That’s the message from Oxfam’s Sisters on the Planet Climate Leaders Summit. Held in Washington, DC, on International Women’s Day, the event brought together 94 women leaders from 33 US states—plus “climate witnesses” from Mississippi, Peru, Uganda, and Senegal—to honor women who are tackling climate change at the community level. In an effort to bring women’s voices to the forefront, these leaders met with 125 members of Congress and officials from the Obama administration, where they called for US climate legislation that helps poor people adapt to the crisis.
Environmental justice advocate Majora Carter delivered the keynote address at the summit. Carter is president of The Majora Carter Group, LLC, a consultancy specializing in environmental justice and sustainable economic development, as well as host of The Promised Land on NPR and the Sundance Channel’s Eco-Heroes.
In an exclusive interview with Oxfam, Carter talked about poverty here and abroad, the need for climate change adaptation, and why women can lead the way in coming up with solutions.
Oxfam: Why did you get involved with Oxfam and the Sisters on the Planet initiative?
Majora Carter: The similarities between people living in poverty anywhere—including the "developed" world—are very often greater than similarities between rich and poor in the same country. It mostly boils down to inequality within societies, and I am very familiar with what that looks like in the US. I want to learn more from the solutions that are being developed elsewhere, where different conditions have inspired creativity; and see how our work can play out in scenarios that may look different, but are really quite similar just under the surface.
How does climate change affect women in particular, especially women living in poverty? How can women lead in coming up with solutions?
Decades of dirty energy infrastructure … has been disproportionately burdening poor people in various ways. One way in particular is the public health of children, and care for these kids almost always falls on women—a mom, a grandmother, an older sister. The same holds true in places where water is scarce—women are the ones who have to travel further to transport it back home.
The good news is that because women are so in touch with the effects of climate change and its causes, they are in an excellent position to devise local solutions. But we have to use this unfortunate moment that history has cast our way. It is easy to shine a light on the mistakes of the past and where they have delivered us. We can't be afraid to use this position and contrast past practices against new ideas. The old arguments of inertia which say: "that's how it's always been done before..." are very vulnerable at the moment. Women (who have been excluded from any of the decision-making processes that brought us here) represent the possibility of new vision—but only when they realize that command is taken, not given.
During the summit, “climate witnesses” from places like Uganda told firsthand stories about how climate change has affected their lives. Why should Americans support their efforts to fight back against the crisis?
The dire situations that the "climate witnesses" described—in terms of literally losing their ability to support themselves, and in some cases, their land—represent a clear moral concern. However, my personal experience growing up in the South Bronx has made me skeptical about the strength of moral arguments in our society. It's usually the economic argument that carries the day.
How we embrace climate adaptation here, and the practices we influence abroad, will affect our global economic systems in many ways. … All the choices we make as a society can be thought through a little better than we have been; but putting the environmental equality of all people at the forefront of any process will guarantee better climate adaptation and better economic health for everyone. …
Climate change mitigation strategies are important too, and will have positive or negative effects on our economic health as well—depending on whether we lead, or back into the issues as they become impossible to ignore. We want to lead, even if it looks like it costs more up front; the advantages of leadership outweigh disadvantages of playing catch-up in matters big and small. I am proud to be associated with Oxfam and its very pro-leadership stance.
]]>This was the direct outcome of two years of negotiations and preparation by governments, added to in critical ways by civil society mobilization. The negotiated outcome at Copenhagen very clearly left the job undone, with a low level of ambition and many gaps left to be filled. But it did create some forward movement, and it should most importantly be seen as a moment that crystallized a global focus on climate change in historic ways.
The task now is to capture that energy and mobilize our public and political power for a fair, ambitious, and legally binding deal by the next major UN climate summit in Mexico City at the end of 2010. As Copenhagen demonstrated, this will not be an easy task, but there is no credible alternative. We try to capture here what happened at Copenhagen, as well as what is necessary to do in the coming year.
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Some 400 people representing a cross sector of society in Cambodia gathered under the hot, sunny sky at a tcktcktck campaign event in Phnom Penh this week. They were calling on world leaders to reach a fair, ambitious, and binding global climate deal at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen later this week.
“Time to Act is Running Out! It’s Time for Climate Action!,” chanted the crowd.
