"Several governments championed steps to tackle the crucial issues sitting on the G8 agenda, but in the end this summit did not deliver the breakthroughs that are so urgently needed. The consensus reached was shallow at best, especially on climate," said Oxfam International Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs.
Oxfam is now calling for leadership at key UN meetings on poverty in September and on climate in December.
]]>The audience of conference delegates and reporters applauded as the curtains parted to reveal a collection of 17 drawings and paintings. Some were lifelike and elaborate; others used bold colors and simple lines. But all were created by children and young adults from Bangladesh, Mozambique, or Uganda—and all depict the effects of climate change on vulnerable communities.
After the applause died away, Mutagamba pointed to a drawing by Buyongo Niccolus, a 16-year-old from her home country. "What we see here is a mother and her children," Mutugamba said. "They are frustrated, with no food, and they are malnourished. And they are in the middle of nowhere because everything has been exposed to drought."
Mutagamba and her fellow delegates had a long road ahead of them when they came together at the Bali climate conference last month. Representatives from over 180 countries were tasked with updating the Kyoto Protocol and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which expire in 2012. Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, members of Congress also spent last month grappling with the implications of a changing climate. It has been a busy few weeks for people who care about the human consequences of climate change—a period marked by both encouraging progress and lingering challenges.
Millions of people worldwide are already deeply affected by climate crises like drought, floods, severe weather, and increased disease. Even if the world stopped polluting today, climate change would continue to have negative impacts on the world's poorest people. To tackle this problem, Oxfam is campaigning for rich countries to stop harming by dramatically cutting their carbon emissions and start helping by providing the necessary financing so that people in the most vulnerable countries can adapt to a changing climate.
While Oxfam's "Children's Voices" art exhibit was a success, overall progress at the Bali conference was not always smooth. The US and other wealthy countries often resisted setting clear negotiating terms, and many representatives from developing countries grew frustrated with what they saw as an avoidance of making real commitments on the issue.
After two weeks of negotiations, the Bali delegates agreed to an action plan, or "roadmap," for international negotiations over the next two years. The roadmap hints at new resources and innovative funding for adaptation in developing countries, and finalizes an unresolved plan to implement an international Adaptation Fund. The amount generated for this fund will be far less than what is needed for poor countries to adapt to climate impacts—about $200-$300 million, compared to Oxfam's estimate of over $50 billion—but it is a beginning.
The Bali roadmap outlines how nations can work together to implement these adaptation plans, and provides opportunities for transfer of clean energy technology to developing countries.
Precisely where the roadmap will lead, and how fast countries will work to get there, remains uncertain. But as the UN makes progress toward a final agreement, Oxfam will work to ensure that opportunities created in the Bali roadmap become a reality.
As world leaders in Bali put together a roadmap for global climate change negotiations, US leaders in Washington, DC were also making progress on climate-related legislation.
On December 5, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the Climate Security Act of 2007, also known as the "Lieberman-Warner bill" after the lead Senate sponsors of the legislation. While far from providing a complete solution, the bill sets an important precedent by allocating funds for adaptation to climate change impacts.
On specific issues related to developing countries, the Lieberman-Warner bill calls for an "International Climate Change Adaptation and National Security Program" to set aside a portion of the revenues from a government auction of greenhouse gas emission permits. These funds would be used for creating and implementing adaptation plans in poor countries, supporting investments to reduce people's vulnerability to climate impacts, and identifying ways for developing countries to use low-carbon and energy-efficient technologies.
Later in the month, Congress and the president signed off on the 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, a massive funding bill that outlines US spending in the year ahead. Within this bill was another landmark for adaptation funding: a requirement that the State Department convene a committee to evaluate and report on developing country adaptation needs and to define a strategy for the US to meet those needs.
Both bills represent forward progress on the need for adaptation funds, but the Lieberman-Warner bill has yet to become law--though it may be considered by the full US Senate this year. Like-minded legislators may also introduce similar laws in the US House of Representatives. Oxfam will continue to follow and strengthen this legislation to make sure adaptation remains a priority.
Not long after unveiling "Children's Voices" at the Bali climate conference, Minister Mutagamba of Uganda met one-on-one with US Senator John Kerry, the only member of Congress in attendance.
