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Engaging with the global process on climate

Throughout more than 20 years of its life, the Climate Centre has played an important role in helping to shape Red Cross Red Crescent policy on climate, adaptation, resilience and early action (glossary), drawing on the best available science, evidence and experience.

In close collaboration with the IFRC secretariat – for which we are one of six global reference centres – and the ICRC, we bring humanitarian perspectives to global climate policy processes like the UN climate talks (the annual COP meetings), alongside dialogue on the Sustainable Development Goals and the Sendai Framework.

We also support National Societies with domestic discussion of policy on climate so the voice of the most vulnerable is heard in national adaptation planning and climate action has the best prospect of being taken where it is most needed.

Key documents and sources

NEW: The climate action journey
NEW: The importance of scaling up locally led adaptation
The role of early warning early action in minimizing loss and damage (Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance)
Towards transformative action: The unfulfilled promise of resilient recovery (Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance)
UN/WMO early warnings for all initiative
Climate Training Kit, policy and finance module
Movement Ambitions to Address the Climate Crisis
IFRC Strategy 2030

The Red Cross Red Crescent at COP 29

The IFRC said the success of the global deal on climate finance agreed at the eleventh hour at COP 29 in Baku “will be judged by whether increased funds reach the communities that need them most, and by whether they reach them fast.”

Secretary General Jagan Chapagain (photo, at a high-level COP 29 panel with WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo and others) added: “Effective implementation is crucial [as is] delivery on what’s been promised. The agreement in Baku creates a pathway, but trust and action go hand in hand.” Progress on operationalizing the fund for loss and damage was a step forward, but communities needed action and delivery and action now.

In advance of the UN climate talks, the IFRC called on decision-makers to prioritize action on health and well-being, investment in people and communities, and timing to enable humanitarian actors to get ahead of disasters.

It welcomed limited progress on each of these in the COP 29 decision text, including another step forward on agreed indicators within the Framework for Global Climate Resilience, of which health is one of seven key themes.

On investment, 300 billion US dollars a year by 2035 directly from developed nations for climate action in developing countries was an advance on the 100 billion previously agreed, but “ambitious action is needed soon and trust built”.

And on the timing of action, more “must be done in advance to manage and reduce risks to build local capacities [with] early warning systems linked to early and anticipatory action, effective laws, policies, plans, frameworks and pre-arranged finance”.

An IFRC press release issued at the end of the UN climate talks concluded: “A concerted focus is needed to keep the planet below 1.5°C degrees of warming. If – or when – we pass this threshold, the humanitarian consequences will be dire. We must look forward to more ambitious mitigation action and updated national plans towards COP 30. Families and communities are already dealing with the very real impacts of climate change – let us build solidarity, trust and real urgency of action.”

 

Development and Climate Days
Story

Development and Climate Days

Development and Climate Days 2024 provided a crucial informal space for stakeholders attending the annual UN climate conference to come together to share ideas about how to tackle climate change and build resilience.

The Baku D&C Days event brought together 195 grass-roots representatives, political leaders, policy-makers, negotiators and researchers for engaging dialogue on issues of equity, action and accountability – with a focus on the intersection of climate, adaptation and development. (Photo, Climate Centre Director Aditya Bahadur addresses the closing plenary.)

News story

Policy initiatives

In close collaboration with the IFRC and the ICRC, the Climate Centre brings an important humanitarian perspective to global policy processes, especially the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations.

Our engagement with the UN climate takes various forms: contributing to the 2022 IFRC submission to the UNFCCC on the operationalization of the Santiago Network, for example, and side-events at COP venues. The Climate Centre also provides support to the IFRC in the latter’s capacity an official observer to the UNFCCC.

Most recently Climate Centre and IFRC experts have contributed to two important reports by partners of the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance (see links box top right), on gaps in planning for resilient recovery and ways in which early warning early action can reduce loss and damage – the latter being absorbed by the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage.

In partnership with others, we jointly facilitate the Development and Climate Days for the COPs, bringing together grassroots representatives, researchers, development practitioners and policy-makers from all over the world to discuss how to build a climate-resilient future for all (see above). 

Photo: an intergenerational workshop at COP27 that included the Climate Centre and called for the international community to “get past the hand-shaking to life-saving action” on early warning early action. (Photo: Climate Centre)

 

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Climate finance for National Societies

Global climate funds are difficult for National Societies to access, involving a costly and demanding accreditation process, so developing partnerships with accredited international organizations is vital.

National Societies can explore options for accessing climate finance through smaller funds, such as the Global Environment Facility or the French Facility for Global Environment, up to about 50,000 US dollars and intended to support community-level initiatives.

Some countries have national climate funds which may be accessible to National Societies: in their role as auxiliaries to government, they can make a strong case for accessing such finance to implement local adaptation projects.

Read our guide
Report

'Smart, risk-informed, locally led finance'

This 2022 IFRC report sets out what it calls a vision for a smart, risk-informed and locally led approach to making money count for those hit hardest by climate change. To achieve this, urgent action is needed to prioritize the most vulnerable. This requires collective effort in mobilizing, governing and spending money for addressing climate risks. Donors and fund managers, humanitarian and development actors must all step up and work together.

Read the report
'Smart, risk-informed, locally led finance'
Video

Should they stay or should they go?

People who live on small islands: should they stay or should they go? Regie Gibson’s and Wade Stephens’s song for the Climate Centre and the global audience is inspired by The Clash classic and was developed by our innovation lead, Pablo Suarez.

The song helps us realize exactly what we’re talking about when we speak of loss and damage: “it makes us feel the urgency and the pain”, say the makers.

About Regie Gibson