Many people could hear the loud chants from the Royal Palace and the Independence Monument, which stand a few hundred meters away. Some stopped by and watched while the campaigners formed an hourglass and the earth that’s trapped in the hourglass. It got more exciting when the campaigners ran down from the top to the bottom of the hourglass to demonstrate that the earth is dissolving like sand.
“World leaders are going halfway through the UN climate negotiations, but they are doing nowhere near enough to tackle the climate crisis,” said Brian Lund, East Asia regional director of Oxfam America. “So, we are calling on world leaders, especially leaders of rich countries who have more resources and technology, to increase their commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to provide more financing for poor countries like Cambodia to adapt to climate change.”
While the UN climate conference in Copenhagen has largely centered on emissions reductions, poor countries like Cambodia are focusing more on financing that could help their communities adapt.
“We are demanding that climate negotiators in Copenhagen press countries with major greenhouse gas emissions to take their fair shares and put money on the table to tackle the crisis,” said Boonny Tep, Executive Director of Save Cambodia Wildlife, and a participant of the event. “It is a crucial moment to join this global force to demand for a climate justice, and I hope today’s event as well as events like this around the world will encourage world leaders to reach a fair and safe climate deal at the UN conference.”
At the tcktcktck campaign event, Lund said that rich countries including America, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and some European countries must meet their global climate responsibilities and provide financing for developing countries like Cambodia, so that poor communities, especially small-scale farmers can protect themselves from the unavoidable consequences of climate change.
Cambodia is striving to rebuild itself after three decades of civil wars, which left almost two million Cambodians dead. Its development efforts are often hampered by natural disasters. Cambodia has been identified as one of the most vulnerable countries in Asia to climate change due to its (currently) low adaptive capacity and limited resources to address the issue. One in three Cambodians lives on less than a dollar a day and 80 percent of the population make their living in the agricultural sector.
]]>David Waskow, climate change program director for Oxfam America, made the following statement:
“This political agreement must be the floor and not the ceiling. We must now urgently get back to the table and finally make the hard decisions needed to deliver a fair, ambitious and binding climate deal.”
“Millions of people in the US and around the world have mobilized for climate action. Their hopes must drive this process.”
“The US and other countries made progress by saying that financing for developing countries to weather climate impacts and adopt low-carbon development should be $100 billion a year. But it is still unclear how this money will be generated and delivered to the most vulnerable people.”
]]>“Secretary Clinton’s announcement could be one of the missing keys that unlock the international negotiations in Copenhagen. Her recognition that substantial resources are needed to help developing countries weather the negative impacts of climate change could truly move us closer to a fair and adequate global deal on climate change.
“Around the world, millions of people are facing the fact that the impacts of climate change are here to stay and due to get worse before they get better, no matter how quickly we cut emissions. From Benin to Bangladesh, the poorest people are hit first and worst by climate change, but are least responsible for causing it.
“This welcome development was bolstered by Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s impressive bipartisan congressional delegation to Copenhagen, which demonstrated that the Administration’s proposals have strong support in the US Congress.
"To ensure a strong path forward, we hope President Obama will build on Secretary Clinton's announcement and the demonstrated Congressional support and firm up the US commitment to meet this goal with public funding that is new and additional to current development assistance. Hard-hit communities around the world must not face a trade-off between health clinics and early warning systems for disasters."
]]>Joined by climate-affected people from Bangladesh, Peru, Uganda and the USA, Robinson announced that climate change was “undermining human rights on an unprecedented scale.”
“International human rights law says that ‘in no case may a people be deprived of its means of subsistence’. Yet because of excessive carbon emissions, produced primarily by industrialised countries, millions of the world’s poorest people’s rights are being violated every day. This is a deep and global injustice,” said Robinson.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu drew on his own experience of climate change and called on world leaders not to let the voices of the most vulnerable fall on deaf ears:
“I too, stand before you as a witness. I have seen with my own eyes the changes in my homeland, South Africa. The Southern Cape is currently experiencing the worst drought anyone can remember. There is not enough food. There is too little water. The situation is becoming increasingly desperate.”
“This is our only chance to succeed in the word’s most important battle. I trust that those with the power to influence will have truly listened today. Justice cannot wait,” said Tutu.
The international climate hearing was the culmination of thousands of Oxfam-supported hearings carried out in 35 countries this year. Over one and a half million people joined the hearings to testify that climate change is destroying their lives and livelihoods.
