Kaburu Anthony: The Global Refugee Crisis — Why it’s important tha...

Kaburu Anthony: The Global Refugee Crisis — Why it’s important tha...: A disturbing fault line is at the heart of global politics today. Our world is more interconnected than ever before, and yet the mechanisms...

The Global Refugee Crisis — Why it’s important that we all Care

A disturbing fault line is at the heart of global politics today. Our world is more interconnected than ever before, and yet the mechanisms and means for managing globalization seem less adequate to the challenges. The result is predictable: a backlash against global engagement born of frustration, fatigue, and fear.

Introduction;

By the end of 2019, 70.8 million individuals had been forcibly displaced by conflict or violence, and the number of refugees globally rose to 25.9 million in 2018, up from 25.4 million in 2017, and setting a new record, according to newly released UNHCR report and World Bank estimates. The number of people seeking international protection outside of their country of origin has increased 70% since 2011.

More than half of the world’s refugees came from three countries: Syria (5.5 million), Afghanistan (2.5 million), and South Sudan (2.3 million). And most refugees—84% of the ones under UNHCR’s mandate—remain in low- and middle-income countries, close to conflict, The number of refugees from Syria, South Sudan, and Myanmar has increased rapidly over the last couple of years.

This crisis, however, is much deeper than sheer numbers or unimaginable human suffering. It is:

·         a crisis of the post-World War II paradigm underpinning our refugee structures, which has been unable to cope with globalization’s complexities and is now struggling for relevance

·         a crisis of the conflicting narratives for some of the greatest social challenges exemplified by national and international responses to refugees: from issues of human rights, xenophobia, sexism and economic protectionism, to terrorism and climate change

·         a crisis of the lack of easy solutions to the main root cause of mass migration — growing and radical global inequality that includes the absence of civil order, physical safety and social and cultural structures necessary for people to live a dignified, fulfilling life, made ever more widely known through digital media of a hyper-connected world.

So what are some of the fears that are stirred up by refugees? Are they justified? What do they lead to?

The economic argument:

A widespread, but unfounded, fear is that an influx of refugees will drive up competition for work, push down wages, or drain the public coffers — a notion that feeds a rising global appetite for economic protectionism. The IMF has estimated that in the short term, the macroeconomic effect from the refugee surge is likely to be a growth in GDP of 0.1% for the EU as a whole and short-term cost to the EU will be 0.19% of GDP to public expenditure. We are talking about fractions of 1% net cost.

Australians know the economic dead-end folly of protectionism. In 1890, Australia was the richest country in the world when it chose to protect that success with quotas, tariffs, and regulations — a misadventure that dropped it to 20th and took decades to reverse. False emotive perceptions must not drive the economic trajectory of our countries.

The refugee crisis is also fueling the rise of racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. The attempted US travel bans have been characterized as a response to a ‘phantom menace’, given that the chance that an American is killed by a refugee terrorist is one in 3.6 billion per year. Yet inciting Islamophobia plays into the ISIS recruitment strategy: the more a group can be seen to hate Islam, the more certain Muslims are likely to accept that their future is in joining, not rejecting, the Caliphate. Pointing the Islamophobic or xenophobic finger at refugees and immigrants exacerbates the conditions leading to radicalization and will backfire when preventing the rising phenomenon of homegrown terrorists.

At the same time it is unhelpful and unfair to lump all concerns raised about certain behaviours or belief systems of refugees and immigrants onto the racist pile. There is a pervasive tension between “freedom of speech” and offensive, discriminatory or racist talk. Expressions of “culturally-correlated irritations” could be more productively engaged with scientifically, examining whether or not they really pose any threat to existing societal values. Concurrently, host countries should be able to have open debates and evidence-based policies as to how to uphold the cultural and societal norms that attracted refugees in the first place, with a focus on promoting societal cooperation and peace..

One particular societal value — that of gender equality — is worth specific mention. #ValerieHudson, co-author of the 2012 book #SexandWorldPeace, demonstrated through empirical evidence how “the very best predictor of a state’s peacefulness is not its level of wealth, its level of democracy, or its ethno-religious identity … it is how well its women are treated”. As we incorporate refugees and immigrants in the evolution of our multicultural societies, a core objective must be the empowerment of women.

