Countdown to Copenhagen Climate Summit

Friday 28th August marked 100 days to the start of the UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen. The talks will determine the world’s collective long-term strategy to address the causes of global warming and assist developing countries already affected by the problem.

The lives of millions of people in developing countries will hang in the balance if the world’s richest countries do not agree to substantial cuts to their greenhouse gas emissions and provide vital financial support to countries most vulnerable to the changing climate.

Earlier this year the Global Humanitarian Forum, led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, reported that 300,000 lives are already being claimed each year by climate change. The UN itself estimates that between 2000 and 2004, 262 million people were affected by climate disasters each year, with 98 per cent of these being in developing countries.

Through its international development work SCIAF is already helping poor communities to overcome the challenges of more extreme weather such as severe droughts and floods. Putting in place low-cost agricultural technologies such as water collection systems and defences to divert storm water away from crops, as well as helping communities diversify their income through skills training and loans to start up small business can provide practical help. But the scale of the problem means there is an urgent and substantial need for significant international financial support to enable poor countries to cope.

Due to the historic responsibility for creating the problem of climate change, wealthy nations must therefore carry a large part of these costs. Whilst leading countries within the UN should be encouraged to follow Scotland’s lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 42% by 2020, doing this alone will not be enough. Having created this problem, industrialised nations must also provide substantial additional funding to help countries manage the problem we in the rich world have created.

Later this month Cardinal O’Brien will be heading a delegation representing the world’s largest humanitarian and development alliance, to lobby leaders at the UN in New York on behalf of the world’s poor. The Caritas/CIDSE delegation will be calling for Climate Justice for the millions of people in developing countries who are being most affected by climate change, despite having done the least to cause the problem.

To find out more, and add YOUR VOICE to the call for Climate Justice, click here.