“North America and Europe’s industrial activity account for approximately 70% of global carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), whereas all developing countries together account for less than ¼ of damaging emissions” underlined at the interview to «In – On» the Chair of ActionAid Hellas, Mrs Alexandra Mitsotaki.
Question: The environmental disaster created by human factor, how much has it contributed to the increase of poverty and to new forms of diseases?
Answer: Global warming is already happening. We should remember that poor countries and especially poor vulnerable people are the least responsible for the devastating climate change effects. Yet, these people and their lives are severely affected and less able to react. Not by their own anyway.
North America and Europe’s industrial activity account for approximately 70% of global carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), whereas all developing countries together account for less than ¼ of damaging emissions.
Food production, water supplies, public health, and people’s fragile livelihoods are increasingly damaged and undermined. Global warming threatens to reverse human progress, making the Millennium Development Goal for poverty reduction until 2015, hardly achievable and simultaneously affecting all the rest interrelated goals. Poverty busts insecurity and strengthens vulnerability reducing people’s ability to cope and adapt. Imagine what these people have to face, in their already harsh everyday life. Escaping poverty is becoming more and more challenging for all these populations.
It is estimated that climate change will intensify vulnerability of the urban poor throughout Africa within the years to come.
“Environmental refugees” from climate-affected areas are already swelling the tide of rural-to-urban migration across Africa. This migration will not be limited within African countries but is expected to expand and affect all of us. The trend is soon expected to rapidly intensify, as droughts, floods and other extreme phenomena increase and become more and more unpredictable. It is estimated that by 2030, the majority of Africa’s population will live in urban areas, bringing about shifts that will dramatically affect economy and social structures, in ways and proportions we cannot yet fully estimate.
Floods for example are more destructive that we think. Not only they massively spread water born diseases, interrupt schooling, and destroy core infrastructure, livelihoods and assets but also affect fragile income related factors. Only in 2007, flooding – exacerbated by climate change – caused 12 million people in India and 25 million in Bangladesh to become homeless or stranded.
Population migrating to cities, will burden the already fragile infrastructure and subsequently slow down development. A halt in development will increase poverty levels and lead those countries into deeper debt. Rural refugees further add to the overloaded urban activities. Urbanisation aggravates flooding. As more people crowd into cities, effects intensify. As a result, even quite moderate storms produce high flows in rivers and destruction finally affects more and more people every time.
As you understand, these communities are unable to respond even to their basic needs, much more to extreme intensifying phenomena. The fight to escape poverty is undermined mostly by developed countries’ activities effects. Injustice is evident once more and ActionAid is aware that fighting poverty means also working together against climate change.
Question: In what ways has ActionAid helped the above areas and the people who live there?
Answer: Climate change poses an enormous challenge for all. Changes in climate patterns and resulting disasters have a devastating impact on poor people’s ability to farm and therefore their access to food. In Malawi for example, rains that once used to start in October now do not come until December, drying out crops before the harvest. ActionAid is helping smallholder farmers to adapt to the shorter growing season by planting seeds that grow more rapidly. For poor developing countries, maintaining the progress made so far is a challenge itself. It is worth mentioning that out of the 13 emergency appeals made by the United Nations in 2007, a record 12 were related to extreme weather. We in ActionAid believe this is not coincidental. It is now evident that our effords should be also oriented to maintaining and protecting people’s lives, communities and infrastructure from climate change threats.
Proactive planning schemes and sustainable development projects are the key to assisting poor countries in facing the forthcoming challenges.
ΑctionAid works with local communities and helps them proactively manage better their own environments so as to reduce climate change impacts; ActionAid uses a technique called Participatory Vulnerability analysis to enable communities to identify local hazards and act to protect themselves in advance of disasters. We work with local governments as well, in order to develop proactive and reactive plans to face flooding and drought even more effectivelly; One of our programmes, Disaster Risk Reduction, encompasses the prevention, mitigation of and preparedness for natural disasters. We managed to save hundreds of lives just by informing them how to react in extreme situation such as earthquakes. We also work with national and international agencies, in crisis management projects so as to smoothen and minimize extreme phenomena effects?
In an international level, we lobby to bring about change in policies and strategies that deteriorate climate change and its effects. It is our belief that all people have the right to a life in safety and dignity. To a life not threatened by devastating phenomena we can often predict and minimize.
Question: In what ways does ActionAid intervene for the protection of the environment from natural disasters?
Answer: With no proper policy legislation to guard against destructive exploitation of natural resources, environmental degradation is a fact and extreme natural disasters will become part of our everyday life. Unless we all do something to change it. NGO’s, coalitions, networks and citizens work together to face this cruel reality. ActionAid participates in global movements and campaigns such as the Stop Climate Chaos campaign, that focuses on putting pressure to key decision makers and urges them to shift tactics and orient their moves towards schemes that effectively cope with climate change threats.
A recent example is that ActionAid in Kenya, together with the Forest Department and the Ministry of Agriculture have been educating communities’ members on the need to conserve the environment and how to utilize the resources therein in a more sustainable way. Lobbying and international campaigns participation, introducing alternative farming technics to thousands of small holder farmers, sustainable development projects aligned with local communities needs and standards, awareness campaigns, pro active schemes designed to maximize resources value and maintenance of natural wealth are only some of our priorities in the environmental framework.
Question: What are the researches AA has done for the protection of the environment and of human resources?
Answer: ActionAid, has published a series of reports on climate change such as ‘Climate change, urban flooding and the rights of the urban poor in Africa’, ‘Unjust waters’ and in coalition with a group of NGOs, a series of reports called ‘Up in Smoke’ which describe the impact of climate change in different parts of the world.
The purpose of these reports is to identify the problems and make suggestions regarding ways to act proactively and reactively.
Question: Who does ActionAid collaborate with for the protection of water resources?
Answer: ActionAid believes that development cannot be sustainable if the risks of disasters on populations are not tackled head on and this means taking action in protecting the environment, including water. To this purpose ActionAid works together with the poor people, with international organizations, other NGOs, international Universities and Foundations in order to minimize the consequences for the people in the developing world.
A lot of companies in the framework of Corporate Social Responsibility try to give back something to the rest of the world, like the Greek bottled water Zagori that funded an ActionAid water project to provide access to clean potable water to a whole community in Kenya. Other corporations however abuse poor people’s rights like the platinum producer AngloPlat that was found by analysis commissioned by ActionAid and conducted by independent water expert, polluting the water in the vicinity of the company’s mines and the surrounding villages in South Africa. ActionAid urged the government to take immediate action to ensure that all villages had access to clean drinking water and urged the human rights commission to investigate the matter.
ActionAid will continue to work with the international community to tackle across key issues that affect the development and well being of poor people. Fighting poverty is a complex matter and a collective effort in many fields of action is demanded. Our common goal is to reduce world poverty in half and the only way to achieve this is “together”.
Proactive Planning
