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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis which intersects with the global climate emergency. Climate change has not stopped in the midst of the pandemic’s global spread. In fact, COVID-19 is directly affecting and increasing the needs of persons affected by climate-related disasters.
This paper, produced in partnership with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, aims to provide a preliminary analysis of the number of people jointly affected by COVID-19 and climate-related disasters—demonstrating the multilayered nature of these crises and highlighting the compounded vulnerability faced by communities.
Kapoeta, South Sudan has seen a drastic change in recent times. As residents walk by in the hustle and bustle of this small, rural town, you can see it in their faces: fatigue, most likely from hunger.
This is the second failed rainy season for a community that depends on cultivating crops. As I drive by local farmers’ fields, nearly all the crops I see are dry and struggling.
Andrea Loteng, 64, shows me around his farm. He’s the chairman of the local farmers’ association in Kapoeta South county and shares how erratic this year’s weather patterns have been.
“The rains this year came a little early in March. I planted maize and sorghum but the rains disappeared in May. I lost over 5 acres of crops. Now that it’s raining in July, I planted again, this time holding on to hope the rains will not fail,” he explains.
Anyuon Malwan, Area chief of Atarabara, Kapoeta South also describes the situation as dire:
“This is the second round of maize I am planting this year that is now failing. At least last year I harvested once.”
Some farmers have reached breaking point and abandoned farming altogether, turning to mining for gold instead. Travelling long distances, they camp at mines for weeks on end to try their luck at collecting a few grams of gold in the local streams. If they do get lucky, a gram can fetch around 50 US dollars. But this livelihood, too, is risky and highly dependent on the rainy season.
Soaring food prices
Failed harvests in much of the Horn of Africa, coupled with the international armed conflict in Ukraine and regional conflict, have led the price of grain and cereal in Kapoeta to increase drastically.
“In 2021, we used to buy a kilo of maize flour at 300 South Sudanese Pounds (34 US cents), today the same packet goes for 1,300 (1.5 US dollars),” says Anyuon.
Unable to cope with the inflation, many residents in the area have resorted to more affordable cereals, such as sorghum. Those who cannot afford grain at all are forced to scavenge for wild leaves in nearby forests.
Children’s lives at risk
This poor diet is having devastating consequences for children in the Kapoeta region.
Yaya Christine Lawrence is a nurse at a stabilization centre for malnutrition in Kapoeta Civil Hospital. She attends to 3-year-old Lolimo, who was admitted on 22 July with severe oedema (swelling in the ankles, feet and legs) from poor nutrition.
“When Lolimo came he was in a really bad state. We have been giving him treatment to clear the fluids before we can now start building up his weight. His case is one of the many hundreds we see in a month.”
Lolimo’s mother, Joska, is a single parent and doing her best to raise him, but times are hard.
“All I can afford to give him occasionally is sorghum and wild leaves. I have no source of livelihood to offer him a better diet,” she says.
Supporting the most vulnerable
Women-headed households are bearing the brunt of food insecurity in this part of South Sudan. The Kapoeta region is hardest hit with, with more than 274,000 people classed as severely food insecure.
The South Sudan Red Cross (SSRC) recently conducted a needs assessment in the area, giving priority to women-headed households and people with disabilities, with a view to distributing cash to help them boost their livelihoods and put food on the table.
Supported by the IFRC and the Japanese government, the SSRC is also actively training community members in Kapoeta in disaster preparedness, including early warning for drought and floods, in groups called Community Disaster Response Team (CDRT).
To mitigate the negative effects of climate change, SSRC volunteers are also planting fruit trees, and distributing seedlings, in Juba and other branches across the country as part of its ‘green fund’ initiative. Mango and guava trees are more resistant to drought and only take a few years to start bearing fruit, so will provide a more reliable source of nutrients to local communities.
“The needs related to food insecurity in Kapoeta region and South Sudan are great. If we can strengthen localized response capacity and the community structures, we can address the enormous and unprecedented level of humanitarian needs because of the frequency and intensity of climate-related hazards,” says John Lobor, Secretary General of South Sudan Red Cross.
“Beyond responding to immediate food needs, we hope to build resilience, so families don’t have to grapple with climatic shocks year in, year out,” he adds.
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Click here to learn more about the IFRC’s response to the current hunger crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa.