After their meeting, Mutagamba presented Kerry with Buyongo Niccolus's drawing from the exhibit. Smiling, the senator held up the drawing for the media's cameras, revealing its rich colors in the bright sunlight. The picture was clear, and so was its message: climate change is a reality, and many vulnerable people are already feeling its effects.
As Mutugamba told the Bali audience earlier in the week, global leaders must take action on behalf of the world's poorest people. "They have no hope. We must restore their hope as a global community."
]]>The Carterets are six small islands that surround an atoll made of sand; their highest point lies just 5 feet above sea level. The Islanders have fought for more than twenty years against the intruding Pacific Ocean, building sea walls and planting mangroves. But within the space of a generation, the islands' shoreline has receded over 60 feet. During storm surges, salt water washes away homes, destroys vegetable gardens, and contaminates fresh water supplies. For a population of 2,500, largely dependent on subsistence agriculture, the impact has been devastating.
"For the Carteret Islanders, we cannot wait any longer because the islands are shrinking," says Ursula Rakova, who owns land on Huene Island, now divided into two smaller islands and disappearing fast. "When it's high tide, we can see salt water bubbling out of the land. We can no longer make gardens."
"We are one of those who are going to be displaced very soon," she said.
Rakova leads a group lobbying for the islanders' plight to be given more attention. Oxfam has supported a speaking tour for them to publicize their predicament.
In November 2005, the Papua New Guinea government authorized the evacuation of the islands, ten families at a time, to the nearest large island, Bougainville, which is located over 80 miles away. The evacuation stalled, but new funding promised by the Autonomous Bougainville Government in November this year could see Islanders re-commence the relocation in 2008. The Islanders believe that their home could be largely submerged by 2015.
A plantation has been secured where the Islanders can relocate. But there is no basic infrastructure on this land. The Carteret Islanders need somewhere that they can settle together as a community with a shared set of values and cultural identity. They urgently need 3,000 new homes, schools, health care and other basic social services.
Their story illustrates how vulnerable small island states and coastal communities are to rising sea levels caused by climate change. The Carteret Islanders, with a carbon footprint among the lowest in the world, will be among the first to have to abandon their islands because of rising seas caused by emissions from other nations.
So far, neither the Papua New Guinea government nor the Autonomous Bougainville Government have developed climate change adaptation plans. Both have been criticized by their citizens for this.
The Carteret Islanders' story repeats itself elsewhere in the Pacific. In Tuvalu, lowlands are flooded by seawater at high tide and coastal erosion eats away at the remaining land. As a result, saltwater intrusion is badly affecting drinking water and food production. Similar problems are occurring in the Marshall Islands and Kiribati, where at least two islets have already disappeared.
]]>Lovethom, a small village in Cambodia's northern province of Kratie, is home to a Muslim ethnic group called the Cham. The Cham are descendants of the ancient kingdom of Champa, who migrated to Cambodia from Vietnam after the fall of their kingdom in 17th century.
For centuries, the Cham in Lovethom have benefited from living on the fertile Mekong river flood plains. The seasonal flooding each year provides fish and just enough water for rice cultivation. However, the delicate balance of nature is changing, affecting the livelihoods of the people and altering the structure of this centuries-old Muslim community.
"In the last three years we have experienced unpredictable floods. We plant but we can't harvest; it has never happened like this before," said Mom Mayas, a 47-year-old mother of six. Mom owns a small plot of land where her family has been cultivating rice for over a century.
"The flood plain normally overflows from July until September, then the water starts to recede and that is when we start planting. But in the past three years there has been heavy rain, and after the water level receded in September, it just started to rise again, destroying everything in its path, " she said.
Taking this experience into account, this year Mom did not plant immediately after the flood waters receded. But her efforts were in vain because the water level fluctuated three times in the space of two months.
"I have lost most of my early rice crops because of the unpredictable floods and have only started planting rice seedlings in November—the last month of the wet season," she said.
Because of the recent changes in weather patterns, Mom has sent her two oldest sons to Thailand to work as laborers. She now has no men to help her in the fields—her husband fell victim to the civil war in 1995.
