This week on Womanity, Dr Amaleya Goneos-Malka speaks with Professor Tracy-Lynn Field, who is a leading environmental law scholar and the Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Earth Justice and Stewardship held by the University of the Witwatersrand, with over two decades of experience in climate, water, and environmental justice. She serves on several advisory boards, including the Presidential Climate Change Commission. Her work bridges research, policy, and advocacy, shaping more equitable and sustainable responses to the climate and biodiversity crises.

Professor Field reflects on how her journey into environmental justice began in childhood, driven by a profound empathy for animals and a deep awareness of humanity’s interconnectedness with nature. From secretly writing letters to magazines as an 11-year-old about animal welfare to becoming one of South Africa’s foremost environmental legal scholars, she explains how activism, compassion, and a sense of responsibility shaped her life’s work.

Understanding Earth Justice and Stewardship

Professor Field unpacks the work of the Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Earth Justice and Stewardship, a multidisciplinary initiative focused on climate law, water justice, energy transitions, mining, and environmental governance. She discusses how collaboration across disciplines, particularly between law, geography, engineering, and policy is essential in responding to today’s environmental crises.

A major focus of the discussion centres on a groundbreaking five-year research project conducted in partnership with the South African Human Rights Commission, examining the progressive realisation of the constitutional right to water across South Africa.

Water Justice, Accountability and the Hidden Reality of Water Access

Professor Field highlights one of the realities behind water access in South Africa. While statistics often show that households have taps within close proximity, Professor Field explains that the real issue is whether water actually flows consistently from those taps.

She highlights the lack of reliable data on water stoppages and interruptions, arguing that communities, especially women, continue to bear the burden when water systems fail. The discussion reveals how women are disproportionately affected by unreliable water access through increased caregiving responsibilities, physical labour, safety concerns, and emotional stress.

The conversation also draws attention to smaller towns and municipalities that are frequently overlooked in national water debates, despite facing severe infrastructure and service delivery challenges.

Climate Change Is Already Reshaping Law and Society

Professor Field introduces the concept of “climate risk litigation,” arguing that climate litigation in Africa is already happening, but often in forms that global legal databases fail to recognise.

Rather than focusing only on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, African climate litigation is increasingly emerging through cases linked to floods, droughts, wildfires, insurance disputes, and climate-related disasters.

She shares fascinating insights into her research on wildfire litigation in South Africa, explaining how courts are already adapting legal principles to account for worsening climate risks and environmental instability. The interview highlights how climate change is no longer a future threat but a present reality already influencing governance, infrastructure, insurance systems, ecosystems, and community survival.

The Interconnected Nature of Environmental Crises

Throughout the discussion, Professor Field repeatedly emphasises the interconnectedness of environmental, economic, and social systems. She uses the example of rising global copper prices following climate-related disruptions at a mine in Indonesia to illustrate how climate events can trigger global economic ripple effects that impact infrastructure, development, energy transitions, and even theft and criminal activity.

She illustrates a systems-thinking perspective on climate change, demonstrating how water, mining, energy, law, economics, biodiversity, and social justice cannot be addressed in isolation.

Women, Leadership and Challenging Patriarchal Systems

In a deeply honest and reflective segment, Professor Field speaks candidly about navigating patriarchal environments both personally and professionally. She discusses the importance of women trusting their instincts, supporting one another, and refusing to normalise aggressive or dismissive behaviour in professional spaces.

She shares a particularly difficult experience involving gendered hostility within a professional project environment, explaining how she confronted the unacceptable behaviour and continued leading with integrity. Her example demonstrates reflection on mentorship, emotional intelligence, resilience, and the importance of women creating supportive ecosystems for future generations of female leaders.

Opportunities for Women in Climate Justice and Green Innovation

Professor Field expresses great optimism about the opportunities emerging for women and young people in climate adaptation, environmental entrepreneurship, and sustainability innovation.

One especially inspiring story features a group of women from Sebokeng who designed machinery to recycle waste polystyrene into energy-saving “Wonder Bags” used for cooking. Their innovation not only reduces waste pollution but also dramatically lowers household gas usage, demonstrating how grassroots women-led innovation can drive both environmental and economic transformation.

The discussion highlights how many climate adaptation roles already exist informally within communities and why recognising these as legitimate economic opportunities could transform livelihoods across Africa.

South Africa’s Climate Change Act and the Future of Environmental Governance

The interview also examines South Africa’s new Climate Change Act and its significance for policy, accountability, and long-term institutional change. Professor Field explains how the legislation establishes important planning obligations for adaptation and mitigation, while also embedding environmental dependency principles into law — recognising that economic systems ultimately depend on healthy ecosystems.

She argues that the law represents a critical shift away from development models that prioritize economic growth at the expense of environmental sustainability.

Lessons in Leadership, Purpose and Tenacity

Towards the close of the conversation, Professor Field reflects on the personal experiences that shaped her success, including her decision to move beyond traditional academic work into environmental activism and advocacy. She emphasises the importance of relationships, mentorship, focused thinking, service, and purpose-driven leadership. She also shares how personal challenges, including her child’s severe health struggles, taught her resilience, tenacity, belief, not letting go and never walking away.

“Women of Africa, You Are Divine”

Ending on a deeply uplifting note, Professor Field shares inspiration drawn from Miriam Makeba and her song Amaliya, reminding women across Africa to recognize your divinity and to see yourself not just as an intellectual being, but as a spiritual being, an emotional being, an intellectual being.

Her final message is both poetic and empowering:

“Women of Africa, you are divine.”

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