And to support people like Andrea, Anyuon and Joska, please donate to our Emergency Appeal today.
This guide, produced by the IFRC and Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, is designed to help Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies make their programmes and operations climate-smart.Climate-smart means using climate information across timescales in designing and/or adjusting all our programmes and operations. In doing so, programmes and operations ensure that, at a minimum, they do not place people at increased risk in the future considering likely new climate extremes and growing vulnerabilities.In addition, this approach offers the initial steps in the Climate Action Journey for the National Societies to identify locally led adaptation needs and support communities to anticipate, absorb and adapt to climate change.You can download the full guide in English, French and Spanish below, or download a summary of the guide in English here.
Climate change is already having severe impacts across our planet, bringing new and previously unimaginable challenges to the people least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.
This joint report by the IFRC, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) and Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre provides a sobering review of how just one of those challenges – the increase in deadly heatwaves – threatens to drive new emergency needs in the not-so-distant future.
This policy brief, aimed at parties and stakeholders participating in COP27, outlines the IFRC’s perspective on the climate crisis and sets out recommendations most relevant to three topics central to the negotiations: adaptation, loss and damage, and climate finance as well as the cross-cutting important issue of locally-led action. Finally, we highlight on some of the ways IFRC is taking action in response to the climate crisis.
By Timothy Maina, IFRC communications officer
Not too long ago, people living in the Cuun village were grappling with the challenge of basic survival.
Access to clean water for both domestic and agricultural purposes remained a constant struggle. The community's reliance on hand-dug artesian wells, which were prone to flooding during rainy seasons and regular siltation, significantly reduced their water yield.
This scarcity had a detrimental impact on their health and well-being, hindering their ability to cultivate crops, fruits, vegetables, and raise livestock
“We struggled to access clean water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and livelihood support,” says one of the community leaders, Yasiin Maxamed Jamac. “This had a negative impact on our health and well-being, and it made it difficult for us to grow crops, fruit, vegetables and raise livestock.”
In 2022, the Somalia Red Crescent Society (SRCS), with the support from the IFRC, rehabilitated the solar-powered borehole pump and provided the Cuun community with adequate water sources for human and animal consumption, as well as irrigation purposes, as part of the IFRC's Africa Hunger Crises Emergency Appeal.
Located in the Somali semi-autonomous state of Puntland, the village is less than 400 kilometers from the tip of the Horn of Africa. Like many other parts of Somalia and the Horn of Africa region, Cuun has suffered from recurring failed rainy seasons and occasional flash floods in recent years.
Since 2021, Somalia has been under a state of national emergency due to ongoing drought. At the same time, the region around Cuun has also been destabilized by armed violence and population movement — adding to the challenges for those trying to maintain stable livelihoods.
A landscape transformed
The project with Cuun village is just one example of how the IFRC and National Societies such as the SRCS join forces with local communities to re-inforce local resilience to climate-related shocks and unpredictable weather patterns, which have been aggravated by climate change. It’s the kind of urgent local action the IFRC is calling on world leaders to support at COP28 Climate Summit from 30 Nov. to 12 December.
For the village of Cuun, the project has had a transformative impact. Over 100 households now have their own small farms — 100 metres by 100 metres — where they cultivate a variety of fruits, vegetables, and crops, including papaya, lemon, watermelon, onion, tomatoes, pepper, carrot, sweet potato, coriander, sorghum, beans, and maize.
The community sells 80 per cent of their harvest in nearby cities, earning an average income of USD 200 to USD 500 per month per household. This represents a significant increase in their income and livelihood, enabling them to improve their food security and overall well-being.
One of the beneficiaries of the project is Mama Ruqya*, a mother of eight.She and her family recently moved to Cuun village with their herd of goats looking for pasture. SRCS identified Mama Ruqya as one of the beneficiaries of the 5-month Cash Voucher Assistance programme, which provides people with cash vouchers that can be redeemed for food, water, and other essential items.
“During the recent drought season, SRCS supported us with US$ 80 cash grants for five months and it has sustained us a lot,” says Mama Ruqya. “Now as we are in the last stage of the prolonged drought and hoping for rain, we are grateful for the support that we have received.”
The initial rains have brought some relief to the herding and farming communities in Cuun village. Mama Ruqya and her family supplement their food supplies and water from the nearby Cuun village while their livestock graze in the reviving plains.
