Development and Climate Change

1. Development and Climate Change A UK NGO Coalition

2. The formation of the group • In September 2003 the New Economics Foundation (a think-tank on “economics as if people mattered”) and IIED, a research institute with an international climate change programme, invited a large number of environmental and development NGOs in the UK to come to a meeting • Members also include: Oxfam, Christian Aid, Tearfund, Practical Action, WWF, FOE, Greenpeace and 11 other significant organisations

3. Terms of Reference • First meeting, broad remit agreed: • 2 degree threshold • Resources for adaptation • Equity in climate change debate • Use of clean energy, not necessarily renewables: different targets for north and south

4. Initial focus • Highlight impact of chosen themes on development programmes and policy • Have a platform before COP 10 • To focus on 2005 – UK G8 and EU presidencies • To raise profile of the close link between climate change and poverty • Base our publications on what all member organisations could agree • Raise the profile of climate change within our own organisations

5. Achievements so far • Bringing the debate on climate change away from purely an environmental discussion onto the poverty reduction agenda • Two successful publications, Up in Smoke and Africa-Up in Smoke, with summaries translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, endorsed by 21 organisations: this has given great credibility to our messages • Inclusion of member organisations in pre G8 civil society stakeholder consultations • GW8: well-attended side event during G8 in Edinburgh, with much media attention: bringing eight developing country speakers together to talk on how climate change is already affecting their countries

6. Planned activities • Latin America and Caribbean – Up in Smoke, by mid-2006, and possibly an Asian version • Official side event at COP 11 on Adaptation to Climate Change

7. Practical Action: Who are we? • Formerly known as ITDG, founded by Schumacher, author of Small is Beautiful • Country/regional offices in Africa, south Asia and Latin America • Key principles: • people-focused • practical solutions • sustainable programmes

8. Practical Action: why did we become involved? • We work directly with communities in more than 10 countries, and are hearing directly from them about increasing variability in climate: changes in rainfall patterns, more frequent droughts, etc. • We have been running programmes on disaster preparedness and food security; without directly linking this work to climate change, in fact, the programmes are designed to increase community resilience to changing climate

9. Two more reasons… • We also have a big programme on community-run clean and renewable energy schemes • Climate change is relevant to our communities, and we have much to contribute to the debate, since we focus on the use of technology to tackle poverty

10. The impact of this new focus for our work • Initially, our work on climate change was limited to Working Group meetings and contributing case studies for the reports • Discussions with our country offices showed how important a climate change focus was becoming for our work • More resources were found for advocacy and policy work in the UK, and fundraising began for programme work overseas focusing on community-based adaptation

11. The impact of this new focus for our work ctd… • We now have three members of UK staff working half of their time on climate change, programme specifically on climate change running in 5 countries, and major funding proposals in the pipeline • The opportunities for trying to influence policy on funding for adaptation, as well as pressing for mitigating climate change in UK seem many, and it is important to put pressure on now

12. There is no time to waste • The pace of climate change is rapid • The consequences of inaction or acting too late are worst for developing countries • All efforts at poverty reduction which do not consider how climate change will affect development programmes will be wasted • More public pressure will influence policy