‘Real refugees’ vs ‘economic migrants’:

At the heart of the breakdown of our existing refugee processes is a lack of solution for the fundamental dichotomy of the modern migration narrative — how do you determine whether someone is a ‘real refugee’ in distress, or a ‘fake refugee’ pursuing economic advancement not available at home? Yet this is a false dichotomy.

This breakdown is, I believe, symptomatic of an ever-rising key tension between two deeply held values in our existing liberal world order: human rights and the existence of sovereign nations. In the aftermath of World War II, Western policymakers set out to build a global system that would prevent a repeat of the disastrous failures of international diplomacy during the interwar period. They concluded that achieving both economic development and world peace needed free markets, human rights, the rule of law, and elected governments held accountable by independent judiciaries, free press and vibrant civil societies. The main institutions created as part of this post-war liberal order — the UN, NATO, WTO, IMF, World Bank and the G-20 — together have influenced almost every aspect of the modern world but now are under attack by countervailing forces.

Rising domestic hostility towards refugees and immigrants is fuelling resentment towards supranational authorities and their ‘irritating meddling’ in the ability of sovereign nations to deal with refugees and migrants as they see fit. Emphasis on the tension between individual rights to seek asylum and self-governance by sovereign nations as seen through the lens of the refugee crisis is, therefore, self-serving in the current political climate.

By constantly challenging the legitimacy of refugee claims, governments can delay and stall meeting their international obligations, creating the possibility of by-passing them altogether. Increasingly, governments see political advantage in being hard on refugees as citizens priorize their own interests over any moral imperative to help needy foreigners and reward their governments for standing up to supranational authorities.

Our world order’s legitimacy is undermined when leaders consistently seem to interpret the rules as they see fit, ignoring key norms. Using the refugee crisis to delegitimize our global authorities and historical agreements slowly but surely chips away at the foundations of our post-war prosperity, democracy and peace. While the current world order is by no means perfect, it is all that we have in terms of fora and structures for international negotiations and accountability and we strike it down, consciously or unknowingly, at our peril.

The perverse triad — oil, instability, refugees:

The final, most fundamental, reason we must care about the refugee crisis is its relationship with oil. A perverse triad links refugees and oil: our dependency on it produces both political and environmental instability which generates refugees, and terrorist groups sell oil to fund conflicts which generate yet more refugees.

ISIS, which controls many oil fields in Syria, see oil as critical for financing its vision of an Islamic state. In Syria today, ISIS produces an estimated 40,000 barrels per day, earning about $1.5 million per day. They sell their oil at the wellhead to traders as well as to the Syrian rebels fighting them. Local hospitals, shops, farming and industrial machines are fuelled by ISIS oil. This has created a central dilemma in the international coalition’s fight against ISIS: how to bring down the Caliphate without fundamentally disrupting the life of the estimated 10 million civilians in areas under ISIS control?

Not only do conflicts over oil directly generate refugees, the climate change caused by burning oil will be a “threat multiplier” in creating resource conflicts and mass refugee populations fleeing droughts, firestorms, heatwaves, floods and desertification.

Exemplifying our greatest challenges:

In conclusion, then, we must care about the global refugee crisis because it exemplifies some of the greatest challenges facing our global institutions and liberal world order today.

·         A root cause is growing global inequity fuelled by our addiction to oil. Remedies lie in global human development efforts, especially in educating and empowering women, and a definitive transition to a sustainable energy paradigm.

·         Concurrently, we need to reject use of the refugee crisis as pernicious justification for economic protectionism, racism and Islamophobia, as well as the toxic undermining of our supranational authorities.

·         If we do want to restructure our current world order, we must do this conscientiously, with thought and consideration for the hierarchy of moral and social priorities we are willing to live by.

As #HannahArendt wrote, “The manifestation of the wind of thought is not knowledge but the ability to tell right from wrong, beautiful from ugly. …Thinking gives people the strength to prevent catastrophes in these rare moments when the chips are down”. It is now critical that wherever we come from, we both care and think deeply about our attitudes and policies towards refugees.