Constance Okollet, a farmer for Uganda said: “Violent floods and long droughts have caused hunger, death and homelessness in my village. As farmers we used to be able to rely on the seasons, but now we don’t know when to plant, cultivate or sow. At first I thought god must be punishing us. Then I realized this was man made. Rich nations must compensate us for the damage they have done.”
With just four days until the summit closes and still no money on the table for long-term support to poor nations, the climate hearing provided a stark reminder of the human cost of further delay.
“Climate change is affecting every issue linked to poverty today. From death to hunger, disasters to displacement, the cost of delay is criminal,” said Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director of Oxfam International. “We’ve been waiting two years for this critical deal. With just four days to go, its time for governments to stop sidestepping their responsibilities and do the deal that’s needed for all of us.”
]]>COPENHAGEN, Denmark—Progressive businesses must speak out in support of a strong climate deal or risk letting their head-in-the-sand competitors derail the talks, cautioned Oxfam International today. The warning comes ahead of a series of high-level debates in Copenhagen on the private sector’s role in tackling climate change.
Conflicting voices are emerging from the business community – one calling for ambitious and urgent action and the other for obfuscation and delay. Oxfam is urging progressive business leaders to push wavering governments to show leadership in the climate talks.
“Corporations can open space for negotiators in Copenhagen – or they can close it down,” said Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam International’s Executive Director. ‘A critical mass of major companies has recognized that averting climate catastrophe and moving towards a low-carbon global economy is a business imperative. We are at a critical juncture, and now is the time for business to call loudly with one voice for a fair, ambitious, and binding global deal,’ said Hobbs.
Some in the private sector have lobbied against policies which threaten business as usual. Just days ago Business Europe, a coalition of national business associations from across the EU, tried to water down the EU’s ambition on emission reductions.
However, an increasing number of well-known companies are working together for ambitious climate policy action at the national and global levels. This includes 16 major US-based consumer brands that make up Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP) such as Nike, Timberland, Levi Strauss, Starbucks, and eBay. At a global level, the Corporate Leaders’ Group on Climate Change, created by the Prince of Wales, has organized the Copenhagen Communiqué. This detailed policy statement - signed by the BICEP companies, GE, Siemens, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, and over 800 other major companies around the world - calls for ‘an ambitious, robust, and equitable global deal on climate change.’
Dissension in the ranks of the business community over climate policy action was on display in the United States recently, with major companies withdrawing from the US Chamber of Commerce or its board over its opposition to government action on global warming. This conflict is likely to spill over into the international negotiations in Copenhagen.
The private sector plays a central role in the fight against climate change. An increasing number of companies have taken significant steps to cut their own emissions. While many recognize the importance of securing their own markets and supply chains by helping communities adapt to a changing climate. Business is also helping to create and disseminate technologies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions around the world.
CONTACTS
The Oxfam media team at media.copenhagen@oxfaminternational.org or:
Laura Rusu +1 202 459 3739 / +447540702656 Angela Corbalan + 32 473 56 22 60 / +447540702661 Natalie Curtis +44 7824 503108 / +447545719702 Anna Mitchell +44 7796 993 288 / +447545719593 Isabel Sande Frandsen +45 60 95 96 69 Binbin Wang +447540702805
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam’s Executive Director and Jonathan Jacoby, Oxfam’s Senior Private Sector Advisor will be available for interview. Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam’s International’s Executive Director will join policy makers and global business leaders from US, Europe and developing countries debate the role of business in delivering an ambitious climate deal
• Corporate Leaders Group Debate, 12:30 – 14:30, Thursday 10 December at Nero Port, ay Fidskers Plads 9, 2300, Copenhagen S
• Copenhagen Business Day Panel Debate, 14:00 - 16:00, Friday 11 December
For complete outline of Oxfam COP15 resources and activities including a background briefing on Business and the climate deal go to www.oxfam.org/en/oxfam-in-copenhagen
Rich countries could set off a chain reaction that leads to success in Copenhagen if they put forward at least $200bn per year in new public funds to help poor countries reduce their emissions and adapt to a changing climate.
Big developing countries such as China have signalled that they are willing to increase—and formalize—already significant pledges to reduce emissions if rich countries provide the necessary support. This, in turn, could help rich country leaders overcome domestic barriers to more ambitious targets. And it could secure the support of the world’s poorest countries that need help to adapt to a rapidly changing climate.
