IFAD social reporting blog

By Julie Potyraj from George Washington University,

As extreme weather events occur more commonly across the globe, it is becoming apparent that the implications of climate change extend far past a change in the Earth’s average temperature. Though all countries will be affected, The World Bank cautions that poor countries are the most at risk for complications due to the changes in weather. Increasingly severe droughts, floods, and heat waves will hinder crop production and reduce the availability of safe water. Information collected by Global Agriculture shows that millions of people in the world’s poorest countries rely on either subsistence or commercial agriculture, so any changes in solar radiation, temperature, and hydrologic cycle could threaten their livelihoods. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) crop yields, food prices, and overall food security will be negatively affected by climate change as well, though the exact impact is difficult to calculate due to a variety of determinants that include regional climates, agricultural practices, and types of crops.
 
Certain parts of the world, specifically Africa and Asia, are already suffering from extreme weather events. There has been a push to emphasize funding for climate “adaptation” in addition to climate “mitigation.” Adaptation is the preparation for the effects of climate change, while mitigation involves initiatives that obstruct the progress of climate change. It is no longer enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the future; damage has already been done. Many organizations, like The World Bank, are prioritizing disaster risk management and other immediate climate change adaptation strategies in order to brace for the effects of the Earth’s rising temperature in the world’s poorest countries; without adaptation, those countries are even more exposed and vulnerable.
 
Why? Because a slight change in the Earth’s temperature can result in immeasurable consequences on the daily lives of poor rural communities. Lower crop production, changing landscapes, and shrinking safe water supplies caused by the effects of climate change will hinder economic development and increase world hunger. Severe weather events facilitate the spread of disease. The damage that weather causes to infrastructure and rural environments makes it more difficult to provide people with the medical attention they need. If they are unable to cope with unstable soil conditions and unreliable water availability, rural families may be forced to temporarily or permanently resettle. However, migration can lead to political, social, and economic instability. Migration is an extreme and disruptive adaptation strategy, but it may be the only option for inhabitants of the most vulnerable regions.
 
Though agriculture is actually a contributing factor to greenhouse gas emissions, the people most susceptible to the harmful effects of climate change are not necessarily the people with the power to mitigate the Earth’s rising temperatures. The following data visualization from MHA@GW, the online Executive Master of Health Administration offered through the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University, compares the nations that contribute the most CO2 emissions to the nations that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Many of the most vulnerable nations are already predisposed to severe weather events such as drought and flooding. Unless developed countries take accountability for their contribution to climate change, the world’s most vulnerable countries and communities will increasingly struggle to adapt to its negative effects.

• participación democrática,
• oportunidades económicas de los y las jóvenes;
• empoderamiento económico de las mujeres;
• programas de transferencia monetaria; acceso a mercados;
• alianzas entre los sectores público y privado y las y los pequeños productores rurales;
• medio ambiente y cambio climático;
• soberanía y seguridad alimentaria;
• y la participación y empoderamiento económico de los pueblos indígenas.

• Con la Asociación Guatemalteca de Exportadores (AGEXPORT), para promover oportunidades de acceso a mercados para las y los pequeños productores de Guatemala, Honduras y El Salvador;
• Con el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD), la ONG Visión Mundial y el Instituto Nacional de la Juventud (INJUVE) para apoyar a la juventud rural.
• Con la ONG PRISMA y el Comité Nacional de Agricultura Familiar (CNAF) para fortalecer la soberanía y seguridad alimentaria.

Article originally posted here

“Climate change is an issue of survival,” declared H.E. Anote Tong, President of Kiribati, the keynote speaker at the United Nations System side event co-sponsored by WMO on “Science-based climate information – building on evidence to implement policies,” on 4 December at COP21.

Kiribati is one of the low-lying Pacific islands most at threat of rising sea levels. Even now, Kiribati is suffering more high tides, damage to homes and food crops and drinking water, and extreme weather. “Based on this experience and climate change projections, we are faced with very real possibility of our islands not being able to support our current population and life as we know it today,” President Tong told the side event.

Kiribati has reconciled itself to the “brutal reality” that the scale of resources necessary for adaptation will be insufficient and so that Kiribati was preparing for the worst.

“Relocation must be part of our adaptation strategy, adaptation beyond our borders,” said President Tong. The government is also trying to educate and train people to make them more competitive and mobile on the international market, he said.

He said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had provided ample evidence that “something is terribly wrong.” “And yet the world continues to oscillate and we continue to ignore what the science is telling us and what we are witnessing with our own lives,” he said.

The side event featured presentations from U.N. Special Envoy for Climate Change H.E. John Kofi Agyekum Kufuor, the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Hoesung Lee, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud, UNESCO IOC Executive Secretary Vladimir Ryabinin, UNFCCC Director for Strategy Haldor Thorgeirsson, and Director of the Environment and Climate Division at the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Margarita Astralaga.

“It’s a challenge to the entire planet and not even the most developed country is  exempt,” said Mr Kufuor, the former President of Ghana. “We need a very comprehensive global effort. Without science we wont make a dent so scientific information is crucial,” he said.

Hoesung Lee, who was recently elected IPCC chair, said ahead of the Sixth Assessment Report, the IPCC would seek to become more geographically balanced with a greater focus on developing country scientists and regional and local impacts.  He said there would also be greater attention, after COP21, to possible solutions for dealing with climate change.

The IPCC would improve the way it communicates to translate the complexity of science into language understood by everybody. “This does not mean dumbing down the language. Scientific accuracy and rigour will always be the hallmark of the IPCC,” he said.

“We are at a historic period of life on this planet. We as a human race are modifying life on the planet within the space of a couple of generations,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. “Thanks to the science of the IPCC, we know what’s going on now but what will be the consequences in the future,” he said.

WMO would continue to inform negotiators at climate change negotiations of the science, he said. “Negotiators no longer have an excuse for not making decisions.”

Vladimir Ryabinin, of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, said the oceans played a crucial role in the climate and in socio-economic development. More than 90 percent of heat from greenhouse gases is absorbed by the oceans.

Sustained ocean observations and research are a must to inform policy making and adaptation, he said. “The ocean is not only the victim, but also part of the solution and must be part of the conversation,” he said.

Ms Margarita Astralaga provided concrete examples of “people-centre science” from IFAD’s Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme. The examples illustrated the roles and needs of local communities in climate-related policy making processes, including how smallholder farmers, when receiving climate information, can start to frame a local response to buffer climate impacts and engage more effectively with local planning processes.

 “Local communities need to have information, understand it and influence policy”, Ms. Astralaga said.