The human face of climate change
Care International
Rising temperatures, increasingly erratic rainfall, and more frequent and severe floods, cyclones and droughts present additional obstacles to ending poverty and achieving social justice. Nonetheless, there is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We can prevent human suffering on an unprecedented scale, but we need to get practical, political and personal. There isn’t a moment to lose.
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“Climate change is worsening
the plight of those hundreds of
millions men, women and children
who already live in extreme
poverty – and it threatens to
push hundreds of millions more
people into similar destitution. A
concerted international response
to this unprecedented challenge
is required if we are to avoid
catastrophic human suffering.”
Dr. Robert Glasser,
Secretary General,
CARE International |
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The costs of inaction would be high and far-reaching, and the poor would pay them disproportionately. As well as destroying livelihoods and infrastructure, the impacts of climate change aggravate financial, political, social and environmental problems, making it even more difficult to achieve a wide range of development goals.
CARE International’s mission is to serve individuals and families in the poorest communities worldwide. Drawing strength from our global diversity, resources and experience, we promote innovative solutions and advocate for global responsibility. We facilitate lasting change by:
- Strengthening capacity for self-help;
- Providing economic opportunity;
- Delivering relief in emergencies;
- Influencing policy decisions at all
levels; and,
- Addressing discrimination in all its
forms.
The impetus behind CARE’s first climate change project in 1990 was the aspiration of local communities to live secure, dignified lives. It remains the major force shaping and driving our climate change strategy. CARE’s commitment to addressing the profound challenges ahead focuses on several key areas.
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| Since 2004, CARE has been working with villagers in southern Bangladesh to help them adapt to increasingly intense and frequent flooding. Activities include the
creation of “floating gardens” that rest on a bed of water hyacinth. Buoyed by the hyacinth, crops can rise above the flood waters to protect a critical source of food
and income. © CARE/Pintu Saha |
Adaptation
CARE takes a people-centred approach to adaptation. This uses practical strategies to reduce disaster risks, as well as risks associated with less predictable rainfall and shifting disease vectors. We work with local organisations to promote more resilient livelihoods (through agricultural innovations, the revitalisation of traditional knowledge and diversification) and tackle the underlying causes of vulnerability (through capacity development, social mobilisation and advocacy).
In pursuit of these goals, CARE is creating new tools and participatory methodologies. The Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment, launched in June 2009, details an approach to understanding the implications of climate change in the communities in which we work and designing targeted interventions. Further tools in mainstreaming climate change into all our development programming and developing community-based adaptation are in progress.
We are also building on our experience implementing our adaptation projects by developing regional learning programmes. These function as incubators and test-beds for ground-breaking ways to design, implement, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of adaptation projects. They demonstrate the complementary roles national government, local authorities and civil society can play in helping highly vulnerable people adapt.
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CARE is working with villagers in Misali Island, Pemba, Tanzania to re-establish mangrove forests. As they
grow, the mangroves will provide critical habitat for aquatic species sustaining local livelihoods and a “living
storm-barrier” that reduces the risk of disaster from cyclones.
© CARE/Brendan Bannon |
Carbon finance for poor people
A range of market and fund-based mechanisms have been established to support emissions reductions activities globally. These mechanisms can result in environmental and social benefits, but only if they are very carefully construed. We are working with a wide range of partners to explore how carbon projects can be designed and implemented to reliably reduce poverty as well as greenhouse gases. Since 2007, we have been at the centre of efforts to establish voluntary carbon standards capable of maximising multiple benefits and minimising risks.
Advocacy and policy research
CARE communicates facts, insights and perspectives to policymakers so they can make more effective and equitable decisions. As an organisation of hands-on experts, sharing our substantial field-based experience enriches the content and process of policy dialogues. We know a lot about what can work, what won’t, who is most likely to benefit, who won’t and why. Our operational focus and extensive field presence provide us with extraordinary opportunities to monitor and assess the implementation of climate change policies. This means we provide invaluable feedback on the impact policies are having – or not – on people’s lives.
As part of its contribution to policy debates, CARE and its partners have launched two major publications:
- Humanitarian Implications of Climate Change, August 2008, which maps the most likely humanitarian implications of climate change for the next 20-30 years
- In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement (May 2009), which explores how environmental shocks and stresses can push people to leave their homes for greener pastures, or just to survive.
While climate change poses a grave threat to people’s aspirations for a better world, it also presents an unprecedented opportunity to mobilise individual, community, government and multilateral action.
CARE International
W: www.careclimatechange.org
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