A new paper just published in JAMA Psychiatry reports on an association between increasing temperatures and increased risk of intimate partner violence. The findings add another reason for concern about the fallout associated with climate change, compounding risks that have already been reported, such as the risks of intensification and escalation of intimate partner violence (IPV) following weather emergencies and disasters like bush fires.  The results should give further impetus to, and action toward, sustainable climate change mitigation policies.

Importantly, however, the seemingly ‘unexpected’ link between IPV and climate change gives a us clue about strategies that might help us with both problems. One of the most successful prevention IPV programmes reported globally, the SASA! Programme in Uganda achieved 50% reduction in perpetration of intimate partner violence in four years, using a community mobilisation approach to engage community members in critical discussions about the use of power in relationships. The community advocates walked alongside people, helping them distinguish between harms from use of “power over” their partners, and to understand the benefits of “power with”  others as a way to achieve collective goals.

This analysis about relationships and the ‘win win’ we can create by combining our power with others to achieve a common good is very much a part of the work we need to do together to address climate change, and it is part of the work we need to do to re-build our relationship with our planet.

Respect needs to begin at home, and it needs to extend to all aspect of our lives. Clearly it won’t happen by chance, though, so part of fast-tracking our action on climate change needs to be linked with how we fast track our actions to develop and support healthy and respectful relationships.