Climate Change
| ‘Climate change is worsening the plight of those hundreds of millions of men, women and children who already live in extreme poverty - and it threatens to push hundreds of millions more people into similar destitution. A concerted international response to this unprecedented challenge is required if we are to avoid catastrophic human suffering.’ |
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Dr. Robert Glasser, Secretary General, CARE International |
Climate change threatens to undermine the work that CARE Australia has been doing with communities for over 20 years, and is already causing:
- More people to suffer from hunger
- More people to live without access to adequate water
- An increase in health threats, such as disease
- A decline in food and livelihood security
- An increase in the frequency, scale and intensity of conflicts over natural resources such as land and water
Many of the world’s poorest people are living in the harshest and most disaster-prone environments. Changing weather patterns are having a disproportionate impact on these communities and their livelihoods. Prolonged droughts, shorter and more intense rainy seasons and unpredictable cyclones are just some of the impacts of climate change.
In recent months alone, CARE has been responding to emergencies in the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Guatemala related to typhoons, severe droughts, floods and landslides. Climate change also poses a threat to the achievements that CARE has made in reducing global poverty and empowering women and their communities.
Read more about:
CARE's response to climate change
CARE at the COP15 Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen
To find out more about CARE's global response to climate change, head to the CARE Climate Change Centre.