By Will Worley, staff reporter and editor (TNH, 03/05/2024)

The climate loss and damage fund takes its first steps

The first board meeting for the climate loss and damage fund, held online from 30 April to 2 May, focused on procedural matters. Attendees agreed on direct access for disaster-affected communities and setting up a secretariat, whereas key issues like fundraising and fund allocation remain unresolved and will be tackled later. Overall, the meeting highlighted the massive workload of launching a fund from scratch, and current challenges include the World Bank's role as a temporary secretariat. Disbursement of funds is expected by 2025 at the earliest.

By Isabella Kaminski, freelance journalist (The Guardian, 22/04/2024)

‘Children won’t be able to survive’: Inter-American court to hear from climate victims

In April, a historic hearing on climate change was held by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, with people who have suffered from the climate change consequences invited to testify. The inquiry was jointly initiated by Colombia and Chile, which urged the court to define the legal obligations of states in addressing climate change and preventing the infringement of climate change upon human rights. Overall, courts around the world are increasingly making the link between climate justice and human rights, with the Global South leading the way.

By Iida-Maria Tammi, visiting fellow at CHA (CHA, 08/04/2024)

Climate-related humanitarian funding — a (mine)field of opportunities

In this blog article, CHA visiting fellow Iida-Maria Tammi discusses the opportunities and challenges that climate funding presents for humanitarian organisations. She points out that the increased availability of climate-related humanitarian funding is linked to an expansion of the established limits of aid provision, where humanitarian action is no longer strictly short-term, post-disaster relief. At the same time, climate funding raises some important questions regarding the allocation of limited humanitarian resources.

By Damian Lilly, independent consultant (HPN, 29/02/2024)

Humanitarians still haven’t agreed what they should do about climate change

In this blog article, Damian Lilly discusses the lack of clarity about what the precise role of humanitarian aid should be in addressing climate change. According to Lilly, there needs to be conceptual clarity about the relationship between climate change and humanitarian action. Humanitarians also need to decide what they can realistically do and cannot do to address the effects of climate change. Furthermore, a practical way must be developed to implement new climate change strategies throughout all humanitarian operations, resulting in a significant transformation in the delivery of assistance. Last but not least, the issue of financing needs to be resolved.

Research article by Sophie Tholstrup, independent consultant, and Mauricio Vazquez, head of policy at ODI (ODI, April 2024)

Humanitarian action on climate and conflict: Narratives, challenges and opportunities

Article length: 31 pages

(Sub)topics: climate hazards, fragile and conflict-affected settings, anticipation, resilience, climate financing, collaboration

This report by Sophie Tholstrup and Mauricio Vazquez looks at how humanitarian actors are setting out their roles, examining their emerging approaches to addressing and reducing needs triggered by climate hazards in fragile and conflict-affected settings, and linking with the work of other actors. This is done by analysing the joint policy commitments on climate of humanitarian organisations, more than 15 individual strategy documents, and the responses gained through interviews with 20 humanitarian practitioners and external experts.

While it is clear that there is no humanitarian solution to climate change, in the absence of the urgently needed climate financing in fragile contexts, and with a limited presence of climate and development actors there, the humanitarian sector is increasingly left to pick up the pieces. This adds pressure on a system that is already under serious strain as well as under-resourced, under-prepared, and ill-equipped to take on this role.

There is a clear consensus that humanitarian action must adapt to be more anticipatory, balanced between building resilience and addressing crises' impacts, collaborative, and locally led. However, policy development has outpaced practical implementation, and most actors are still operating with limited tools and incomplete evidence.

Improved collaboration with climate and development actors to establish systemic, long-term climate resilience is a clear objective but faces obstacles, such as the absence of climate and development actors in the most fragile settings, differing perspectives and priorities regarding climate action, and inconsistent donor positions.

Greater efforts are required to enhance collaboration with other actors to maximize collective impact, turn policy priorities into effective programs, ensure coherence around funding, and identify and scale successful approaches in fragile and conflict-affected situations.

Web essay by Hugo Slim, non-resident fellow at GPPi and senior research fellow at the University of Oxford (GPPi, June 2023)

Humanitarians and the climate emergency: The ethical, practice and cultural challenges

(Sub)topics: climate emergency, climate ethics, adaptation, anticipation, mitigation

In this web essay, Hugo Slim argues that global climate emergency is the biggest strategic challenge facing the humanitarian sector today, and while some of the skills and traits that international agencies developed as ​"war humanitarians" will cross over well to climate humanitarianism, in other areas humanitarian organisations are unprepared and must adapt. Urgent change is required in three institutional areas: ethics, practice, and culture.

With respect to ethics, Slim points out that over the years, the humanitarian profession has settled on a moral system of goal-based and action-guiding principles. Many of these principles are well suited to addressing the climate emergency; however, in light of the climate crisis, humanitarians should shift to a concern for all – not just human – life and for continuing biodiversity. Anticipation, adaptation, and mitigation are another three moral obligations which are evolving as principles in the emergency ethics of the climate crisis.

Regarding the practice, according to Slim, "[t]he most fundamental shifts that the climate emergency requires of humanitarians are structural changes to practices and partnerships – i.e., the things that they actually do to protect and assist people". Due to the focus on war, many humanitarian agencies are out of practice in dealing with weather-related events. Humanitarians need to determine their role within the range of adaptation practices, and while unable to invest in large-scale climate adaptation projects, they must focus on helping specific vulnerable groups adapt to the climate crisis.

With respect to the cultural change, the climate emergency requires humanitarians to adopt a long-term perspective and design their organisations around it, including finding long-sighted investors. Additionally, the climate emergency presents unprecedented mental and operational challenges for humanitarians, which might disrupt their sense of control and will require adaptation to unfamiliar scenarios. Unlike war zones, where humanitarians are dominant players, the climate crisis involves a broader, more powerful array of actors and requires a humbler, more agile approach.

Infographic by Federica Fragapane (Scientific American, 01/02/2024)

Visualizing climate disasters’ surprising cascading effects

This infographic by Federica Fragapane shows how the aftermath of climate hazards extends beyond immediate destruction, for instance, leading to skin infections or gastrointestinal illnesses. The infographic was inspired by “Cascading Impacts of Climate Events” graphic by Geethanjali MR, in Atlas of Disaster, from Rebuild by Design.

By PreventionWeb (UNDRR)

Walk through DRR History

This website presents a brief history of the early engagement of the United Nations in disaster risk reduction (1970-2000), including some visual materials; interviews with DDR pioneers; as well as the archive collections of reports from the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (1990-1999).