Climate change, care provisioning, and inequality: transitioning towards a sustainable economy

In Maria Floro’s article for Oxford Review of Economic Policy entitled “Climate change, care provisioning, and inequality: transitioning towards a sustainable economy,” Maria Floro explores the impacts of climate change on care systems, and provides examples of approaches to care that are responsive to the climate crisis. She argues that care is central to achieving a just transition to a sustainable economy.

Professor Maria S. Floro is Professor Emerita of Economics at American University (AU) in Washington DC. She is Special Adviser of the Care Economy Africa Adaptation Project and part of the Care Economies in Context Project.

Citation

Floro, M. (2026). Climate change, care provisioning, and inequality: transitioning towards a sustainable economy. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2025, 41, 1020-1032. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/graf032

Abstract

This paper examines the interconnection of the care crisis and the climate crisis. With a focus on childcare and eldercare, it discusses how climate change impinges on these types of care systems by heightening the demand for care and posing challenges to the carers and societies in general. It also demonstrates how underlying structural inequalities in society shape the ways in which climate-related shocks and stressors impact people and their capacities to respond to them. The paper then provides examples of innovative efforts in building a resilient care system and argues that a transformative shift is necessary towards the integration of care in climate discourses and agendas and in the mitigation and adaptation plans of governments, businesses, and households. Only then can we improve our capacities for care in a warming world and achieve a sustainable future.