Climate Change Exchange

Todos/as tenemos trabajo que hacer / We have work to do

Mr Jose Antonio Aristedes Remy, Rede Nacional de Emergencias (national emergency network for the Dominican Republic)

'Definitivamente el mensaje es claro, debemos hacer énfasis en propuestas que vayan destinadas a reducir los efectos del cambio climático y estas propuestas deben imperantemente estar enfocadas a corto, mediano y largo plazo, que debemos diferenciar los efectos del cambio climático de la falta de respuestas de los respectivos gobiernos, a las necesidades de la población, porque de lo  contrario, estaríamos haciendo un flaco servicio a la causa, pero más importante es la necesidad de integrar en las respuestas de energía renovable las soluciones que puedan aprovechar todos al menor costo posible, tanto en lo económico como en lo ambiental.

'Debo ser honesto, llegué con la percepción de que iba a aprender mucho, pero la experiencia ha superado mi expectativa, me quedo con muchas lecciones aprendidas para reproducir con las organizaciones miembros de la RNE, para que así demos algún tipo de respuesta y de propuesta tanto a las comunidades como al gobierno local.

'Bueno a mi entender el tipo de respuesta que debemos dar a esta realidad es potenciar la parte de sensibilización, creo que en el caso particular de la Rep. Dom. Debemos trabajar esta parte siempre tomando en cuenta la realidad socio-económica del país, establecer los planes y logística de sensibilización, para asi lograr que la mayoría de la población se apropie del deber de proteger nuestra tierra; trabajar la parte de incidencia política utilizando los aliados que tenemos en el estado y que están dispuestos a dar una respuesta concreta a esta situación, instituciones como, la secretaria de estado de medio ambiente, el instituto de recursos hidráulicos, la defensa civil, el centro de operaciones de emergencias, entre otras dependencia, que no tocan el tema de manera directa, pero que pueden ser de muy buena ayuda. Necesitamos trabajar todos/as juntos/as, para jugar nuestro importante rol en esta urgente situación.'

In English:

'Without a doubt the message is clear, we need to focus our efforts to reduce the effects of climate change in the short, medium and long term. We should highlight the effects of climate change and also the lack of response by our governments to the needs of the population, because if we don’t we will be only be paying lip service to the situation. But even more important is the need to integrate renewable energy into these responses, this is something that can benefit many at the least possible cost both economically and environmentally.

'I have to be honest, I arrived with the idea that I was going to learn a lot, but this experience has surpassed my expectations. I have learnt lots of things that I can share with the other member organisations of the RNE (National Emergency Network) so that we can play a part in proposing ideas for a response to both the communities and local government.

'The way I understand it, particularly in the case of the Dominican Republic, we should put our energy into awareness raising. We need to do this work taking into consideration the socio-economic reality of the country, we should draw up plans and think carefully about how we do this work so that everyone takes on board the fact that we need to protect our Earth. We need to work on political advocacy using the links we have to the State, institutions like the Secretary of State for the Environment, the Institute for Hydraulic Resources, Civil Defence, Emergency Operations Centre amongst others, so that they too can give a concrete response to this situation. We all need to work together to play our part in responding to this urgent situation.'

'...un modèle de société qui ne laissera pas sur le bord de la route les couches les plus vulnérables de la population.' / '...a model of society which does not leave the most vulnerable people on the side of the road.'

Fresnel Germain, Responsable de GRAMIR en Haiti

'Nous avons entendu parler de changement climatique avant notre participation à ce forum organisé par Chrisitan Aid. Les présentations qui ont été faites ont contribué à augmenter notre connaissance en la matière. Elles nous ont surtout mis en lumière pour nous la gravité du problème, spécialement pour les îles et pays des Caraïbes. 

'Ce forum nous a permis d’être au courant de ce qui ce fait dans la zone pour documenter les manifestations et les impacts du changement climatique. Nous voyons aussi qu’il y a déjà une mobilisation d’un secteur de la société civile pour adresser ce problème qui touchera de manière dramatique les couches les plus vulnérables de la population.

'Les Caraïbes contribuent pour environ pour 0.7 % aux émissions des gaz à effet de serres. Cependant, étant sur le passage de cyclones qui vont devenir plus violents et plus fréquents, nous pensons que c’est juste de solliciter la solidarité des pays développés pour aider les états des Caraïbes à s’organiser pour faire face aux conséquences des changements climatiques et promouvoir un changement de comportement pour un mode de développement plus durable.

'Nous pensons que les efforts en Haïti doivent aller en ce sens. Et pour cela il faudra travailler à quatre niveaux :
- Convaincre les politiques que le changement climatique risque d’avoir des impacts graves sur l’environnement et représente une menace réelle pour les vies et les biens.
 - Sensibiliser les communautés de base sur l’importance de la question et les enjeux pour leur survie
- Aider les communités et les pays à s'adapter aux impacts des changements climatiques.
- La société civile devrait construire un mouvement pour faire face à cette problématique.

