Points made by Bekele Geleta, Secretary General, at a press conference organised by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) during the 14th Conference of Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, in Poznan
• Climate change is a global problem but its impacts are felt locally. Everybody is affected by climate change in one way or another but the poorest people in the poorest countries are affected much more than others. Ironically, they are the ones that contributed least to the problem, in the first place. It is only fair and just that their needs should be given priority when it comes to investing in climate change adaptation.
• Climate change leads to more frequent and more extreme weather events – and so more and bigger disasters with serious consequences for lives and livelihoods. The Red Cross Red Crescent is the world’s largest humanitarian and development assistance network – with tens of millions of volunteers and members present in thousands of communities and neighbourhoods in 186 countries. So we witness the heartaches and losses of people every day - for them recurrent disasters have become a way of life. Their misfortunes don’t make the news.
• Climate change is caused by the sum of human activities everywhere, and it is only by mobilising collective human action that we actually have a chance of solving it.
• No community, organization or government can single-handedly deal with the consequences of climate change. The key is to forge partnerships, share resources and expertise, and work together. That is why the IFRC is pleased to be associated with the IASC to engage in a coordinated inter-agency vision for the climate change negotiations in Poznan and beyond.
• We must invest much more in disaster risk reduction as part of climate change adaptation. This is self evidently sensible in terms of saving lives and livelihoods from disasters. Investment must be predictable, long-term, and systematically planned. For every one dollar invested in risk reduction, we can save three to ten dollars in disaster response costs. Extreme weather events cannot be prevented but they do not always have to lead to devastating or catastrophic disasters.
• From the Red Cross Red Crescent perspective disaster risk reduction and risk management means helping communities to
- better understand the hazards around them in the environment they inhabit
- cut down those disaster-inducing factors that can be reduced
- become better prepared to cope with those disaster events that are inevitable or most likely (by knowing what to do when disaster strikes, and having contingency stocks and supplies available)
- install or improve access to information from early warning systems so that they have maximum notice of an incoming disaster, and can have more time to put precautionary measures into practice
- know what to do when disaster does strike so that people and assets can be protected as best as possible
- once the disaster has gone by, recover their way of life as quickly as possible, and “build back better” to resist the next disaster.
• Practical examples of Red Cross Red Crescent action: We call this building community resilience”. It is already working in many places. For example,
- In West Africa Red Cross collaborates with government meteorological services to interpret complex scientific information on weather patterns and communicates to communities on when they can expect heavy rainfall and be ready for it.
- Solomon Island Red Cross is documenting traditional knowledge from elders on planting seasons and their relationship with dangerous winds so as to protect agriculture.
- Vietnam RC planned several hundreds of square miles of mangroves to prevent coastal inundation from periodic storms and high tides.
- Indonesian Red Cross youth members encourage young people’s involvement by getting schoolchildren to participate in drama, poetry, singing and music performances that expressed their roles in promoting risk reduction measures in the face of climate change. Young people will inherit a burgeoning problem and need to be part of the solutions and decision-making.
- The value of early warning: Bangladesh Red Crescent volunteers used megaphones to advise people what to do when Cyclone Sadr loomed in 2007. Though 4,500 people died, this was much less than the 138,000 deaths in a cyclone of similar intensity in 1991.
- IFRC and many National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies routinely view their contingency plans and procure relief items ahead of a busy season so that they are better prepared when a disaster strikes.
- Many RC examples of small-scale local actions such as protecting water wells before anticipated flooding, planting trees against landslides or desertification; small scale drainage works; setting up cyclone or flood shelters; setting up local disaster management committees run by local communities; first aid training; and disaster mitigation measures like cleaning stagnant pools against insect plagues.