*Not her real name, to protect the identity of her children
The impacts of climate change are already devastating lives and livelihoods every year, and they will only get worse without immediate and determined action.
The World Disasters Report 2020 analyses climate disaster trends and shows how we can tackle the humanitarian impacts of the climate crisis together.
Download the full report below in English, French, Spanish and Arabic. Individual chapters are also available to download below in English.
You can also click here to learn more about the IFRC's work tackling the climate crisis.
By Deniz Kacmaz, IFRC Turkey, Livelihood Officer
Turkey is hosting the largest refugee population in the world. More than 3.7 million Syrians have sought refuge as well as 330,000 under international protection and those seeking asylum, including Iraqis, Afghans, Iranians, Somalis, among others. With the conflict in Syria now entering its twelfth year with few signs of change, means that we are not just looking at a humanitarian emergency anymore, but on long-term resilience.
Since the refugee influx began in Turkey, the Turkish Red Crescent (Türk Kızılay) has been taking a leading role in the response. As of April 2020, Turkish Red Crescent through its KIZILAYKART platform and IFRC run the largest humanitarian cash programme in the world, the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN), funded by the EU.
This programme has helped more than 1.5 million cover some of their most basic needs, covering their groceries, rent and utilities, medicine and their children's school supplies.
But humanitarian emergency cash assistance can only go so far. There is also a need to focus on longer-term resilience. This is why we are working on both the urgent needs of refugees, while also supporting longer-term livelihood opportunities for refugees and host communities.
From humanitarian cash to longer-term resilience
We are working on both the urgent needs of refugees, while also supporting longer-term livelihood opportunities for refugees and host communities. This means being part of the labour market to meet their own needs and rebuild their life without depending on social assistance, including the ESSN.
We must focus on long-term solutions where refugees, supported by the ESSN, gain their power to stand on their feet and become self-reliant again.
I have been working at IFRC Turkey Delegation for almost two years helping identify gaps and find opportunities to empower people's socio-economic capacities. This approach helps ensure they are resilient in combating challenges in the future, including the devastating socio-economic impacts brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and general obstacles around employment opportunities.
We have seen in many contexts when refugees are able to build their resilience and self-sufficiency, they can contribute even more meaningfully to the local economy. When they benefit, we all benefit, including host communities.
What are we doing to bring this long-term solution to the lives of refugees?
As of April 2021, we have launched referrals that link people receiving cash assistance through ESSN with a plethora of livelihood trainings and opportunities in Turkish Red Crescent community centres.
The 19 community centres across Turkey offer support to both refugee and host communities, including work permit support, vocational courses such as sewing; mask producing; various agricultural trainings; and Turkish language courses and skills trainings. These services are critical to breaking barriers in the local markets. The community centres connect skilled individuals to relevant job opportunities by coordinating with public institutions and other livelihood sector representatives.
The ESSN cash assistance provides support to refugees in the short term while giving them opportunities to learn new skills, which can lead to income generation in the long term.
How do we conduct referrals from the ESSN to livelihoods?
There are many sources where families are identified for referrals, some of the most common are:
Turkish Red Crescent (Türk Kızılay) Service Centre
168 Kızılay Call Centre
Direct e-mail address to the TRC referral and outreach team
Identified potential individuals among ESSN protection cases
Field teams including monitoring and evaluation and referral and outreach teams who are regularly engaging with those benefitting from ESSN
In the first months of combining cash assistance with longer-term programmes, we have supported more than 1,000 refugees.
Some have been referred to employment supports including consultancy for employment and work permit support, while others are attending language courses, vocational trainings, and skills development courses through public institutions, NGOs, UN agencies and TRC’s community centres.
Though we have developed a robust livelihood referral system, collectively, we need to make stronger investments in social economic empowerment in the future.
While we continue to work on improving our programming and referral mechanisms, as IFRC, we are also reaching out to agencies, civil society, donors, and authorities tolook at how we can:
increase investment in socio-economic empowerment in Turkey,
mitigate barriers to employment for refugees, and
create greater synergies between humanitarian and development interventions.
It is this collective effort that will deliver the longer-term gains necessary for both refugee and local communities in Turkey to thrive.