Furthermore, even though we live in an era where more walls are going up between nations, but its evidence that this does not stop migration. And the evidence for the economic benefits for open borders is unambiguous. According to some estimates, opening the world’s borders could increase global GDP by US$100 trillion. We just need to take a bold step and give refugees a right already enjoyed by some – the right to move.

Finally, we must find ways to lower the number of displaced people worldwide, by preventing and solving the conflicts that drive them from their homes. We must try to rally people and nations to act together based on common interests and universal aspirations for security, dignity and equality: understanding that this does not come at the expense of our safety and economic well-being at home, but is an essential requirement when facing problems of international dimensions. #GlobalCrisis  #Refugees #HumanRights #Humanity #StandWithRefugees

Kaburu Anthony: Government actions aren’t enough for climate chang...

Kaburu Anthony: Government actions aren’t enough for climate chang...: Climate change as a consequence of global warming is now with us, and the sooner we act the less damage will be done to our society, econom...

Government actions aren’t enough for climate change.

Climate change as a consequence of global warming is now with us, and the sooner we act the less damage will be done to our society, economy and environment, and to us. With the increasing greenhouse gases and declining glaciers, the threat of our green planet becoming a barren land in future seems real. The elevation in the pollution levels due to the reckless use of the Earth’s resources has created an alarming situation for the people inhabiting the planet.

If this misuse of the resources continues in the future, chances are that our planet might be amongst the other seven planets where life is not possible. To prevent this, Governments, as leaders of this green planet should take strict steps to guard the uniqueness of our planet and let it be green and full of life forever.

Below are the steps governments can take to save our planet earth;

·         Governments must put Climate Change and Sustainable Development at the centre of national policy development.

·         Strive for integrated policy development across departments and functions and avoid negative environmental externalities of poorly planned policy interventions.

·         Eliminate environmentally harmful subsidies.  

·         Take the long term view embracing multiple electoral cycles.  

·         Plan and most importantly, implement.  

·         Governed people must be enabled and encouraged to make sustainable choices.

·         Set ambitious goals for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy conservation in electricity production, energy systems and buildings.

·         Establish mechanisms to track and enforce progress towards these targets.

·         Phase-out investments in and subsidies for fossil fuels for energy generation. Transition financing to the technologies and infrastructure needed for development, adoption, and scale-up of renewable energy sources and investments in energy efficiency.

·         Ensure that climate policies support energy access and sustainable energy for all by promoting distributed renewable energy technologies in energy-poor communities while enabling countries to meet energy needs for development

In addition, improvements in energy efficiency, coupled with widespread use of alternative energy sources, will also be needed. Sustainable transport and agricultural practices aimed at reducing emissions are also urgently needed.  Possibilities for development and deployment of low carbon technologies and new technologies such as carbon capture and storage and management systems will also arise.

We’ve been exploiting the natural resources since long, and it is high time we realize the damage it has done to the planet and takes necessary steps to protect our only shelter, if we hope to combat climate change, concerted efforts will need to be made locally and internationally by governments, public agencies, businesses, industries, communities and individuals.

Achieving major reductions in the use of fossil fuels is essential if the world is to secure the major cuts being sought in GHG emissions. Let’s all remember that ensuring good health of our planet is for our own good. #ClimateChange #Adaptation #ClimateAction #SDG13 #Sustainability #UrgentActions #Time4ClimateActionIsNow #WeCanSaveOurFutureTogether #DemandforClimateAction #GovernmentActions #United4ClimateAction

Kaburu Anthony: Why 2020 is a key year for the future of the plane...

Kaburu Anthony: Why 2020 is a key year for the future of the plane...: We need to stop destroying our precious environment and start to restore nature so it can keep providing us with essentials such as food, t...

Why 2020 is a key year for the future of the planet's environment

We need to stop destroying our precious environment and start to restore nature so it can keep providing us with essentials such as food, timber, water and clean air. Otherwise we risk losing the life support system offered by our shared home.

We’ve got a big task for 2020 and it’s too urgent and important to ignore − we need world leaders to do the right thing and it’s up to all of us to make sure we take action and held to account.

