IDS Bulletin calls for humanitarian aid and climate change sectors to work together
Given that 90 per cent of recorded major disasters caused by natural hazards from 1995 to 2015 were linked to weather and climate change, there is an urgent need to protect and prepare the most vulnerable to respond. The new IDS Bulletin, Courting Catastrophe? Humanitarian Policy and Practice in a Changing Climate, argues that humanitarian aid and climate change sectors need to work together to support adaptation in the long-term and not solely focus on short-term responses.
The editors, Siri Eriksen, Ruth Haug, Lars Otto Naess, Aditi Bhonagiri and Lutgart Lenaerts, question whether or not humanitarian aid should remain focused on ‘saving lives in the time of crises – or also engage in longer-term concerns, including climate change’.
They argue that ‘humanitarian crises appear dramatic, overwhelming and sudden. Aid is required immediately to save lives. On the face of it, linkages to longer-term climate change and adaptation appear far-fetched. However, the causes for humanitarian crises – such as the current food shortages in Ethiopia and on the Horn of Africa – are rarely sudden’.
CIFOR