Thank you, Dr Pachauri, for giving us such a compelling insight into the challenges we are all
facing.
And thank you, Mr Jarraud, for giving the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies the opportunity to speak at this event.
It is an honour me to be here and
speak to you on behalf of Mr Markku Niskala, the Secretary General of the International
Federation.
I hope that I will bring a fresh perspective to the debate on climate change and its
consequences.
The International Federation that I represent is not an environmental or political organization.
We, like the wider International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement we belong to, are
neutral and impartial. We give help, support and comfort to people in crisis whoever and
wherever they are, with no discrimination as to their race, nationality, religion or political
beliefs.
Climate change is a humanitarian issue as much as it is an environmental, political and
economic one. And as the world’s largest humanitarian and disaster response network, the
Red Cross Red Crescent is mainly concerned with the human cost of climate change.
We have millions of volunteers and staff working through 186 National Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies in communities across the world – and many of these communities are
already dealing with some of the consequences of climate change.
Last February, Sarita Messida, a 14-year-old primary school student in the town of Vilanculos
in Mozambique, narrowly escaped serious injury when Cyclone Favio struck her home. She
was hit by a sheet of iron that had been torn loose by the fierce winds, and only just managed
to raise her hands to protect her head just in time.
Cyclone Favio destroyed more than 6,000 houses and injured more than 60 people in the area.
The cyclone ripped the roof off the local hospital and left the place gutted. In spite of the
devastation, Sarita eventually received treatment for her injuries from the hospital’s heroic
staff.
I assume that none of you have met Sarita Messida, and you may not have heard of a place
called Vilanculos in Mozambique. But this is what the volunteers and staff of the Red Cross
and Red Crescent do: we meet the Saritas of this world in places few people have heard of on
a daily basis and we do our best to give them help and support.
Extreme weather events such as Cyclone Favio are becoming more common, whilst changing
weather patterns and melting glaciers are threatening precious water resources. Increased
temperatures have also led to the appearance of diseases like dengue and malaria at higher and
higher altitudes.
The people hardest hit by the effects of climate change are the world’s most vulnerable, the
elderly, the sick and the poorest people in the poorest countries.
I have no doubt that the humanitarian consequences of climate change will be one of the
greatest challenges facing the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in the
coming decades – and I know that action must be taken now if these effects are to be
mitigated.
Response alone is no longer enough. The impact of climate change on disasters, on health
crises – on vulnerability in general – underlines the importance of making communities
stronger and more resilient, and on making them better able to withstand challenges.
The most striking recent example of the value of risk reduction and disaster preparedness
played out in Bangladesh in December 2007, when Cyclone Sidr hit the region. Thousands of
Red Crescent volunteers, using bicycles and megaphones, travelled around the threatened
communities and helped evacuate hundreds of thousands of people from the path of the
cyclone and into shelter.
These actions had real impact. In 1991, when a similar storm hit Bangladesh, more than
100,000 people were killed. This time, 3,000 people died. This is still unacceptable, but the
value of risk reduction could not be clearer.
Extreme weather events cannot be prevented but they do not have to lead to devastating or
catastrophic disasters. The key is to be willing to invest in disaster risk reduction – in public
health initiatives, community preparedness and emergency planning.
Nicaragua is no stranger to natural disasters. It has experienced many severe storms over the
past decade, with Hurricane Mitch causing massive death and destruction in 1998. It is
particularly vulnerable to climate change, with experts predicting that Central America will
experience higher temperatures and a remarkable decrease in rainfall in coming years.
So the Nicaraguan Red Cross is helping communities located along the country's Atlantic
Coast to face up to the threat of increasingly severe hurricane seasons and weather extremes.
As well as playing a key role in the country’s National Risk Management Plan, the Red Cross
has been implementing climate change projects in several rural communities, as well as urban
areas, aimed at changing people's behaviour in response to disasters.
The Red Cross also carries out risk management activities and helps with the organization of
contingency plans and the training of volunteer response brigades. Micro-projects, including
the construction of "safe cabinets" to store radio communication equipment and the
construction of pedestrian bridges in case of flooding, are also supported by the local Red
Cross, as are evacuation centres.
In Viet Nam, the Red Cross has planted mangrove trees to protect the sea dyke that runs along
the country’s coastline. The mangroves provide protection against the tropical storms and sea
surges that are become more frequent with climate change.