We’ve succeeded before in getting important decisions agreed on environmental issues − back in 2015 when the climate change agreement was signed in Paris and when the Sustainable Development Goals were agreed at the UN. So we can do it again! We need to build on those successes and push nature to the top of everybody’s to-do list.

Why is 2020 different to any other year?

Time is running out. We’re losing biodiversity – the precious web of life – which means we’re losing wildlife and nature. In my lifetime we’ve lost two thirds of global wildlife populations and carbon emissions have risen by 90%. To pull our planet back from the brink of collapse, we need to put an end to this, starting now and before the end of 2020.

I call 2020 the ‘super year’ because for nature, and therefore for us humans, this is the year it could all change. There are two significant reasons why 2020 matters:

1) If we want to reverse the trend of nature loss by 2030, we need urgent action in 2020. It will take some time to turn this ship around so we need to start now to restore nature so that people and wildlife − that so depend on nature − can thrive now and in the future. And we need everybody – individuals, citizens, governments, businesses, mayors, everybody – to step up in 2020 and take urgent action to protect and restore nature, before it’s too late.

2) 2020 is also the year of important global moments for the environment. And if we manage to push decision-makers to achieve positive results in all those meetings, we will help create a more sustainable future.

Those moments include:

·         Africa Climate Week 2020 will convene starting April 20^th to 25th under the theme, ‘Partnering for Transformation towards a Low-carbon Climate-resilient and Prosperous Africa: Managing Risks, Seizing Opportunities’. The event aims to mobilize and enhance partnerships and collaborative approaches, including to respond to the urgent need to understand the risks and impacts of climate change and integrate this knowledge in planning at all levels and in all sectors. These 2020 events will build on the success of the 2019 Regional Climate Weeks in: Accra, Ghana; Salvador, Brazil; and Bangkok, Thailand. 

·         The 75th birthday of the UN which is celebrated during the opening of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2020 in New York as well as the Biodiversity Leaders’ Summit which might take place at the same time and place. These will provide prime opportunities for world leaders to declare that it is no longer acceptable to continue to degrade our planet and that urgent action to restore nature starts now.

·          The UN deciding on a new 10-year framework for biodiversity under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at its 15th Conference of Parties (COP-15) in October 2020 in Beijing. These goals and targets need to set the path for nature recovery around the world and reflect the reality that healthy economies and societies are dependent on healthy natural systems.

·         At the 26th Conference of Parties (COP-26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 2020, countries will have the opportunity to enhance their national action plans to ensure that the goals of the Paris Agreement are achieved. Currently, country plans do not add up to keeping global warming below 1.5 or 2 degrees which is necessary to avoid catastrophic change. So we need more ambitious plans that also recognise the critical links with restoring natural systems and achieving sustainable development.

·         Some of the environmental targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will expire in 2020. At the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) in July 2020 in New York, countries need to extend them meaningfully up until 2030, the overall deadline of the SDGs and recognise that achievement of the SDGs will depend on successfully restoring natural systems and addressing climate change.

We have about 10 months until the end of 2020. We’ve got a lot to get done in this time, so we better get started. And I know we can do it, if we put our minds and hearts into it! #SaveOurEnvironment #SDG15 #SDGS #Sustainability #Ecosystems #Biodiversity #EnvironmentalAction2020 #ClimateChange

Kaburu Anthony: Why Cities Matter for Sustainable Development

Kaburu Anthony: Why Cities Matter for Sustainable Development: The rapid growth of cities in the developing world and increasing rural-to-urban migration has led to a boom in urban sprawl and mega-citie...

Kaburu Anthony: Why Cities Matter for Sustainable Development

Kaburu Anthony: Why Cities Matter for Sustainable Development: The rapid growth of cities in the developing world and increasing rural-to-urban migration has led to a boom in urban sprawl and mega-citie...

Why Cities Matter for Sustainable Development

The rapid growth of cities in the developing world and increasing rural-to-urban migration has led to a boom in urban sprawl and mega-cities - those with more than 10 million inhabitants. The first, New York, emerged in 1950. By 1990, there were ten mega-cities; in 2004, 19; in 2014, 28; and in 2016, the UN predicted there would be 5 billion inhabitants in 41 megacities by 2030 (World Urbanization Prospects), with 25 in Asia alone by 2025. Today, in 2020, there are already 47 mega cities.