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The ESSN is the largest humanitarian cash assistance program in the world, and it is funded by the European Union. The ESSN has been implemented nationwide in Turkey in coordination and collaboration with the Turkish Red Crescent and International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies (IFRC). We reach more than 1.5 million refugees in Turkey through the ESSN, and we give cash assistance to the most vulnerable populations to make sure they meet their basic needs and live a dignified life.
The Turkish Red Crescent with its 19 community centres throughout Turkey supports millions of refugees as well as host communities. The Centres provide several courses, vocational trainings, social cohesion activities, health, psychosocial support, and protection services, among others.
More intense and frequent heat waves are already occurring in many parts of the world. Their frequency and intensity are expected to rise globally due to climate change.
Deaths from heat waves are not inevitable and can be greatly reduced with relatively simple and cost-effective actions.This guide is intended to be a basic introduction to heat waves and a resource for cities to start planning for extreme heat.
Bending over her traditional clay cookstove, 38-year-old Lucky Mazangesure stirs the simmering ingredients in a small saucepan: fried-green bananas in stew of tomatoes and onions.
As the fire crackles, the scent of woodsmoke mixes with the savory-sweet aroma of the saucy, steaming treat. “Trust me,” she says, “after eating this banana dish you won’t be able to stop.”
She can’t resist a quick taste – just to make sure it’s coming out the way it should. “I really love cooking,” she says. “I like tasting the food while cooking. It makes me happy and it keeps my stomach full.”
Then she checks on some simmering beans and starts preparing another local delicacy: pumpkin porridge with roasted peanuts, which will be complimented by cooked spinach and broccoli.
This diverse meal does a lot more than keep her full, she adds. It gives her body the vitamins, minerals, proteins and carbohyrdates she needs to keep herself and her infant, nursing child healthy.
Like many new mothers here in Chibuwe, in southeastern Zimbabwe, Lucky is able to prepare these well-balanced meals thanks to a garden at the Chibuwe Health Clinic, which is tended largely by pregnant woman and new mothers who visit the clinic for pre-natal and post-partum care.
The garden got started several years ago as part of a larger initiative by the British Red Cross and the Zimbabwe Red Cross to set up gardens for expecting and new mothers at hospitals and local health clinics, where health workers were witnessing worsening nutrition levels among women and young children.
In a region hard hit by drought, windstorms, cyclones and flash floods, many legumes, fruits and root crops that are rich in vitamins, proteins and minerals are hard to get. Infant malnutrition here has been on the rise in recent years, with some estimates suggesting that roughly one-third of children under 5 are malnourished. Covid-19 has only aggravated the situation by disrupting regional and local food distribution systems.
“It’s hard for expecting mothers in this community to get a decent meal,” says Robert Magweva, a nurse at the Chibuwe Health Clinic, adding that too often, people must rely only on sadza [sorghum], a carbohydrate, and a limited range of leafy vegetables. “It’s a major challenge to have a well-balanced diet here. So the vegetables that are grown in the clinic garden help them to get a well-balanced meal.”
As a mark of the programme’s success, most of these gardens are now sustained entirely by the clinics, hospitals and the communities around them, with support of local agriculture experts and local Zimbabwe Red Cross volunteers.
Better farming for a changing climate
Still, growing one’s own food in this environment is not easy. The climate has generally gotten hotter and drier, with dry spells punctuated by intense storms and winds, and unpredictable rains. Scorching heat evaporates water quickly and can easily whither young seedlings.
“At this clinic garden, we were taught smart agriculture techniques as a way of combating the effects that climate change was having on our harvest,” says Beauty Manyazda, another new mother who works regularly at the Chibuwe Clinic garden. “We learnt techniques such as conservation farming and mulching.”
Conservation farming is an approach that aims to improve soil moisture and health by minimising the intensive tilling and plowing associated with large-scale crop production. Mulching is one very common conservation technique in which straw, leaves or other organic matter is laid down on the soil between the crops. This keeps moisture from evaporating, while discouraging weeds and providing nutrients to the soil as the mulch decays.
Such techniques are increasingly critical as climate change makes farming more difficult. “Our rainfall patterns have changed over the years,” explains Lucky. “We used to get rain in October, when we would sow the seeds for our crops. Now, we get rains in January. So the seeds we put in the ground get damaged waiting for the rainfall.”