'Il faudra être clair avec ces deux types d’acteur que l’on prépare aujourd’hui, un environnement meilleur pour la prochaine génération puisque l’on parle de conséquences qui se manifesteront dans toute leur ampleur maintenant et à partir de 2050. Cela veut dire que tous les secteurs s’entendent sur un modèle de société qui ne laissera pas sur le bord de la route les couches les plus vulnérables de la population. C’est seulement à ce prix que ces dernières pourront participer et s’approprier les plans d’adaptation qui seront proposés pour atténuer les impacts du changement climatique.

In English

'We have heard of climate change before our participation in the forum organized by Christian Aid. The presentations that were made have helped me to increase my knowledge on the subject. They have particularly highlighted for us the seriousness of the problem, especially for islands and Caribbean countries. 

'This forum allowed us to be aware of what is in the area to document the events and impacts of climate change. We also see that there is already a mobilization of civil society sector to address this problem, which dramatically affects the most vulnerable people of the population. 

'The Caribbean accounted for approximately 0.7% to emissions from greenhouse gases. However, due to the passage of hurricanes that will become more violent and more frequent, we believe it is fair to seek the solidarity of the developed countries to help the Caribbean states to organize themselves to cope with the consequences of climate change and promote behavioural change to a more sustainable development. 

'We believe that efforts in Haiti should go in this direction. And for that Haiti should start working on four levels: 
- Convince the political people and system that climate change could have severe impacts on the environment and represents a real threat to lives and property. 
- Educate the grassroots on the importance of the issue and the stakes for survival
- Help communities and countries adapt to the effects of climate change
- The civil society should build a movement to face that issue.

'It will be clear with all the stakeholders that we prepare today, a better environment for the next generation because we are talking about consequences that will manifest themselves in all their magnitude now and severely by 2050. This means that all sectors agree on a model of society that will not leave on the side of the road the most vulnerable people of the population. Only at this price that they can participate and take ownership of the adaptation plans to be proposed to mitigate the impacts of climate change.'

Inner city climate change

Angela Stultz, Executive Director, S-Corner Community Development Organisation which works in inner city Kingston

‘The climate change issue reminds me of HIV in the early days. We are not short of knowledge but Jamaicans have a habit of waiting for it to happen to them before acting. The use of media in our work is important in reaching communities – the shock and scare tactics would work.

‘I’m representing a group of community residents who are “clueless” about climate change: what it is, how it impacts their life here in the inner city. They may ask, “as an individual, how do I contribute to this climate change? I am not a high-emissions person: I am not flying on a plane, or driving two cars”. How you respond to this has to be culturally appropriate.

‘These are very poor people who disguise their poverty with material status things. So in their disguising of poverty, they have electricity that burns for 24 hours, the fan is on 24 hours, sometimes they even own washing machines. They don’t pay for any of this energy [it is stolen from the grid] so there’s no awareness of energy consumption, no linkage in their mind of how what they do every day impacts on climate change.

‘With awareness, they will know to turn off the appliances, although they might not stop stealing electricity. It would lead to some behaviour change:  reducing consumption. Similarly, there are some coal-burners in the community. You would have to introduce the concept of perhaps growing a tree in their small space – you need practical messages with practical alternatives that are culturally appropriate.’

Vulnerable communities

Marilyn Thompson, HR and Administration Manager, from Jamaica AIDS Support for Life

'When I came here I thought, why am I here? Our organisation isn't located on a hillside, we're not in danger from land-slip... And then I thought our clients are really vulnerable to opportunistic infections: they are sensitive to chronic extremes of hot and cold, they need to have access to potable water in times of disaster.

'Our community need to think about preparedness and risk... risks to health, to security, to livelihoods. When Hurricane Dean hit people living with HIV were turned away from shelters.

'When questions of urgency versus importance in a disaster are raised we need to think of how someone with HIV will need to balance access to food against access to medicines. We need to work on advocacy and awareness raising to give voice to a marginalised community.

'We also work with the hearing impaired and drug abusers and I think we should try and form an alliance of vulnerable communities, for example with people with sickle cell or disabilities.'

Nairobi post-script: reflections from participants

Addmore Makunura – Christian Care Zimbabwe

Thanks  to the impressive line up of speakers, the Beyond Poznan – Adaptation to Climate Change in Africa conference has been a refreshing experience bolstering both known information and new information. The fusion of scientists, development practitioners, academics, campaigners and funding agencies availed us with a rich blend of knowledge, updates, and indeed consciousness that the only option available to Africa is to adapt to the changing climate.

Despite the depressing evidence of the gloomy future of humankind, one gains hope and inspiration from the experiences shared by all present of the small steps that civil society and communities across Africa are implementing in reducing risks of disaster and trying to cope with the new reality.