Cities can offer more efficient economies of scale for providing goods, services and transportation, and with sound planning and management, can become incubators for innovation and growth to drive sustainable development, attracting people seeking greater opportunities and a better life.

But extreme poverty is often concentrated in such urban spaces as governments struggle to accommodate rising populations. Projections indicate that urban growth over the next 25 years will be in developing countries, with much of the population living in areas categorised as slums. And as accelerating climate change adverse weather extremes hit our cities, so greater are impacted infrastructure and population.

Urban growth related challenges

Whilst the proportion of the world’s urban population living in slums fell from 28% in 2000 to 23% in 2014, the total number of people living in slums continues to grow: In 2019, an estimated one billion urban residents lived in slums, compared to 792 million in 2000 (UN).

30% of the urban population in developing regions lives in slums. In sub-Saharan Africa, it was 56% – the highest of any region. In Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda, three of the world's most rural countries, over 90% of the urban population live in slums. By 2030, over 2 billion people in the world will be living in slums (UN).

These areas have high rates of unsanitary conditions, malnutrition, disease and lack basic health care and are often also in energy poverty. Unplanned urban sprawl is associated with increased per capita emissions of carbon dioxide and hazardous pollution, major risks to health. As of 2019, 90% of urban dwellers have been breathing unsafe air, resulting in 4.2 million deaths due to ambient air pollution. More than half of the global urban populations were exposed to air pollution levels at least 2.5 times higher than the safety standard set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In many ways, cities are our greatest risk. The challenges presented by climate change, rapid migration, and disasters—both man-made and natural—most acutely affect cities.  But cities are also our greatest opportunity. They are the places where innovation happens, where solutions that improve lives are born, where wealth generation is accelerated and where efficiency gains are most achievable. And as the world becomes increasingly urban, there has never been a more important time to be undertaking this work.

We must support the critical work happening in cities.

To achieve the bold vision set forth in SDG 11, representatives of the General Assembly must ensure that their national governments are setting the right policies that empower cities to take control of their own destiny—institutionalizing best practices for urban development that will allow them to reap the multiple benefits of a resilience dividend for years to come—through political turnover and through whatever shock or stress confronts them next.

Achieving SDG 11 will also require countries, donors, local governments, and other stakeholders to make substantial investments in our cities and communities. Baseline estimates of local needs, regularly updated and tailored to different contexts, will help inform these critical decisions and direct resources to address the world’s most pressing urban issues. ‍

Furthermore, making cities safe and sustainable means ensuring access to safe and affordable housing, and upgrading settlements’ conditions, including water and sanitation, energy, infrastructure, investing in public transport, creating green public spaces, and improving urban planning and management to be participatory and inclusive.

 Finally, improving the lives of urban dwellers across the world—will not be determined merely by our ability to rally support around the cause of building more sustainable and resilient cities. True success in this space will be determined by how well we plan for, resource, and ultimately implement the projects that will make our cities sustainable, prosperous, and resilient well into the 21st Century. And the good news is that many of these solutions are already out there, waiting to be scaled across the world #UrbanDevelopment #SDG11 #SDGS #GlobalCities #Habitat #DecentLives #SustainableCommunities

Kaburu Anthony: Why global health matters for everyone, everywhere...

Kaburu Anthony: Why global health matters for everyone, everywhere...: Since the beginning of the Aids epidemic, 75 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 32 million people have died fro...

Why global health matters for everyone, everywhere

Since the beginning of the Aids epidemic, 75 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 32 million people have died from AIDS-related causes. Malaria is back on the rise, especially among children under 5 years old, who account for two-thirds of all malaria deaths. More than 10 million people contract TB every year, but nearly 40% of those are left undiagnosed.

If you don’t live in a community where these diseases are prevalent, they might seem like far away issues — but global health affects everyone. That’s why everyone, everywhere, should play a part to end these diseases.

