Climate change
Climate change poses a serious threat to poverty reduction and to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Its negative impacts are more severely felt by poor people and poor countries, which rely to a higher extent on natural resources and have a limited capacity to cope with climate variability and extremes. Moreover, if climate change is ignored in today's development efforts, gains in poverty reduction may not be sustainable in the longer perspective. Given the way climate change cuts across the development agenda, it is important that responses are conceived within and in coherence with existing development frameworks, rather than in isolation from them. In other words, responses to climate change need to be fully integrated into mainstream development activities.
The EU
Since the end of the 1990s, the European Union (EU) has committed itself to lead the fight against global warming. After the American government decided to withdraw from Kyoto, the EU used all its diplomatic power to keep other countries to their word and succeeded in getting enough countries to sign. On the other hand, its own priorities prevented the Union from making climate change policy really one of its main concerns. The fact that climate change is still seen as an environmental issue is significant.
Bond calls for the EU to take a lead role in recognising its responsibility towards vulnerable communities around the world that have contributed least to the problem but are first and worst confronted with the impact of climate change and to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions while contributing to adaptation efforts with additional resources.
What is Bond doing?
There are two main Bond working groups that address climate change:
- The Bond Development and Environment group (DEG) which provides a forum where agencies working at the interface of environmental and poverty issues can exchange information, enhance their analysis and coordinate their advocacy towards UK Government and other relevant institutions.
- The Bond European Policy Group which as part of its work on Policy Coherence for Development, monitors EU policies on climate change to ensure that they are coherent with, and enable the achievement of, development objectives.
In addition, Bond actively supports the Stop Climate Chaos campaign through its members. This campaign urges the world leaders to live up to their duty to prevent catastrophic climate change, via open transparent and accountable mechanisms, processes that promote global, social and economic justice and through the use of environmentally sustainable technologies.
What you can do...
- Join Bond Development and Environment Group
- Join Bond European Policy Group
- Stay informed on the latest news and actions to tackle climate changes, checking the Stop Climate Chaos and Climate Action Network websites.
- Contact the Bond advocacy team
