December 20, 2012

DARA’s Director General, Ross Mountain, pointed out climate change as a major humanitarian issue that needs to be addressed urgently at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Governing Board Meeting held in Geneva last month:

“Its impact is already substantial and continuing to grow, yet we consistently underestimate its importance. Meanwhile the time available to effectively address the issue is quite literally running out” he said.

Mr. Mountain was invited to offer his views on global challenges, priorities and practical suggestions for action by the IFRC as part of its review of its Strategy 2020. He highlighted climate change as a striking example of the new challenges the international community must face as understanding of looming issues has grown amid political failure to respond.

A warmer planet is having devastating consequences and increasing the severity and frequency of natural disasters, with the worst yet to come: “Extreme drought conditions across the Sahel and Horn of Africa and severe floods in Asia are indications of what is coming our way.”

This has significant implications for humanitarian and development actors, as climate change is increasingly affecting more lives, and the health and livelihoods of millions. It is the poorest who are the worst hit, and half of those who die are children. However Hurricane Sandy reminds us that no country is immune,” he said.

Drawing on the conclusions from DARA’s recently published Climate Vulnerability Monitor 2nd Edition, Mr. Mountain mentioned that inaction on climate change and the carbon economy already costs the world over one trillion dollars, annually and this figure is set to double by 2030. In addition, 4.5 million lives are estimated to be lost every year due to carbon-intensive energy use and burning fuels.

He highlighted the potential the IFRC has to address climate change: “As as one of the largest and most influential humanitarian organisations the role of the Federation is vital. Today’s most serious global challenges are your challenges. Climate change complicates and increases the difficulty of our work.”

Mr. Mountain also suggested three priority areas for the Federation to consider: resilience, advocacy and organisational perspectives:

“Why resilience? Massive earthquakes in Haiti, Japan and New Zealand have taught us the degree to which loss of life in disasters is socio-economically determined. The hundreds of millions of dollars that poured into Haiti will unfortunately not bring back any of the more than 200,000 lives lost. Worldwide, risk reduction has been estimated to amount to less than 1% of ODA – humanitarian assistance is around 10%. We should also aim to proactively invest to lessen the human and economic severity of emergencies.

On advocacy, I remain convinced that the Federation together with national Societies could have a louder voice. Many of today’s humanitarian challenges are also communication challenges, political challenges, conceptual and cultural challenges. We are deluding ourselves if we think they can be overcome without considered but powerful advocacy efforts at the global and national levels. You have the mission and worldwide outreach to ‘change minds’ with your advocacy. I hope you will use them to the maximum.

Finally, we stand in the midst of an economic and financial crisis that has gripped some of the world’s richest economies for almost 5 years. We need to get more creative in increasing our reach and impact by other than financial means. These could include expanding volunteerism – perhaps the Federation might consider adopting a target of doubling volunteer time by 2020 or even 2015? – but also performance monitoring, marketing, partnerships and just looking ahead better in our rapidly changing world.”