As the name implies, global health is about the health of people worldwide. There are many ways to improve global health, including reducing inequities, combatting preventable diseases, and making healthcare accessible and affordable.

One of the biggest keys to improving global health is access to affordable healthcare. Disease prevention and treatment is still not available to many people around the world. High costs, stigma, lack of health centers, and other factors continue to prevent people from getting the care they need.

Why global health matters

 To put this issue into perspective, consider a garden:

Some plants in a garden have the sun, water, and soil they need to stay healthy. Other plants, however, do not have the same resources. Not only are those plants at greater risk, but the garden as a whole is more vulnerable as a result.

As a global community, we function the same way. If our neighbors do not have what they need to prevent and treat disease, it puts everyone at greater risk. The opposite is also true: when everyone can access health care, we are all better able to combat disease.

Vaccination is a prime example of this. Between 2010 and 2019, vaccines prevented at least 12 million deaths worldwide. The more people who receive vaccination, the less likely a disease will spread, thanks to community immunity. When you get vaccinated, you’re not only protecting yourself from infection. You’re also strengthening society’s defense against the disease and keeping those around you safe.

The big picture of global health

It’s important to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to live a happy, healthy life. Aside from it being the right thing to do, creating good global health benefits society globally.

Just as in a garden, when some plants receive less care, and therefore bloom less, the garden as a whole does not grow as much as it would if all the plants had the right amount of care. Proper resources for each plants means larger growth for the garden as a whole.

When people can live healthy lives, they are better able to take part in society. Good health allows children to go to school and receive the education they need. As adults, it means being able to build careers and invest in their families and communities.

Not protecting health can, and has, put entire countries at risk. In 2014 alone, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone lost US$2.2 billion in gross domestic product, threatening economic stability. This happened because those infected with Ebola could not continue to work, leading to less money in the economy.

On the flip side, improving global health can also lead to incredible economic growth. Every US$1 invested in health spending for the world’s poorest leads to a return of US$13. Investing in health, besides being morally necessary, will lead to big returns.

The Global Fund

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and malaria is one of the best tools we have in improving global health. The fund has helped save over 40 million lives and counting, making a huge impact on improving health worldwide.

The Global Fund Replenishment is a key moment for investment in global health, many countries have already made their pledges. This funding received will not only improve the health of those living in poverty. Investing in global health protects everyone, including you, and creates a more sustainable future.

Finally, funding agencies and governments should support research on typically under-researched areas of people’s health including mental health, injuries, and non-communicable diseases and encourage future entrepreneurs to seek to invent new solutions with the potential to create a lasting impact on the health of hard to reach communities #SDG3 #HealthforAll #UniversalHealthCare #StrengtheningHealth #HealthyLives #SDGS #Wellbeing

Kaburu Anthony: Fighting climate change will require a community b...

Kaburu Anthony: Fighting climate change will require a community b...: Climate Change is a global phenomenon that affects the world in diverse ways, based on the fluctuations in our area and our geography. Prob...

Fighting climate change will require a community based approach

Climate Change is a global phenomenon that affects the world in diverse ways, based on the fluctuations in our area and our geography. Problems range the spectrum in extremes; include drought, flooding, crop destruction, dangerously high temperatures, larger and more powerful storms, refugees, regional conflicts, more vectors of disease, disruption of utilities, infrastructure damage, economic turmoil, etc.

Community responses to Climate Change

Communities around the world should take action and create solutions to face the challenges confronting us due to climate change. This includes solutions to both help us reduce our carbon imprint, as well as measures to become more resilient to the challenges of climate change.

These actions range from developing and implementing green building practices, to climate friendly agriculture, restoring the natural environment, sequestering carbon and greenhouse gases through soil restoration, protecting and regenerating local water cycles, installing renewable energy and appropriate technologies, and responding to emergencies and crises with resilient and regenerative planning and rebuilding practices.

In recent decades, extreme weather events have contributed to increasing loss of lives, human and natural infrastructure and other things of value. Climate change has already begun to exacerbate such losses through more frequent and intense floods, high winds, heat waves, droughts, wildfires and the like, locally and regionally. 

 How do local initiatives against climate change compare to international efforts?

