CARE: Climate Deal Can't Ignore Those Already Feeling the Heat

COPENHAGEN (December 4, 2009) - Just three days before climate change treaty negotiations start in Copenhagen, advocates from the poverty-fighting group CARE are imploring delegates not to forget the poorest and most vulnerable people around the world.

"Over the past months the world's governments have been arguing about who is going to pay whom for responding to climate change in the future. At the same time millions of the world's poorest people are being affected by a rough climate right now," said Poul Erik Lauridsen, who will lead CARE's delegation at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP15. "Official delegations in the negotiations have so far behaved as if these people don't matter."

Lauridsen said he has yet to see sufficient political will in support of poor communities that contribute little to climate change but suffer most from its effects. A fair and just treaty in Copenhagen will commit the world to slashing emissions, investing in vulnerable communities that have to adapt to climate change and giving those communities a strong say in how they grow resilient to climactic shifts already underway

The cost of adaptation is a moving target, however, one that depends on how much world leaders commit to emission reductions. Modest cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, for instance, would demand greater investments in adaptation. A recent World Bank report estimated the cost of adaptation in developing countries at around $75 to $100 billion per year between 2010 and 2050.  

"We have to fight for new money for adaptation in the developing countries," Lauridsen said. "It is unacceptable if money from existing development aid budgets is re-labeled as climate finance. We cannot watch budgets for hospitals and schools cover the need for climate change adaptation."

African countries demonstrated clearly in the recent Barcelona climate talks that they were ready to walk out from negotiations when developed countries failed to live up to past promises. "Our contacts in the delegations in developing countries tell us that they are willing to the same again unless their fair and non-negotiable demands are addressed in the climate negotiations," Lauridsen said.

In an effort to give vulnerable populations a louder voice in Copenhagen, CARE is supporting attendance by 10 advocates from countries in the global South. The hope is that they can help assure the rights and interests of poor people are integrated into the final agreement.

"This is a global agreement between governments. We need to make sure that it is not only governments that benefit," Lauridsen said. "A real deal sealed in Copenhagen needs to pass several tests. One of the most important is that it be fair for the people that have contributed least to our climate crisis – particularly women and other especially vulnerable groups in the developing world."

About CARE: CARE fights root causes of poverty in the world's poorest communities. CARE places special focus on working alongside poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty. In 72 countries, women are at the heart of CARE's community-based efforts to improve education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. Each year, CARE helps tens of millions of people around the world effect real, positive changes in their lives. To learn more, visit www.care.org.