Bringing the perspectives of local women and men who have experienced climate impacts into relevant policy arenas is seen as key to just decision-making and meeting the Paris Agreement commitment to a country-driven gender-responsive approach. But there is a lack of robust evidence on how these experiences can increase the ambition, urgency and quality of climate responses at different levels. This paper reviews existing evidence and proposes a theory of change for how the systematic inclusion of women and men with lived experiences of climate change could strengthen climate action. This could be through grounding policy narratives with the realities of daily life, changing ideas of whose knowledge should be included, shifting power dynamics, and increasing accountability.