Summit of Vulnerable Countries is Key Moment to Step Up Climate Action
CARE International welcomes today’s announcements by the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) to host a special, high-level climate summit on the 21st and 22nd of November. This event was officially announced today by the President of the Marshall Islands, the future chair of the CVF. The summit will aim to showcase examples of stronger climate action in advance of the UN climate change conference (COP24) in December. CARE hopes that the meeting will turn global attention towards the fundamental threats of climate climate on the sustainable development of hundreds of millions of people.
“CARE welcomes the announcement of this important climate summit. The G20 and other influential groups of countries should not be the only voice in world politics. Those who first and foremost experience the impacts of the lack of climate action in the richer world must be heard and supported. The virtual aspect of the summit can set a new example of how high-level political engagement and concrete climate-friendly practice can be combined. The Climate Vulnerable Forum has been a key force for raising ambition in the UN climate talks. This summit is an essential opportunity to urge everyone to step up in 2018 so that staying within the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C limit remains a possibility.”
Sven Harmeling, Global Policy Lead Climate Change and Resilience, CARE International
“Climate change is a major development challenge in Ethiopia. How the country and its diverse people, communities, and households respond to the multi-faceted impacts of climate change determine Ethiopia’s prospects for growth and transformation, gender equality, and livelihood resilience and sustainability. Recognizing this, the Government of Ethiopia, CARE and other development partners have been making considerable efforts to respond to climate change impacts. The CVF summit will be an important opportunity to raise awareness of climate actions taken, and to trigger further cooperation to scale them up.”
Esther Watts, Country Director of CARE International in Ethiopia
”The people in the Philippines have experienced frequent devastating disasters in the last years which are exacerbated by climate change. CARE works with various partners to respond to emergencies; provide food, water, and shelter; and build poor people’s resilience. As climate disruption emerges as a major humanitarian challenge, vulnerable people, in particular marginalised women and girls, must be supported in their efforts to build climate resilience. Thus, the summit will be an important wake-up call and is a possibility to tell the world: we must and can do more to reduce the threats from climate disruption.”
David Gazashvili, Country Director of CARE Philippines
The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) is an international partnership of countries highly vulnerable to a warming planet, overall more than 50 countries comprising more than one billion inhabitants. The Forum serves as a South-South cooperation platform for participating governments to act together to deal with global climate change. CARE has been cooperating with the CVF since 2014 for the inclusion and further implementation of the 1.5°C limit in the Paris Agreement, amongst others.