Raising Women Magazine features Prof. Joyashree Roy and discusses: The Climate Has a Price Tag
Professor Joyashree Roy’s interview, featured as the cover story of the September 2026 issue of Raising Women Magazine (part of the RAISING WOMEN INITIATIVE), presents a fundamentally different perspective on many commonly held perceptions of climate action, sustainable lifestyles, and “going green”. The interview, conducted by Daniel Agusi, explores sustainability, consumption, climate responsibility, technology, infrastructure, political economy, gender, and human wellbeing under the overarching theme “The Climate Has a Price Tag”. What makes the interview particularly significant is that Professor Roy does not simply ask people to consume differently or make more environmentally responsible choices. Instead, she questions the assumptions and benchmarks upon which such choices are usually constructed. Her central argument is thought-provoking, as she mentioned that sustainable choices are made against the wrong baseline. She said that conventional products and services are often considered cheaper because their environmental and social costs are not fully reflected in their market prices. What appears to be a “cheap” and convenient option today may therefore involve costs transferred to society, the environment, and future generations. This raises a much deeper issue. Professor Roy’s formulation that “Climate has a price tag, but we are not paying anyone this price” captures this problem powerfully.
Key points:
💸 Asking the right questions
The sustainability debate therefore needs to examine not only what choices people make, but also how those choices are framed, what benchmark they are compared against, who has access to them, who bears their initial costs, who benefits from existing pricing systems, and who ultimately pays the environmental costs.
🏡 Infrastructure and technology matter more than individual behaviour
For mobility, cooling and heating, and lighting, the problem is often much more strongly associated with infrastructure and access to technology than with individual willingness.
✅ Recognising corporate responsibility
Sustainable consumption cannot be placed entirely on consumers. Corporate behaviour and product design also matter.
🎯Breaking the “first-cost” barrier
A technology may be cheaper over its lifetime but remain inaccessible because the initial investment is too high. Financing arrangements, business models, public policy, and other economic instruments can remove this initial barrier.
#climatecost #genderequity #greentransition #cleanenergy #conciousconsumption #sustainableconsumption #GlobalSouth
Read the interview here:
