Global Climate Resilience Programme

Climate change is not a future problem, it is a threat to humanity that we see in our work with communities every day. Through our Global Climate Resilience Programme, we're helping people adapt to climate change and reduce their climate-related risks.

About the programme

The humanitarian consequences of climate change are already affecting billions of people around the world. Floods, landslides, storms, droughts, heatwaves and cold spells are becoming more unpredictable, frequent and intense—severely impacting people's lives and livelihoods.

The social, environmental and economic impacts of climate change are also leading to risks of food and water insecurity, driving displacement, making climate-sensitive health risks worse and leading to the breakdown of critical services and infrastructure.

In the face of this climate crisis, we've launched a Global Climate Resilience Programme: an ambitious, multi-year programme to scale up locally-led climate-smart disaster risk reduction (DRR) and adaptation efforts.

The programme aims to help people adapt their lives and livelihoods to our changing climate, protect themselves from the increasing risks of disasters caused by climate change, and become more aware of, and resilient to, current and future climate shocks.

It brings together the expertise, experience and reach of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies already working in DRR and climate change adaptation, both nationally and internationally, as well as IFRC reference centres and hubs.

The programme will run in 100 of the most climate vulnerable countries, focussing on the least supported and marginalized communities—because we know that investment in climate resilience is not currently going to the countries and people who need it most.

Programme pillars

National Societies will work with communities to reduce their vulnerability and exposure to the impacts of climate change by scaling up climate-smart DRR and climate change adaptation activities. Communities and National Societies will be better prepared to manage forecasted weather events and new climate extremes through effective community early warning systems and anticipatory action. We will implement nature-based solutions to increase the resilience of communities before, during and after disasters. And we will explore social protection systems as a potentially effective mechanism in reducing the impacts of climate risks on vulnerable households and in building longer-term resilience.

National Societies will systematically integrate climate risk management across health programmes and anticipate the health-related consequences of climate change, focusing on people experiencing increased exposure and vulnerability. Climate information will be used to anticipate, prepare for and reduce the impacts of climate-related health emergencies—with a focus on reducing the public health impacts of extreme heat.

National Societies will aim to reduce climate-induced displacement by better understanding and predicting climate-related population movements. Based on this improved knowledge and analysis, National Societies will better protect communities against the risks of climate-related displacement in the context of both sudden and slow onset hazards, including through targeted resilience building and DRR initiatives. National Societies will also invest in greater community preparedness systems, including anticipatory action, to help ensure that any displacement that does occur is safer and more dignified.

National Societies will work with communities to strengthen the resilience of their livelihoods. They will help them adopt climate-smart practices, maximize the use of weather and climate information and diversify their livelihoods activities. We will help ensure that essential services are resilient to hazards, including ecosystem services on which livelihoods depend. This will include implementing nature-based solutions with communities as part of climate change adaptation and enhancing livelihoods, food and water security.

Our ambition by 2027

Support 100 countries worldwide

Reach 500 million people

Raise 1 billion Swiss francs

Why is the IFRC well placed to deliver this programme?

For many decades, the IFRC has supported people around the world to prevent and reduce climate-related disaster impacts and build community-level climate resilience.

The wide scope of our National Societies’ work, along with their permanent, local presence within communities before, during and after crises, means we can bring together humanitarian, development, climate and environment efforts like no other organization.

National Societies have a unique mandate due to their auxiliary role to public authorities in the humanitarian field.

They also have unparalleled reach into communities in the form of 197,000 local branches around the world and more than 16 million volunteers. Because these volunteers and staff come from the communities they serve, they are trusted to deliver their life-saving work.

We are also able to draw on the climate science expertise of our Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, as well as other reference centres and hubs across our Movement.

All of this means we can support community-based solutions that foster local capacity in climate resilience and address immediate and long-term needs in a sustainable way.

The programme in detail