Transcript The human cost of climate change

The human cost of
climate change
NGOs meeting the challenge in Vietnam
October 29th
Fiona Percy
NGO CCWG Coordinator
CARE International
[email protected]
Poor people in
Vietnam suffer
most from the
impact of
climate change.
What can we do?
“We have to avoid the
unmanageable and manage
the unavoidable.”
(John Schellnhuber)
• Embarking on a process of
ORGANIZATIONAL
CHANGE to adapt NGOs
own policies and
procedures to the realities
of climate change
1.ADVOCATING for
just policies to
mitigate climate
change and support
poor communities’
1.MITIGATING climate adaptation efforts
change through
multiple-benefit
projects that also
support adaptation
activities.
NGOs address this through:
• Helping especially
poor, vulnerable
communities ADAPT
to climate change.
Many NGOs already have
the experiences, skills and
relationships needed to
make a difference.
In CC responses, NGOs:
• Pilot innovative approaches
• Stress participatory, community based systems
• Mobilise people’s participation, build their
capacity to help themselves
• Integrate gender, rights, equity issues
• Link disaster risk reduction, environmental
protection and development projects
• Focus on local ownership and sustainable
results
• Bring evidence from grass roots to the policy
dialogue and the media
• Transfer effective technologies
Adaptation to chronic long term changes:
Community-based adaptation (CBA)
….. is about helping communities adjust to new conditions, eg.
higher temperatures, sea-level rise, saline intrusions, subsiding
water tables, more or less rainfall, less predictable seasons.
Participatory Watershed project, Ba Thuoc
District:
- Community based future landscape
planning
- Sloping land techniques (SALT)
- Afforestation
- Diversification
Adaptation to increased risks of disaster:
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
.. is about helping communities reduce vulnerability to the
increased risks posed by hazards like typhoons, droughts
and sudden floods in the face of climate change.
CBDRM project Binh Dinh:
- Improve early warning systems
- Training in participatory
disaster risk management
planning.
- Commune disaster prevention,
mitigation and emergency
response master plans
Multiple benefit projects: Combining adaptation,
DRR, mitigation and development goals.
Mangroves project Hau Loc Dist:
– Storm protection
– Sustainable livelihoods for poor and
landless people
– High Carbon storage and other
environmental benefits
– Community confidence and
management
- Environmental and CC
awareness raising and
education
NGO Climate Change Working Group (CCWG)
The CCWG Goal:
Reducing the
vulnerability of poor
people in Vietnam to the
impacts of CC through:
Coordinated NGO
advocacy and capacity
building for responses that
are environmentally and
economically sustainable
and socially just.
NGO CCWG: why?
• to learn about what others are doing in
response to Climate change
• to access and share information
• to coordinate interaction with other actors
• to share contacts, resources, events,
capacity
• to have a representative voice in policy
making and other CC fora
CCWG Objectives and actions
1. Coordination among NGOs to maximize
impact and minimize overlap
160 members from INGOs, VNGOs, research
institutes, carbon investors and interested
others
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Regular meetings and events provide forums for
INGOs and Vietnamese NGOs to interact
CC activities are publicized with WB help.
Resources are shared through Web site and
mailing list: www.ngocentre.org.vn/node/5457
Information sharing, raising awareness through
meetings, events, links to mass media
CCWG Objectives and actions
2.
Advocacy: Dialogue between NGOs and policy
makers to coordinate views and action on climate
change response and policy.
NGO joint statements in the donor/government dialogue
meetings.
Coordinated comments and inputs to the NTP drafts with donors
and government.
Participation and contributions in policy formulation, action
planning and media workshops.
Design and facilitation of MARD OCCA action plan provincial
consultation workshops.
Participation in civil society REDD meeting (Ghana) and climate
justice conference (Bangkok).
Participation with mass media to raise awareness and increase
capacity of journalists
NGO CCWG messages:
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Support to Community-based adaptation should start now
User friendly information informed by science and local
knowledge is needed at all levels.
Civil society (community groups, mass organizations and
NGOs) is able to mobilise large numbers of vulnerable
people for adaptation and local level mitigation.
Climate change mitigation options can be small scale,
community-based and provide multiple benefits.
Forest dependent populations should receive fair benefits
from carbon financing.
Capacity is needed for action at the sub-national level
CCWG Objectives and actions
3. Capacity Building
• help NGOs in Vietnam access CC information,
training activities and funding opportunities;
• support NGO climate change activities and civil
society networking by:
– Creating opportunities to share experiences in CC
and disaster relief
– Assessing capacity needs
– Training on basic impacts, community based
adaptation, REDD, carbon footprints
– Developing a communication strategy
Working together
• Climate change impacts are here now.
• Projections of worse to come are real.
Working together
• CC is not just about the environment. It is
a serious and urgent food security issue, a
water, health, social, economic and
political stability issue ...
Working together
• Vietnam has a unique opportunity to lead
the world.
• By sensible adjustments to its growth
path, responding to climate change now,
Vietnam can:
– protect its citizens against inevitable
impacts; and
– build a sound 21st century economy
based on low carbon technology and
sustainable clean development
Thank you