Climate change is often described as a universal threat. But that framing hides something important: the same flood, heatwave, or drought lands very differently depending on where you are and who you are. Who loses a home, who can rebuild, and who is left behind is where the inequality lives.
Economists and climate researchers increasingly agree that climate action and equity are the same conversation. You can't meaningfully address one without the other.
The stakes are real. The World Bank estimates that between 68 and 135 million people could be pushed into poverty by 2030 through climate impacts alone. Climate risk isn't just an environmental issue. It's a social one.
Who Gets Hit First
Where social, economic, or political marginalisation already exists, climate events tend to deepen it. Inequality shapes exposure. Exposure shapes impact.
Women and girls carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care in crises, face higher risks of displacement, and are more likely to lose access to education when disaster strikes. Indigenous peoples and rural communities whose livelihoods depend on seasonal cycles and local ecosystems face threats not just to income but to culture and identity. Children, older adults, and people with disabilities face heightened health risks and greater disruption to essential services.
These aren't edge cases. They're the frontline of the climate story that doesn't make the headlines.
What a Fair Response Looks Like
A resilient, low-carbon future requires equity at every step. Cutting emissions and reducing vulnerability aren't competing priorities, they're the same work.
That means investing in the communities most affected and least responsible. It means frontline voices, women, Indigenous peoples, youth, low-income households, having a genuine seat at the table when climate policy is shaped, not just consulted after the fact.
Why This Matters to Us
At Hakea, the ocean is the reason we exist. Our community: the women who surf, swim, travel to the islands they love, and move through the water as part of how they live, has a direct relationship with the health of this planet that most industries don't.
The communities most affected by rising sea levels and ocean warming are often those who depend on the water not for recreation but for everything. Fishing communities. Coastal towns. Island nations.
This Earth Day theme is Our Power, Our Planet. The focus is on accelerating green technology, renewable energy, and community-driven climate action. For us, that starts with the choices we make in how we build this brand, fabrics made in closed-loop systems from regenerated ocean waste, production runs kept small to avoid the overstock that feeds landfill and a slower approach to fashion so what you purchase this year isn’t out of style the next.
Small choices. Real impact. Made by a community that loves the water enough to protect it.