Advocacy
Climate change poses the greatest threat to the most vulnerable, particularly women and girls, who often contribute the least to its escalation. The global climate crisis affects all CARE Programming and threatens our vision of a world of hope, tolerance, and social justice where poverty has been overcome, and people live in dignity and security. As the breadth and impact of the climate emergency are worsening, CARE must do all it can to ensure that our actions are part of a global commitment, an urgent, effective, and equitable response to Climate Action.
CARE adds a great deal of value in our ability to implement and communicate international climate justice and gender justice through the same lens. In our efforts to push countries to increase their climate ambition, CARE aims to ensure that gender justice and climate justice go hand-in-hand. By connecting women in solidarity networks that bridge the Global South and Global North, and helping women and their male allies to mobilize at local, national and international levels, CARE can significantly contribute to building a worldwide movement aimed at advancing pragmatic action by which leaders can accelerate climate action and the ecological transition that puts people — particularly women — at the center of climate policies and actions.
CARE, the UNFCCC, and other policy processes
The international political response to climate change began with the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, which sets out a framework for action aimed at stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to avoid “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”. Each year the convention hosts a global meeting, known as a ‘COP’ (Conference Of Parties), which CARE participates and influences through an international delegation with key demands for enhanced action to fight the climate emergency and ensure poverty-free, climate-resilient and zero-carbon sustainable development.
CARE also engages, as appropriate, in other fora and contexts, including national policy development and implementation for example the National Adaptation Plans (NAP) and National Determined Contributions (NDC)and regional implementation efforts in relation to climate action, the UN Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction, the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) process, and financial mechanisms such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
COP30 as The People’s COP: CARE’s Key Demands
- Operationalize a robust Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) framework that includes indicators on means of implementation (MoI) that ensure effective and equitable adaptation finance, measuring quantity, quality, and access.
- Set a post-2025 target that triples adaptation finance by 2030 to close the adaptation finance gap to protect vulnerable communities.
- Adopt a new and ambitious Gender Action Plan (GAP), with secured funding to support women-led organizations in climate action
- NDCs must be aligned to 1.5°C by phasing out fossil fuels, reducing deforestation, and investing in renewable energy production led by communities.
- Provide grant-based loss and damage finance that is fair, predictable, and accessible to vulnerable communities.
The CARE 2030 Vision
CARE seeks to influence change beyond the communities where we work directly. Based on our evidence-based learning of effective strategies for impact at scale, advocacy to influence is one of the central elements that contribute to what we will place emphasis on until 2030. Advocacy to influence changes to the policies, programs, and budgets of governments and other power holders, and how those are implemented.
Decades of action and impact make it clear that CARE has a great deal to contribute to the global movement for climate action, through local-to-global-to-local advocacy, namely:
- Promoting gender-equitable responses to climate change, particularly approaches that empower women and girls and lead to gender transformative outcomes.
- Communicating the links between policy choices and action on climate change in the Global North and Global South.
- Incorporating climate change across the spectrum from humanitarian assistance to long-term development.
- Generating evidence from practical experience on the ground to feed into program development, policy analysis, and advocacy on climate change, both nationally and internationally.
- Building the capacity of local organizations in the Global South to do all of the above.
- Working in partnerships with other organizations and networks.
“Climate Change is Sexist”: An Advocacy Campaign
Climate change exacerbates inequalities between men and women, boys and girls. From disaster-prone islands to drought-ravaged farm fields, women and girls bear a disproportionate burden of the climate crisis all around the world.
Meet #GenAdapt
A new generation of women and girls who are the first to have to adapt to a new, tougher climate reality in order to survive & thrive. GenAdapt is on the frontline of the climate crisis.
Building on our reputation as a leader in gender-just solutions in climate action, over the next three years, CARE will encourage and equip its offices and partners around the world to participate in meaningful, coordinated, and consistent actions pushing for more ambitious and gender-just solutions to the climate crisis and humanitarian emergencies at global, regional, and national levels.