More than twenty-five years ago, scientists and policy makers framed climate change as a global problem requiring global solutions. We created the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other international institutions to address the problem. Scientists believed that if they reached consensus on the global impacts of climate change, politicians would act to prevent dangerous concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

 But despite the progress that’s been made in climate science, a lack of political will among national governments has led to policy gridlock. International institutions have made very little difference in reducing net losses and vulnerability to climate change, on both global and national scales.

Meanwhile, with little publicity, many local communities have to focus independently on their own climate-related problems and significantly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. And also decrease their losses and vulnerability to extreme weather events and climate change. In doing so, they will have grown their economies and nurtured civic pride, among other community values. Not every community will succeed, of course. But successful communities serve as working models of how we can reduce or adapt to climate change, which other communities can build upon.

Best practices that others can follow

The short answer is that successful groups can take action against climate change even though they don’t completely understand everything that might be needs to reach their long-term goal. They proceed by trial and error, building on what works and setting aside what doesn’t, to make progress step by step. At each step, they move ahead pragmatically and creatively, using whatever resources they have to meet near-term needs.

To succeed, community groups must do certain things very well. This includes finding a political consensus on community policy and then funding, implementing and evaluating that policy. They must be willing to terminate policies that don’t work to free up resources for others. They have to be creative and flexible.

Practices that have been successfully field-tested in one community tend to be adapted by similar communities. But because each community is ultimately unique, there are no best practices for everyone, only better practices, depending on the local context.

Engaging Communities to reduce Community-wide Emissions

Engaging community-wide is part of carrying out the local action plan. Timing is important. If your community has created a greenhouse gas emissions inventory and forecast, set an emissions reductions target, and developed a local action plan you are ready to launch an engagement process.

Every community is unique. For this reason, engagement processes are not prescriptive. The following key elements will help you tailor your community engagement process.

1. Build Awareness: Begin by preparing information for your community to help them understand why the climate is changing. Include descriptions of the challenges and opportunities and the business case.

2. Explain to the community–invite community-driven descriptions of what reaching the successful target will look like e.g. cleaner air, less traffic outside schools, lower energy bills, enhanced local tourism etc.) Prioritize the themes as a community. This process will establish a common language and clarify shared motivations. It will also help local governments deliver actions requests based on community success targets.

During the initial awareness raising activities begin to identify key stakeholders who will engage with their own business or community groups to take further action. Strategic partnerships will help build capacity towards meeting the community-wide targets, for example, local business association, or local environmental organization.

Build on existing relationships and take advantage of any special skill sets existing in the community. Another way to building capacity is to invite summer students to participate and to mentor people in your community. Once the level of awareness and interest in the community is raised; take action.

3. Information alone is not enough – for awareness to have impact it needs to be matched with other ingredients such as individual meaning, need to develop social links and norms to others that are taking action, it’s important to be inspired to move beyond thought to action. 

4. Take Action: Start the action phase of your engagement strategy by describing what you are doing as an organization then provide actionable items for the community. These actions should be based on the unique items community success targets discussed during the awareness building phase.

Plan to reach your community outside of the local government office at venues where community groups gather. Although climate change is a serious issue, use a positive upbeat message. Solutions will have better results than fear mongering. It’s OK to have fun!  

There are many options when it comes to outreach methods such as travelling road-show at schools and community events, webinars, community meetings, presentations &, speakers, film nights, distributing a mayor’s message, rural advisory groups, public meetings, design charities, open houses, task force, web polls, software to vision land use and, citizen steering committees. Your job will be to choose the right channels for your community to help the community take climate action.

Way forward

When engagement is done well, local government staff and community members have a clear understanding of the challenges, and opportunities arising from climate change. Comprehensive engagement strategies will guide individuals and groups in implementing the role they play in combating climate change. #CommunityClimateAction #ClimateChange #Adaptation #ClimateAction #SDG13 #Sustainability #UrgentActions #Time4ClimateActionIsNow #WeCanSaveOurFutureTogether #DemandforClimateAction #AfricaClimateWeek2020

Kaburu Anthony: 2020 could be our last chance to tackle climate ch...

