Oxfam: Climate change is happening now

Climate change is a human problem, affecting people’s rights and justice

Climate change is environmental change, but given that human societies are affected directly and indirectly by the climate system – and given that human activities are driving climate change – it is fundamentally a human problem. Climate change cuts across boundaries. The impacts of climate change are expected to seriously (and disproportionately) affect the livelihoods, health, and educational opportunities of people living in poverty, as well as their chances of survival, both locally in specific areas and globally in general.

As a global environmental challenge, the drivers of which are inextricably linked with high-consumption lifestyles, climate change lies firmly outside the sphere of influence of poor communities and poor countries, who have little say in how the challenge will be addressed. Those with special burdens and/or vulnerabilities such as women, ethnic minorities, and people living with HIV/AIDS are feeling yet another pressure in global warming – one that is fundamentally unjust.

Climate change is happening now; poor people are adapting…

In 1983, Oxfam produced “Weather Alert”, a briefing paper that recorded the human impacts of various climate anomalies affecting our programmes across the globe – before the term “climate change” was even in use! Oxfam staff and partners working in both emergency and development contexts are now reporting an increase in climate-related anomalies – melting glaciers in Tajikistan; extended droughts and climate variability across Africa; flooding in South Asia – and are concerned about the increasing burden that climate-related disasters present to Oxfam and the wider international humanitarian relief community. A research initiative focusing on climate impacts and community responses in Southern Africa that Oxfam partnered with in 2002 (the ADAPTIVE project) confirms that:

Climate change is happening now – Though it often is discussed as a phenomenon whose impacts will be felt far in the future, major shifts in climate variability are already in progress.
People living in poverty are adapting to the effects of climate change – Some strategies are more effective than others, and some communities are better able to move beyond coping to adapt and change their livelihoods strategies, but in general the strategies of people living in poverty need to be understood and supported by those seeking to help.
Climate change represents a serious threat to poor people and Oxfam’s mission

Oxfam discussed the special threat that climate change poses to people living in poverty in 1992, when climate change first became headline news as a result of the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Since then, Oxfam has been monitoring the science and politics of climate change, as well as the extent to which it is impacting on the lives of poor people around the world. Given the failure of the international community to seriously and fully address the causes and consequences of climate change, Oxfam is now concerned that it poses a major threat to lives and livelihoods of people living in poverty. It also threatens to undermine recent progress on poverty reduction in many countries, let alone reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). (see Tiempo, issue 54 for further reading.)

For these reasons, Oxfam has joined together with a coalition of UK-based organisations – the UK Working Group on Climate Change and Development – to help raise awareness and explore the linkages between climate change and poverty (read our reports: Up in Smoke? and Africa up in smoke). We have also joined the Stop Climate Chaos campaigning coalition.

Oxfam recognises the threat that climate change poses as well as the inequitable burden that poor communities and countries are already bearing. In response, Oxfam is actively developing its analysis and understanding to support changes in three areas:

Relief: Consistent with its humanitarian mandate, Oxfam needs to ensure that increasing numbers of people living in poverty who are harmed by climate-related disasters have equitable and efficient access to relief; given the ethical dimensions of global climate change, the justification for such relief includes issues of justice as well as standard humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, and impartiality.
Preparedness and adaptation: Many poor communities need support both to protect their lives and livelihoods from climate-related shocks and stresses, and to pro-actively adapt their livelihood strategies to the changing environmental conditions global warming brings. This requires additional funding through national and international frameworks as well as changes in the ways funds are used to ensure that poor people get the resources they’re entitled to and have a say in how they’re used.
Mitigation: Consistent with Oxfam’s Approach, which includes tackling root causes of poverty, we support calls for strong political action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to prevent dangerous climate change. Oxfam also is committed to monitoring and reducing emissions associated with its own operations, including energy use and air travel.