President Obama has already set the wheels in motion by agreeing to join other world leaders on 18 December and by announcing that the US is ready to pay its fair share towards the ‘fast start’ fund. Rich countries have said they are willing to put forward $10bn a year between 2010 and 2013 to help vulnerable countries tackle climate change.
The European Union must now build on the US move by putting forward its share of the $200bn a year needed in the long term—and pushing for the US to do the same. In October the EU said that a global fund worth up to €50bn ($74bn) per year is needed to help poor countries tackle climate change but stopped short of saying how much it will contribute.
Oxfam also warned that climate finance must be new. Many rich countries still plan to use money from existing aid commitments to meet their climate obligations.
Antonio Hill, Senior climate change advisor for Oxfam International said:
“The price of success in Copenhagen is $200bn. $200bn could trigger off a chain reaction that delivers more ambitious emissions reductions and helps the world’s poorest people adapt to a changing climate. We need to see this figure sparkling overhead in Christmas lights by the end of the Summit. Its peanuts compared to the $8.4 trillion we found to save drowning banks.”
“Rich countries are mistaken if they think that less than a half of the emissions cuts demanded by the science and $10bn in re-packaged aid promises can be spun as a success in two weeks time. It underestimates the real needs of billions of poor people and overestimates the patience of poor countries who have clearly signalled their preference for no deal over green wash.”
Shorbanu Khatun, a mother of four from Bangladesh who lost her home when cyclone Aila hit in May 2009 and who is in Copenhagen to raise awareness of the impact of climate change on her community said:
“For about last five years, everything seems to have changed. It is too hot and there is a severe scarcity of rain. There are less fish in the river and skin diseases, headache and diarrhoea have become regular phenomena. I have heard in a village gathering these are manmade disasters. I want to live. I want justice to my life and livelihoods; to my children lives and livelihoods.”
Contact the Oxfam media team at media.copenhagen@oxfaminternational.org or:
Anna Mitchell +44 7796 993 288 / +447545719593
Laura Rusu +1 202 459 3739 / +447540702656
Angela Corbalan + 32 473 56 22 60 / +447540702661
Natalie Curtis +44 7824 503108 / +447545719702
Isabel Sande Frandsen +45 60 95 96 69
Binbin Wang +447540702805
Oxfam spokesperson Antonio Hill made the following statement in reaction:
“Having decided to join dozens of other world leaders in the right place, at the right time, President Obama is now reinvigorating the US approach to the climate talks at this defining moment in history.
“All the ingredients are in place. An unprecedented number of heads of state are gathering to tackle an unprecedented challenge. It is up to them to work together to deliver the right deal.
“By recognizing that the US and other rich countries should pay their fair share of the money needed for poor countries to tackle a changing climate in the long and short term, President Obama has injected some much needed political momentum in the negotiations. More than 200 billion dollars a year are needed to help poor countries adapt to climate change and reduce their own emissions.”
]]>Turns out, some things don’t change.
When the muddy waters of the Tar River coursed through eastern North Carolina on Sept. 16, 1999, it was Princeville that bore the brunt of the flooding. All told, the rising waters killed six people; destroyed or damaged 1,183 homes; and, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory, “all but erased the town.”
Sadly, Princeville isn’t an isolated case. Worldwide, the most vulnerable communities are the ones hit hardest by natural hazards like droughts, floods, and storms— threats that are becoming more frequent and severe, owing to climate change.
This summer, Oxfam commissioned Susan L. Cutter and Christopher T. Emrich of the University of South Carolina’s Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute to map social vulnerability in the southeastern US—site of the country’s most persistent poverty. Cutter and Emrich identified counties in 13 states that reveal a high level of vulnerability to floods, hurricane-force winds, sea level rise, drought, or a combination of these hazards.
What makes a community vulnerable? A mix of physical factors and social characteristics, including demographic, economic, and housing conditions. In Miami-Dade County, FL, for example, over 50 percent of the land lies within a flood zone and 100 percent within a hurricane wind hazard zone. So, faced with a major hurricane, people in socially vulnerable neighborhoods in the county—like Miami’s Little Haiti, home to many poor immigrant families—are at greatest risk of property loss, injury, and death. And it is these families that have the fewest resources to respond to or recover from a disaster.