Kaburu Anthony: 2020 could be our last chance to tackle climate ch...: The world is drifting steadily toward a climate catastrophe. For many of us, that’s been clear for a few years or maybe a decade or even a ...

2020 could be our last chance to tackle climate change and protect nature

The world is drifting steadily toward a climate catastrophe. For many of us, that’s been clear for a few years or maybe a decade or even a few decades.

But today, we are at an important turning point. The changing climate is no longer an abstract threat lurking in our distant future — it is upon us. We feel it. We see it. In our longer and deeper droughts and our more brutal hurricanes and raging, hyper-destructive wildfires. And with that comes a new urgency, and a new opportunity, to act.

Climate change is now simply impossible to ignore. The temperature reached a record-breaking 90 degrees, Human migration patterns are already changing in Africa and Latin America as extreme weather events disrupt crop patterns, harm harvests and force farmers off their land, sending climate refugees to Europe and the United States.

It’s often difficult to attribute specific events to climate change but, clearly, strange things are happening. In India, entire cities are running out of water, thanks, scientists say, to a dangerous combination of mismanagement and climate change. In Syria, the civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced more than 11 million is believed by many scientists to have been sparked at least in part by climate-related drought and warming. Closer to home, two invasive, non-native mosquito species that have the potential to transmit viruses, including dengue, Zika and yellow fever have recently been found in several global cities.

It is late — terribly late — for action, but with some luck, perhaps it is not too late to avoid some of the worst impacts of climate change. In nations across the world, people finally recognize climate change as a top or very serious threat.

Fewer and fewer people today doubt the overwhelming scientific evidence: By burning fossil fuels for energy, humans have added so much carbon (and other greenhouse gases) to the atmosphere that we are changing nature itself, imperiling the delicate interdependence among species and putting our own survival at risk. Scientists say with certainty that we must radically transform how we make and use energy within a decade if we are to have any chance of mitigating the damage.

But figuring out what must be done at this late stage is complicated. There are a wide range of emissions sources and many ways to approach them, ranging from the microsteps that can be taken by individuals — Do you have to take that car trip? That airline flight? — to the much more important macro-policies that must be adopted by nations.

Globally, 25% of greenhouse gas emissions today comes from burning fossil fuels to create heat and electricity, mostly for residential and commercial buildings; another 23% is the result of burning fuel for industrial uses. And 14% comes from transportation.

All that burning of carbon fuels needs to end; yet unless policies and politics change dramatically, it won’t end. Even in this time of heightened clarity, two-thirds of new passenger vehicles bought globally last year were gas-guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs.

Those SUVs will be on the road an average of eight years, and the pickups for more than 13 years, as the time to address the climate problem slips away. Blame for this falls not just on consumers, but also on the manufacturers and the government, which has done too little to disincentivize the driving of gas-powered cars.

In the years since Kyoto, the world has undertaken significant efforts to ratchet down energy consumption, curtail coal burning (the dirtiest of the fossil fuels) and turn to renewable energy sources, yet overall emissions have increased.

Today there are 7.7 billion people on the planet — twice as many as 50 years ago — and more people means more demand for power, especially in fast-growing countries such as India and China. Last year saw a global acceleration of emissions, as total carbon levels in the atmosphere reached 414.8 parts per million in May, the highest recorded in 3 million years. The richer human society becomes, it seems, the more we poison the world.

Achieving climate success demands that we’re all doing our part. Whether it’s advocating for a meaningful climate law by calling our local representative , or demanding that more of our power come from clean energy sources, we all have the opportunity to push for change. Because while time is short to turn things around, the fight is far from over.

Finally, fighting the rise in temperature and sea levels will be tough. Our democracy doesn’t encourage politicians to take bold stances; our economic system doesn’t encourage companies to sacrifice profits for the common good. And we humans are understandably disinclined to live differently or to make sacrifices. But we must stop dawdling and forge ahead if we are to protect ourselves and our planet. Time for Climate Change Action is NOW #ClimateChange #Adaptation #ClimateAction #SDG13 #Sustainability #UrgentActions #Time4ClimateActionIsNow #WeCanSaveOurFutureTogether #Action2020