Projects under the climate justice programme have included:
Funded by the Commonwealth Foundation in the UK, this project is increasing women farmers’ capacities to advocate and lobby policy makers for participation in agricultural and environmental policy and decision making that will help them adapt to the environmental and climate change impacts they are experiencing. Read more
Funded by the UK Department for International Development (DfID), we are supporting around 1,000 women farmers to improve the sustainability of their farming systems and helping them adapt to climate change impacts. This will contribute to improving their farm productivity and also the food security of their families and communities. We are also providing communities with facilities such as water boreholes for potable water. Read more
The world is warming at a faster rate than expected, causing damage to critical species, habitats and ecosystems and disrupting food production systems. The poorest and most vulnerable people are experiencing the worst of the impacts. Their high dependence on natural resources, sun Accra 2009their vulnerability to small environmental changes, their location in marginal and vulnerable environments, and their lack of capacity to adapt mean climate change is already making their lives and livelihoods much more difficult.
Developed countries have historically been the worst offenders in the climate crisis. Yet they resist taking the radical action that’s needed to slow global warming because they fear their economies will stagnate or shrink.
Radical action is needed now. Without it, we may reach dangerous levels of global temperature increases with catastrophic and irreversible consequences for species and ecosystems and for the lives and livelihoods of billions of people, the majority of whom are poor.
Large scale changes in the earth’s weather and temperatures that persist for a long time – 10 years or more – are what we call climate change. There has always been natural change, but this has been accelerated by human activities. The rate of temperature increase during the 150 years since the Industrial revolution has been extremely high compared with climate change patterns throughout Earth’s history.
The average temperature increase during the last century was close to 1°C. Of the 10 warmest years on record, 9 of them have happened since the year 2000. Our activities on earth are obviously having an impact. We have produced a booklet to help you, especially children, to understand what climate change is. Anyone who doesn’t know what it is may find it helpful. You can download it here: climate-change-what-is-it
Industrialisation, agriculture and fossil fuel burning (e.g. petrol in cars or for heating homes in cold countries) have pumped vast quantities of greenhouse gases, especially
carbon dioxide, but also methane and nitrous oxides, into the air. The gases have built up in the atmosphere and act like a blanket, trapping the sun’s heat and reflecting it back to earth. This is called the greenhouse effect and results in the Earth’s temperature rising. Deforestation exacerbates the process because trees naturally absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. When they’re cut down, they no longer absorb carbon dioxide and, to compound this, they release that which they’ve stored up when they’re burned or left to rot.
If we can keep average global temperatures to no more than 2oC above pre-industrial levels, then maybe we can stop the worst from happening. A global temperature rise of 2-3oC is already likely over the next 50 years, and more than 5 or 6oC during this century if emissions continue to increase. This is extremely worrying. We may be able to cope with temperature rises of less than 2oC if enough support is given to poor communities to adapt to the changes. Even with this small and now inevitable temperature rise, hundreds of millions of people will face increased water stress. An increase of more than 2oC will endanger the lives of millions more as crop yields decline, weather becomes more chaotic and dangerous, forests and animals die, lands become unproductive, and people suffer worsened food and water insecurity. The likelihood of conflict, migration, and disease will also increase, further endangering lives.
For more detail about climate change and what we can do to reduce out impacts, have a look at these two simple booklets, one to give a basic introduction to climate change, what it’s about, and why it’s happening, and a second to share ideas of what we can do to help reduce our impacts on the environment and climate. The actions suggest ways we can work together at household, farm and community levels to reduce our damaging impacts on the drawing2environment, and also help vulnerable people adapt to climate change impacts.
Here’s the link to the booklet explaining what climate change is and why it’s happening: climate-change-what-is-it.
And here’s the link to the actions we can take at household, farm and community levels to reduce our impacts on the environment and climate: climate-change-actions