In all, the cost of planning and planting has been about 1.1 million US dollars - but this has
helped reduce the cost of maintaining the dyke by 7.3 million US dollars per year.
The monetary cost of disaster preparedness does not have to be high, and the simplest efforts
can make a big difference.
Let me tell you about the village of Satiantoli in Bangladesh. Every year, seasonal floods
inundate the village and its surrounding low-lying areas, a debilitating pattern exacerbated by
climate change. The floods not only disrupt lives, but isolate the communities, severely
impacting upon the villagers’ livelihoods and education.
All it took to reduce this impact was 300 metres of bamboo and just over a thousand Swiss
francs. That’s all it cost to build a simple bridge giving the 15,000 villagers uninterrupted
access to the main highway, no matter how intense the flooding.
One Bangladesh Red Crescent volunteer described the building of the bridge as a true
community effort.
“We worked day and night to build this bridge,” he said. “The whole community participated.
Some gave money, some gave bamboo and the rest worked to build it.”
The Red Cross Red Crescent works within communities like Satiantoli to help people prepare
for and withstand disasters such as floods and cyclones. Our volunteers live and work in the
cities, towns and villages that they serve. We believe that lives are saved and improved by
mobilizing the power of humanity – and that this power lives within communities.
Sometimes the smallest gesture can save lives, and risk reduction doesn’t have to be a
complicated process. In Samoa, for example, the Red Cross realised that almost every village
in the country had different words for ‘north’, ‘south’, ‘east’ and ‘west’.
As you can imagine, this made it very difficult to issue early warnings or direct people to
shelters when a storm is approaching.
Local Red Cross volunteers now help to interpret meteorological information and weather
reports, making sure that everyone threatened by extreme weather understands when to seek
shelter – and where that shelter is located.
It’s clear that we have to talk to one another more often if we are to learn more about climate
change and work to reduce the suffering it will cause.
The coming two years are critical. The International Federation is encouraged by the outcome
of the Bali climate change conference, but a lot more work needs to be done if the
international community is to reach concrete and meaningful commitments in Copenhagen in
2009.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Red Cross Red Crescent is ready and able to play its part in this process. We are
committed to contributing to the development of adaptation policies and measures at local,
national and international levels.
We believe that adaptation policies must play a central role in the international community’s
approach to climate change.
Specifically there needs to be:
• Agreement on quantifiable, predictable and adequate resources for funding of climate
risk reduction and adaptation measures
• Agreement on the mobilization of these resources, and
• Agreement on the implementation of these resources through programmes that will
prioritise the most vulnerable people.
The IFRC will increase partnerships, cooperation and dialogue with
governments, international organizations, knowledge centres and civil society organizations in
order to ensure that these goals are met.
We welcome the strong partnership that we have with the World Meteorological Organization
and look forward to building on this in the future.
The IFRC and the WMO work together on three levels. More than 30
National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies collaborate with national meteorological
offices in their respective countries.
In Geneva, our disaster policy and preparedness
department works closely with the weather and disaster risk reduction services. And the two
organizations work on an inter-agency level through the ISDR system and the international
early warning programme.
While National Societies work to strengthen country-level early warning systems, the
International Federation’s current priorities are threefold:
• To work with the WMO to strengthen community-based early warning in countries in
Africa and the Americas
• To work together to produce an early warning product for early action, seasonal
forecasting and longer-term climate change predictions
• And to work together to strengthen the international early warning programme.
The Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre in the Netherlands is playing a leading role by
liaising with the IPCC and encouraging Red Cross and Red Crescent societies to work closely
with the national meteorological office in their own countries.
In many cases, this collaboration has proved extremely useful and has strengthened both
organizations. But there are many challenges in bringing detailed scientific information on
climate change to the community level at which the Red Cross Red Crescent works.
I believe that there is much that we can teach each other as we face the challenges created by
climate change.
The International Federation and the World Meteorological Organization
must make a long-term investment in each other, and embark on a permanent dialogue.
Through this permanent dialogue, the Red Cross Red Crescent can learn more about the
scientific aspects of climate change prediction, prevention and mitigation. And, in turn, bodies
such as the World Meteorological Organization can benefit from our disaster preparedness
and response expertise, and our unparalleled community presence across the world.
The Red Cross Red Crescent is committed to protecting and assisting the most vulnerable -
the elderly, the sick and the poorest people in the poorest countries. It is these people who will
most affected in the months and years to come. We must be ready to help them.
|
 |
|
News