At the end of the day this was a very useful conference which needs to be followed up with action in both strengthening climate change adaptation interventions in our individual organisations and at the same time intensifying advocacy initiatives to place climate change on top of government agendas across Africa. We need to establish functional consensus and commonality of interest in the run up to the Copenhagen negotiations because climate change for Africa is both a justice issue and an issue that demands adaptation.

Jacob Nyirongo - Christain Aid Malawi

The workshop has been inspiring and also raised a lot of questions in my mind as to the possibility of building adaptive capacity in Africa - especially under a scenario in which Africa depends almost entirely on the industrialised world to finance adaptation and yet developed countries have not lived up to their promises in the past. 

The workshop was silent on the role and responsibility of multinational private companies that are investing in Africa and how we want to engage them in adaptation to climate change. As we look forward, the challenge for Africa is to link various national and regional initiatives on climate change and come up with a position for Africa on climate change adaptation and igniting the political will of its leaders.

Alphonce Katunzi – INADES Formation Tanzania

The workshop has been useful in the sense of bringing together various partners to share progress on work and strategies on CC adaptation work. It has helped us to understand the facts and figures on the extent and impacts of CC from the scientific point of view. What is alarming to mankind is the sheer scale and magnitude of the problem. But what baffles me on the other hand is the extent to which the international community is responding so slowly to the ‘emergency’.

As it has been stressed, climate change is an emergency issue and for emergency situations we need emergency actions. We have seen that the realities of climate change initially came to the fore as far back as 1989 during the Commonwealth Meeting of the Heads of State, and then at the Rio Declaration.

As we count down to Copenhagen, the outlook is still gloomy as to whether the international community will be able to take the issue more seriously. As we are talking about sustainable development – this seems to be more of a rhetoric – as human actions have continued to make the world a dangerous place for future generations. As we continue to push for more attention on all-inclusive adaptation to climate change, we should bear in mind that time is no longer with us – Sooner or later, we are going to be talking  no more of mitigation and adaptation but of migrating away from this planet – but to where???  Or else we seem to be digging our own grave – paying for our ‘sins’ – as is often argued by poor communities when alluding to the causes of the current changes in climate.

Gilbert Bisimwa, Bukavu, DRC

The challenge is very high for my country as until now there is no clear position on the climate change issue at government level. This will make civil society’s initiatives towards the ongoing campaign very challenging as it appears that the DRC hasn’t taken any clear position regarding the climate change issue.

Incidentally, there are large scale problems arising in various areas of the country and I think we, as civil society, have the opportunity to keep pushing on and advocate at all levels, both local and national, using facts from affected people and ecosystems throughout the country ( for example, the recent floods in Equateur Province; in Kinshasa and Kindu, biodiversity loss and habitat degradation).

While recognising funding from UNEP remains hypothetical, we should suggest a flexible mechanism to be set up as a way to channel funds to civil society through UNDP / UNOCHA as is currently done in some post-conflict areas such as DRC. This could avoid mismanagement and keep up some traceability on the given money. It is also useful to maintain a regional landscape on the issue looking at the similarity between the different countries in the Great Lakes region. Both local, national and regional strategies are needed to best collaborate and move forward in the global fight for adaptation to climate change.

Lillian Anyango, TV/E, Kenya

The conference was very enjoyable and informative. I think the presentations were all well done and very interactive thus enabling us to learn effectively. I would however like to hear more on the aspect of culture and the effect it has on implementing adaptation to climate change.

Ibidun Adelekan, NEST, Nigeria

I found the workshop particularly rewarding in terms of the broader horizons and perspectives to climate change adaptation practice which I gained. I was especially enlightened and motivated on the use of video and media for communicating climate

Engage with your governments

Malene Haakansson, Advocacy and Documentation Officer, DanChurchAid Ethiopia reports on the last day of the Nairobi conference...

The last day of the workshop was dedicated to issues regarding advocacy and funding for adaptation projects. The first speaker, Andrew Adwera from ACTS – a science, technology and environmental policy think thank – encouraged the participants to include advocacy in the designing of a project or a program.

“When you design a project, you have to ask yourself what it is you want to change,” said Andrew Adwera. You have to find out what policies you want to influence and who you have to work with to reach your goal; take advantage of already existing political moments, and use the local communities as witnesses to what is going on – get their message through to the media, he advised.  The risks involved in taking up issues also has to be taken into consideration.

An African position is needed
George Manful, Climate Change Senior Task Manager from UNEP, raised the issue of funds under the international climate change agreements. The funding landscape is complicated and difficult to access unless “you can influence key African actors to speak on your behalf,” as George Manful put it.
He made it very clear that there is not enough money for the great need of adaptation projects in Africa, which makes it even more important for African CSOs to speak with one voice.
“Nobody will tell your story. You have to work together to tell a convincing story to get support,” advised George Manful. The African ministers have to be briefed very well because they are up against expert ministers from the industrialized countries. The message from the climate task manager, who is involved in the international negotiations, is very clear.