"The boys cannot afford to send money back from Thailand," she said. "At the moment they have only got money to support themselves, while my two girls work on a bean plantation up north. I don't really want everyone to split up like this and be far apart from family and friends as well as the community, but if this is what we have to do, then so be it."
Far from being defeated, Mom says she is doing the best she can to support her two younger sons and 95 year-old mother by pressing palm leaves to sell as thatch walls and roofs as well as selling porridge and banana leaves.
"After being hit three years in a row I have no money left to buy seeds to plant next year, " she said. "I have very little hope now, but I am doing whatever I can so the rest of my children can go to school and maybe have a better life."
Tin Ponlok, National Project Manager for the formulation of Cambodia's National Adaptation Program of Action to Climate Change (NAPA), explained that climate change affects an agrarian country like Cambodia in the form of floods and droughts. "The rural poor with limited resources rely solely on agricultural products," he said, "and climate change is costing them dearly."
Tin explained that people living in lowland areas, such as Lovethom, are the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change because of increased flooding and soil erosion. Research conducted by the Climate Change Office of the Cambodian Ministry of Environment has proven that agricultural productivity has gone down during the past five years because of increased flooding, drought and sea water intrusions.
The eighth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreed that least developed countries are most vulnerable to climate change. A decision was made to allocate money to countries which submitted successful National Adaptation Plans.
Tin explained that Cambodia's NAPA identified 39 projects in water resources, agriculture, human health and coastal zone management as urgent priorities. Examples include introducing integrated farming such as cattle raising and vegetable planting so that rice is not the only dependent source of income, and improving irrigation systems.
"Because least developed countries suffer from problems that are caused by somebody else, we think it's fair that we get funding to support our adaptation projects," he said. "We want better commitments towards adaptation from developed countries."
For villagers in Mindanao, once known as the food basket of the Philippines, extreme heat, droughts and flash flooding are now annual occurrences. They used to enjoy three planting seasons a year, generating bountiful crops from their fertile soil. Now, villagers are battling regular pest infestations and unpredictable weather, malnutrition is rising, and some villagers are forced to survive on bananas.
The worst crisis so far was the 1997 El Niño, which lasted for nine months. The temperature soared, plants dried, land cracked, and clean water sources were threatened. People left their villages.
In the village of Sepaka, last year's drought lasted for six months. All the crops failed and some farmers only managed to produce one sack of rice. In a good season, one hectare yields an average of 70 sacks of rice.
This year the farmers face an added crisis: many of the rice fields have turned black and dried up because of an infestation of black rice bugs. Nobody knows where the bugs come from, or why. All the villagers know is that they face food shortages again within the next six months. The people of Sepaka are desperate because they do not have staple foods.
One villager has decided to find a new way to survive in the face of a changing climate. He is Rasid Naim, 28 years old, from a family of farmers of rice and corn. In 2004, Rasid started to volunteer for Oxfam's operational project and received training in organic farming techniques. He applied these techniques to his father's hectare of land and soon found he was making huge savings by mixing his own pesticides and fertilizers instead of buying synthetic ones. He was able to pay his previous debts to traders and buy an additional 1.5 hectares of land, which is now an organic farm too.
At first, Rasid's fellow farmers teased him that his new approaches would not withstand the threats from insects and pests. But they did, and his success in organic farming has convinced 18 more farmers to shift from chemical-dependent to natural and organic practices. His experience proves that his own rice field withstood not only rice farm pests, but also intense flash floods and recurring droughts. Now Rasid is experimenting with an organic pesticide against the deadly black bugs.
It is still early days, but Rasid's work is just one of a myriad of grassroots adaptations to climate change that are already happening across the developing world. Rasid hopes for more support from the government for this kind of project.
"Organic farming frees us from poisonous substance from the chemicals found in the synthetic fertilisers and pesticides," says Rasid. "Our land is more fertile, our bodies are healthier, and we are happier that even the next generation, our children and grandchildren, can benefit from it."
Women's groups have also been created to generate income. One of their activities is making organic soap. They sell it to their neighbors and use their income to buy ingredients needed to make organic fertilizers.
"We need to save mother Earth," says Nor-aisa Iskak, one of the women fundraising to make organic fertilizers and pesticides.
