Helvetas calls for more ambitious actions against climate change

The IPCC report published today clearly shows that the effects of climate change are more devastating and faster than we could have imagined. Yet many of the responses to date have been inadequate. Most adaptation measures implemented today are small-scale, sector-specific, and designed to respond to current or near-term impacts.

The near-term effects of climate change will be stronger than those we are already experiencing today and will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable people.

Helvetas, a Swiss Organisation for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid, is already observing these devastating consequences in all the countries where we work in, such as Madagascar, Mozambique, Haiti and Honduras that have recently experienced consecutive disasters claiming thousands of lives and livelihoods. Droughts are currently devastating various areas of Africa.

«Livelihoods of the most vulnerable groups - natural resource dependent communities, subsistence farmers, fishers and Indigenous Peoples, are being severely and often irreversibly damaged by climate change», says Rupa Mukerji, climate expert at Helvetas and one of the co-author of the IPCC report.

Evidence of maladaptation – responses to climate change that are damaging, is increasing in agricultural, forestry, fisheries practices, through displacement of people, creating long-term lock-in and increasing future risks.

Helvetas calls on governments to take more ambitious and globally coordinated action. More effective actions are possible when governments work at all levels in partnership with civil society and private sector actors.

Further information on the IPCC report:

In a Swissinfo article, Helvetas climate expert Rupa Mukerji puts the findings of the IPCC report into context and explains why action is needed now.