“Make an African position and get the African politicians on board. Africa’s needs have not been very clear.”

Funding dilemmas
Accessing bilateral donors was another subject was up for discussion. Christian Aid has lots of experience with DFID and other donors, which Richard Ewbank, Climate Change Programme Coordinator from the London office, shared with the audience. Policy points have been developed from the experience but the points contain many dilemmas. One of the tricky policy points is: Climate funds are not overseas development aid. The question here is how you make the distinction between what is development as usual and what is climate change. Community based adaptation is a priority for Christian Aid because it gives a window to capitalize on strong NGO grass root records.

You can do it
The peptalk from Thomas Deve, UNDP Millennium Campaign in Africa, certainly got the audience’s attention. In just a few minutes, Thomas Deve made it clear what a campaign should contain to succeed: You have to work in a team, your messages have to be clear, make your issue a global concern, before each audience place a PERSON to tell the story. And arrange your campaign around key moments of the year.

“You have to move people and inspire them – and show them that you are campaigning,” says Thomas Deve.  "Get ambassadors. And use the same messages until you get what you want - but remember to package your message differently and present it to different platforms. Make targets and set them against political targets."

Advocacy work is in progress
The workshop showed that there are plenty of climate change issues to be picked up. The participants showed with their questions that there is a great need to influence policy makers if they want to make a change on climate change. This is also why the APRODEV agencies (Association of World Council of Churches related Development Organisations in Europe) have come together to work on climate change advocacy internationally, regionally and nationally. Christian Aid has developed a Southern Campaign Tool Kit, which was also introduced at the workshop, and the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) has been formed for all African partners to liaise with. PACJA and APRODEV are taking up the challenge to achieve a common African CSO position on the climate change needs of Africa.

Adaptation, adaptation, adaptation
Seen from the African perspective adaptation is the main issue in the climate change debate  - programme and  advocacy wise. The consequences of climate change are very real for our partners and the communities we serve. The need for advocacy is great – nationally but also internationally. The African politicians need to know more about what is going on at the grass root level, and CSOs can provide them with the needed documentation and voices of the people. At the international level we have to tell the story of Africa in a united and strong voice otherwise the voice of Africa will not be heard as it has happened so may times before in international negotiations.

 
The countdown to Copenhagen has started.

Hurricane proof poultry houses

In the UK discussion of climate change might revolve around coal versus wind power. In the Caribbean, thoughts about new technologies are focussed  by the knowledge that 2008 was the only year on record where every month in the hurricane season saw a new hurricane. 

A Christian Aid partner in Jamaica - the Women's Resource Outreach Centre (WROC) - has been providing  a key local solution: the hurricane proof poultry houses (or 'fowl coops' as some at the conference would have it). Demonstrated in the field, these structures have become the model of choice for the women poultry farmers of the region.

Scientists speaking out

On the same day that NASA's Jim Hansen joins Christian Aid climate protesters in Coventry a global trend seems to be taking hold. 

Dr Ulric Trotz, scientific adviser from the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, and one of the Kingston conference's keynote speakers has given the conference a challenge: 'We need a strong civil society voice, so our political leaders see it as a political issue, an urgent issue, not a 20 year, scientific issue. We need a voice.'

Jeffrey Spooner from the Meteorological Service of Jamaica adds, 'We need civil society to go to the political leaders and say: we know this, we know this, we know this... now do this, do this, do this. Hold their feet to the fire!'

The Caribbean - the frontline of climate change?

Christian Aid has convened a regional conference in Kingston, Jamaica and scientists, representatives of key NGOs as well as a few key politicians and journalists are discussing how they can cooperate to strengthen the voice of Caribbean civil society on climate change.

The first day is somewhat of an immersion in information, setting out the context of what is happening. Increases in water stress, hurricane intensity and frequency, outbreaks of Dengue fever, flooding, landslides... the Caribbean is struggling to cope with the relatively moderate global warming that has already taken place. 

But the Caribbean faces one impact of climate change mostly unheard of in India, Accra or Bolivia.  Changes in water temperature are causing widespread and dramatic coral bleaching - the coral is dying. 

Loss of coral means a fundamental change in the marine environment potentially leading to a collapse in fish stocks. As 80% of the protein consumption of the region comes from the sea this is a fundamental threat to the nutrition of the poor as well as to livelihoods in the fishing and tourism industries.

Top tips to access to adaptation funding

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On top of some excellent insights into UN processes and negotiations, George Manful of UNEP gives some top tips to Christian Aids staff and partners on what elements are vital in any application for accessing adaptation funding.