Meanwhile, storms, droughts and heatwaves have become more and more intense, says Lucky. “Temperatures have continued to rise and this has resulted in regular, violent winds,” she notes. “These winds have destroyed our homes. We also get floods which also contribute to the destruction.”
Amid these challenges, the garden provides also provides other nourishing ingredients: the joy and satisfaction of being able to work and provide sustenance while also being among plants, close the soil with other women at her side.
“I love gardening,” says Lucky, her baby tied to her back, fast asleep as she picks a handful of chard. “The green nature of the garden warms my heart. With the garden, I know my family will always have a home-grown, nutritious meal.”
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This story was produced and originally published by the Red Cross Red Crescent Magazine. To learn about the Magazine, and to read more stories like this, click here.
Anticipatory action isa set of actions taken to prevent or mitigate potential disaster impacts before a shock or before acute impacts are felt. It is increasingly recognized as a key solution to reducing the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events.
The IFRC and many National Societies have used our decades of experience in disaster preparedness to pioneer the development of anticipatory action approaches, such as forecast-based financing and the Anticipatory Pillar of our Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF).
This Operational Framework is intended to help our network scale up and mainstream anticipatory action across our work in disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. And it sets out how anticipatory action can support the IFRC's strategic priorities and targets, as outlined in our 2021-2025 plan and budget.
This blog was originally posted on the WWF website here.
Africa is facing its worst food crisis in 40 years. Nearly 114 million people across sub-Saharan Africa – a figure approaching half the entire population of the United States – face severe food insecurity. In Eastern Africa, 50 million people are at risk. Across the Sahel, the number of people needing emergency food assistance has quadrupled to 30 million in the past seven years.
The causes of this current crisis are manifold. Conflict and the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have played their part. But more significantly, the continent has been wracked by prolonged drought, flooding and swarms of desert locusts – natural hazards, exacerbated by man-made climate change and the degradation of nature.
It is the most vulnerable who are bearing the brunt of the current hunger crisis. Men and women are losing their livelihoods as crops fail, animals starve or die of thirst, and soil is washed away. Children go hungry, and their education is abandoned. Women eat less, and drought means dietary requirements, especially for young girls, pregnant and lactating women, and menstrual hygiene are relegated.
There is an urgent need for life-saving humanitarian assistance in all countries in Africa. Organizations such as Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are stepping up their actions, with the IFRC, governments and partners, to provide this urgent support. But they recognize, as does WWF, the need to also build resilience to shocks and to address the root causes of food insecurity.
A changing climate
Many underlying causes can be found in the twin environmental crises of climate and nature loss, which are compounded with the crises caused by factors including poverty and conflict. The rising levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere – primarily from the rich and middle-income countries of the global North – are driving temperature rises that are disrupting weather and climate patterns and degrading natural ecosystems.
Climate change is making extreme weather events worse, more frequent and more trans-boundary. It is changing patterns of precipitation, undermining water and food security. It is impacting human health, as well as putting additional stress on nature and biodiversity, exacerbating pressures from land-use change, over-exploitation, pollution and invasive species.
Presently, around 30 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions come from food systems. Not only are food choices in rich, urban areas leading to a health crisis of obesity and non-communicable disease, but the over-consumption of unsustainably produced foods, and inefficient and wasteful behaviours across all value chains, are directly contributing to food insecurity in Africa.
This underscores the urgent imperative for rich countries to reduce emissions as quickly as possible. Even if all other sectors linearly decarbonise by 2050, business as usual food systems will account for nearly the whole carbon budget of a 2 degree future.
While around 89 countries have pledged to reach net-zero emissions by the middle of this century (which would still not deliver the emissions cuts needed to limit warming to 1.5°C), few have yet developed the suite of policies and regulations that will put them on a net-zero trajectory.
Many vulnerable communities in Africa need to be supported in the face of climate shocks by strengthening their capacity to respond, reducing their risk exposure and building their resilience.
There is much that can and should be done to directly help vulnerable communities and ecosystems in Africa today and in the decades to come.
Urgent investment must be made to help vulnerable communities adapt to the current impacts of climate change, and to become more resilient to climate shocks yet to come. Critically, this involves building a shared understanding, securing financing and enacting favourable policies so that governments, NGOs and the private sector in Africa can recognise the threats posed by the impacts of climate change and implement the urgent solutions needed to help local people adapt.