]]>"I feel bad; I have a very high temperature but I have no money to buy more medicine," he says.
Sen contracted malaria from mosquitoes, after entering the forest to collect firewood to sell because he lost all of his assets after floods leveled his rice paddy.
"I own a very small plot of land, which normally is not enough for my family's consumption, but this year the irregular flooding destroyed almost everything and I had no choice but to enter the forest," he says.
Since last year, there has been an increase of malaria patients in Cambodia's Kratie province, where Sen's village, Lovethom, is located. According to statistics from the Kratie Provincial Health Department, malaria cases increased dramatically last year and again this year after the numbers went down in 2005.
"There were more than 709 registered cases with 24 deaths last year, compared to less than 200 cases in 2005. Dengue fever cases have also increased from 65 cases in 2006 to 145 cases so far this year," says Dr. Cheam Saem, Director of the Provincial Health Department, Kratie Province.
A recent survey conducted by Cambodia's Climate Change Office found that the recent increase of malaria and dengue fever cases is connected to the change in climate conditions, explains Tin Ponlok, National Project Manager for the formulation of Cambodia's National Adaptation Program of Action to Climate Change (NAPA).
"This year especially, there has been a significant rise in dengue fever, and specialists in the country believe that climate change is the cause," he says.
Vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue fever are most sensitive to long-term climate change. The incubation period of mosquitoes shortens at higher temperatures, while off-season rainfall enhances mosquito breeding and survival.
"The highland areas are becoming perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes because of the humidity in the forest," Tin says.
Tin added that the geographical structure of the forest is also changing because of excessive logging and mosquitoes are also now moving to the villages.
Lovethom village, where Sen's family of five lives, borders the Mekong River and has been experiencing irregular rainfall patterns for the past three years, causing recurring floods up to four times in one year. Apart from destroying rice crops and forcing people to invade the forest, the flood is also leaving behind pools of stagnant water, a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes.
El Hop Sos, a mother of eight, says all of her children either have malaria or dengue, while her husband has also contracted malaria from working in the forest.
"There has been a lot more rain and a lot more mosquitoes in the past two years, and we just don't have the money to take the children to the district hospital," she says.
Dr. Cheam Saem agrees. "This year it has been difficult because there are more loggers, and there has been more rain, and, as a consequence, more mosquitoes," he said. He added that the department has a limited budget and Lovethom village is not categorized as a malaria risk zone, and therefore does not qualify for free medication.
Dr. Cheam Saem explains that his department has been distributing mosquito nets and providing education to those living in remote areas on how to keep themselves safe from vector-borne diseases.
Showing her torn mosquito nets, El Hop says she is very worried about her children. She is trying to find extra income to pay for the medication by working on a cassava plantation, while her husband catches fish to sell in the local market because they do not own a rice field, but it is still far from enough. With global warming forecast to disrupt weather patterns to a much greater extent over coming decades, the health crisis faced by the people of Lovethom is just a foretaste of what is to come.
]]>Other problems are emerging too, such as malaria, which was never seen in the Highlands, but has migrated there due to warmer temperatures. Memories of surviving by eating ferns during the severe El Niño drought in 1997-98 are also still sharp. El Niño is expected again in four or five years; next time, the drought that comes with it could be worse.
Oxfam and its partners are teaching communities to grow diverse crops that are more tolerant to weather extremes and helping people to be able to store food during scarce times. Oxfam also works with communities on emergency preparedness, to help people get through the more severe cyclones, floods, droughts and crises that will inevitably come.
Harry Gubala, Disaster Management Officer for Oxfam's Papua New Guinea Program, explains, "Climate change will affect everybody in the country. There will be nowhere you can go to get away from it. What we need is to provide people with adaptive techniques and skills and policies."
]]>The human drama of climate change will largely be played out in Asia, where over 60 per cent of the world's population, around four billion people, live. The latest global scientific consensus from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates that all of Asia is very likely to warm during this century. Warming will be accompanied by less predictable and more extreme patterns of rainfall. Tropical cyclones are projected to increase in magnitude and frequency, while monsoons, around which farming systems are designed, are expected to become more temperamental in their strength and time of onset. This report asks, will global warming send Asia and the Pacific 'up in smoke'?
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