The impacts of climate change – extreme weather, droughts, floods – are occurring with ever greater frequency and intensity in the many places where CARE is working around the world. Extreme weather is now affecting 10 percentof the planet, compared to less than 1 percent just a few decades ago.
It is an extreme injustice that poor people are suffering the most from this climate disruption, despite having contributed least to causing the problem.
We are rapidly approaching a moment of truth for the poor, our children and for future generations. If the international community does not agree on bold measures to reduce climate pollution, and if business, civil society, communities and individuals fail to take action together, we will soon pass the tipping point that scientists warn will move us from climate disruption to devastation, with no options to reverse the process.
The next two years are critical to prevent this catastrophe. Negotiations are underway to conclude an international climate change treaty by December 2015. Sadly, the commitments governments have thus far made to reduce climate pollution, and to prepare for the impacts of climate change, fall far short of what is needed. In response to this emergency, the UN Secretary-General is convening an urgent climate summit at the United Nations in New York this month. Numerous heads of state, including the President of the United States and the Chinese leader, will be attending.
Global civil society is mobilising climate marches in cities around the world to coincide with the summit, demanding action from governments. The largest of these will take place in New York on 21 September, where the hope is to mobilise 500,000 people. The marches will also aim to emphasise that this is a problem that can be solved and participants will be highlighting the many successes and positive steps being taken by grassroots movements and thousands of organisations across the world, including CARE.
CARE’s efforts to combat this critical challenge are global, ranging from our global advocacy initiatives to delivering climate change adaptation programmes, emergency aid for people affected by extreme weather and, more broadly, through empowering the poor, particularly poor women and girls. In the light of the threat climate change poses to our poverty-fighting mission, CARE staff, including Secretary-General Robert Glasser, are joining the march in New York. Join us and millions of others next month in helping to build this critical mass. Our planet’s future and the fate of over one billion people living in poverty depend on it.
You can find more information on the New York march and those being organised in other cities here: www.peoplesclimatemarch.org. Find out more about CARE's work on climate change here, or take a look at CARE's Climate Change Information Centre.