The link between climate and nature
Significant solutions also exist that use nature to both mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and to help communities to adapt and become more climate resilient.
The world’s land, oceans and freshwater systems already absorb and store half of the emissions humankind produces each year: protecting, restoring and enhancing ecosystems will be critical to addressing climate change. Food systems can also be a major part of the solution to the nature and climate crises.
Investment in nature-based solutions – such as adopting agroecological food production practices, forest conservation, protecting wetlands or enhancing coastal ecosystems – can help store emissions, protect communities from extreme weather events, and provide food, jobs and habitats. Such solutions, if high quality, well-designed and properly funded, can help build climate resilience.
But as well as individual projects, climate impacts and vulnerabilities, and the protection of nature, must be integrated into public- and private-sector decision-making at every level across the continent. The extent of the challenge posed by climate and nature loss means that they need to be considered across all levels of decision-making and by economic actors large and small.
The current food crisis faced by millions across Africa demands urgent humanitarian aid. But, without a much more comprehensive and long-term, locally-led, people-centred response to climate change and biodiversity loss, humanitarian resources will be stretched beyond breaking point.
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The IFRC is partnering withWWF, the world's largest environmental conservation organization, to work with nature and protect people from the climate crisis. Click here to learn more about our partnership.
The Cost of Doing Nothingpresents an analysis showing that if no urgent action is taken now, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance annually due to the climate crisis could double by 2050. Similarly, financial costs could balloon to 20 billion US dollars per year.
In contrast with this pessimistic scenario, the report also shows that, if appropriate climate adaptation measures are taken now, these figures could also stabilize, and even drop. By investing in climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction—building up resilience in communities, countries and regions at risk—and by improving early warning and anticipatory humanitarian action, the world can avoid a future marked by escalating suffering and ballooning response costs.
Humanitarian efforts can have negative impacts on the environment, harming the people they are intended to help and underminingpeople's resilience. Local environmental degradation can increase the vulnerability of communities to disasters and the impacts of climate change and have other negative effects on affected communities (including on health and livelihoods).
The purpose of this policy is to ensure that IFRC Secretariat:
expands its commitment to a “do no harm” approach to the protection of the environment;
strives to fulfil its environmental obligations; establishes and meets its environmental goals and objectives;
and commits to continual improvement of its environmental performance.
It may also be useful as a reference for National Societies in their environmental policy development.
Geneva, 13 November 2021 - No country in the world can ignore the catastrophic impacts of climate change. Big and small, from the global North and South, they all came together in Glasgow to address the greatest threat of our time.
Our message over the past two weeks has been loud and clear -- promises are not enough.
We welcome the commitment to stay below 1.5 degrees of warming, but worry that specific commitments to meet this target remain too vague.
We are particularly disappointed that COP26 did not deliver the finance needed to support communities at the frontlines of the climate crisis.While new commitments to increase adaptation finance for the poorest and most vulnerable countries were made, we need a much stronger will to provide accessible, high-quality finance to address the challenges that will only multiply in the years to come. We must make sure that this funding reaches the local communities that are hit first and worst so that they can prepare for, adapt and respond to the ever-increasing threats.
More support is also needed to help countries and communities that are already struggling to cope every day; where the limits of adaptation have been reached and losses and damages has already been experienced. Our volunteers and staff across the world have been confronting these consequences for years, so it is an illusion to believe that we are not already paying the price of inaction.
We will do our part. Together with the International Committee of the Red Cross we developed the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations, which now has over 170 signatories. In this charter we all commit to greening our operations and to scaling up our climate action, building resilience wherever we work.
As the world’s largest humanitarian network present in 192 countries, we will do our best to support communities facing the devastating impacts. We ask the same of our world leaders, we cannot do this alone. Glasgow opened the door to further discussions and we are committed to working together with governments and other organizations to find effective solutions to address this growing crisis.
COP26 represents a small step in the right direction. What the world needs is a massive leap. It is time to hold our leaders accountable. We need pledges to be realized and commitments turned into action.
Millions of lives are at stake but it’s not too late. Yet.
To request an interview or for more information, please contact:
In London: Teresa Goncalves, +44 7891 857 056, [email protected]
Note to editors
Climate experts also available for interview.