As a next step, the institute will share its Social Vulnerability Index with policy makers, emergency management officials, and community leaders. The institute and Oxfam hope these findings will inform smarter disaster preparation plans for the nation’s most disadvantaged areas.
As for Princeville, in late 1999 town leaders voted against a federal buyout that would require residents to relocate, opting instead to rebuild with stronger buildings. That recovery process continues 10 years later.
“[At first] I said there is no way I’m going back, I was so devastated,” one Princeville resident told The New York Times shortly after the floods. “But then I thought about it, and I said, ‘Why should I give up what my ancestors worked so hard to leave us?’”
At the national level, we need to:
Click here to learn more and see the full set of social vulnerability maps.
]]>“For months, President Obama stated his personal commitment to tackling climate change at the global level. Today, he signaled that he’s ready to roll up his sleeves to make a climate change deal happen.
“All eyes have been on the US to see whether it will shift decisively to become a global leader in the fight against climate change. But concrete offers from the US have been missing, and Congressional legislation has been slow to get to the finish line.
“Today’s announcement flies in the face of predictions of failure in Copenhagen well before the conference even begins. Oxfam and other groups have urged President Obama to join negotiators and more than 60 heads of state in Copenhagen. President Obama’s personal appearance and commitment to action can bring the necessary momentum to deliver a deal.
"Hard-hit communities on the front lines of climate change need President Obama on the front lines of the negotiations. The President should head to Copenhagen with ambitious goals to cut emissions here at home, along with a robust finance package to help poor communities cope with the serious impacts of climate change. The US proposal for a new global climate fund marks a potentially helpful step, and President Obama should move quickly to back it up with a commitment of substantial long-term funding."
]]>But a hungry child exists in a larger context: if we nourish communities, they can nourish their own children.
The woman on our cover, Fatou Doumbia, and other women in her village in Mali, pooled their resources last year. They set aside nearly a ton of millet as a defense against the hunger they’d seen as food prices spiked. Hers is another face of hunger: determined, resourceful.
After the last harvest, Oxfam reached out to supporters to respond to the food crisis. We’ve devoted much of this issue to looking at what communities have done to avoid the kinds of hardships they confronted. When people living in poverty are hit by a food crisis or natural disaster, they lack resources to tide them over.
Oxfam works to help people build their resilience. Let respect and hope fuel your efforts to support women like Doumbia.
]]>Achieving farm resilience requires building up the resilience of vulnerable farmers by developing their skills, expertise and voice while supporting their use of agro-ecological farming practices. Building resilience depends not just on how farmers manage resources, but on how well local, national, and global institutions support farmers. Agro-ecological practices can empower vulnerable small-scale farmers, offering them both greater control over their lives and an accessible means of improving their food security, while decreasing their risk of crop failure or livestock death due to climate shocks. Vulnerable farmers can use agro-ecological practices to build resilient farms and improve their livelihoods, achieving multiple benefits: 1. improved food security; 2. adaptation to a changing climate; and 3. mitigation of climate change.
People-centred resilience consists of five principles which should guide how investments in vulnerable farming communities are designed and implemented. They are:
Following these principles ensures that investments support farmers in their efforts to become food-secure and adapt to climate change. Four institutions central to delivering people-centered resilience are: secure land rights; dynamic farmer associations; responsive agricultural advisory services; and public support for environmental services.
]]>“We commend Senator Boxer, Chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, for forging ahead with this critical climate and energy legislation. With climate change already hurting millions of the most vulnerable people around the world and global negotiations in Copenhagen hanging in the balance, it was essential that this legislation move forward thoughtfully but quickly.
“Action must not be delayed on an issue that members from both sides of the aisle recognize as dire. This bill moves forward on a long-term vision of creating a cleaner world, spurring global economic growth, and building resilience to the serious impacts of climate change already being felt around the world.
“Because of Senator Boxer’s leadership, the bill improves emission reduction targets over the House-passed bill to 20 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2020 and takes a step to increase the funding for poor and vulnerable communities to adapt to climate change. While more finance is urgently needed to help the most at-risk developing countries cope with the effects of climate change, this bill recognizes the immediate importance of the adaptation challenge to foster global stability and poverty reduction worldwide.
“We look forward to working with the Senate to further improve the bill and increase support for adaptation efforts. All options should be explored to provide the substantial resources needed both on the ground and for success in the international negotiations.”
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