change threatens its economic and political stability. Finally, equality, empowerment, and social justice goals for women and cultural and ethnic minorities are jeopardized by the uneven causes and consequences of anthropogenic climate change that make these groups particularly vulnerable. As both a casualty of and contributor to global and local policies and practices that create climate change, the Republic of Indonesia provides an exemplar and resource for analyzing the importance of integrating gender justice with development efforts to plan, mitigate, and adapt to climate change. Unsustainable development practices impede progress toward both gender and climate justice. This chapter builds on past studies of the ways gender analysis is critical to understanding and implementing development policies and programs that favor sustainability and address climate change in Indonesia.
