Resource Page: Humanitarian Impact of Climate Change

Following the last post, a short resource page on the humanitarian impact of climate change.  For more general information on climate change, please see Stop Global Warming.

Campaigns and other resources

- UN OCHA campaign on climate change - Climate Change: Coping with the Humanitarian Impact.  According to OCHA:

"In the last 20 years, the number of recorded disasters has doubled from about 200 to more than 400 per year. Disasters caused by floods are more frequent (from about 50 in 1985 to more than 200 in 2005) and damage larger areas than they did twenty years ago."

- Oxfam campaign - Suffering the Science: Climate Change, People and Poverty.  According to Oxfam:

"26 million people have already been displaced because of climate change...200 million people may be on the move each year by 2050 because of hunger, environmental degradation, and loss of land."

- CARE campaign - Climate Change.  According to CARE:

"In the decade 1984-1993, 1.6 billion people were affected by natural disasters, compared with 2.6 billion in the following decade (1994-2003). In constant dollars, disaster costs between 1990 and 1999 were more than 15 times higher (US$652 billion in material losses) than they were between 1950 and 1959 (US$38 billion at 1998 values)."

- Overseas Development Institute: Climate Change and International Development

Other information below including the impact of climate change on humanitarian response, the impact of the global financial crisis on climate change funding, and maps.  Because everyone loves maps.

This is by no means a comprehensive list.  If you have any articles or sites to add, please let me know.

Impact on Humanitarian Response

- UN OCHA: Climate change risks overwhelming current global humanitarian capacity (3 December 2008)

- Reuters AlertNet: Aid agencies say overwhelmed by rising climate disasters (3 December 2008)

- Reuters AlertNet: Why humanitarians and climate scientists don't talk (30 January 2009)

- IRIN: Humanitarian costs of climate change unpredictable (20 February 2009)

- Christian Science Monitor: Climate may heat crises, too, military analysts say (17 March 2009)

- Reuters AlertNet: Top aid officials urge new 'business model' for climate crisis (18 March 2009)

- IRIN: Disaster risk increasing, exacerbated by climate change (17 May 2009)

- AFP: Climate change kills 300,000 a year (29 May 2009)

- Aid agencies call for strong agreement to address 'humanitarian shocks' of climate change (8 June 2009)

- OCHA / IDMC / NRC: Natural disasters and forced displacement in the context of climate change (8 June 2009)

- Reuters AlertNet: Information 'weakest link' in managing climate risk (17 June 2009)

Country Specific Impact

- IRIN: Twelve countries on climate change hit-list (8 July 2009)

- The best source for country-specific information is the IRIN website - in the search bar, type in the country in which you're interested and "climate change"

Costs and the Impact of the Financial Crisis

- Reuters AlertNet: Financial crisis sparks concern over climate change funds (19 February 2009)

- Reuters AlertNet: Global downturn to shrink climate funds for poor nations (20 February 2009)

- IRIN: The price tag for adapting to climate change (30 March 2009)

Maps

- IDRC: Climate change vulnerability map of Southeast Asia (31 January 2009)

- IDRC: Multiple climate hazard map of Southeast Asia (31 January 2009)

- UNEP: Projected land use changes, 1700-2050 (1 February 2009)

- UNEP: Projected losses in food production due to climate change by 2080 (1 February 2009)

- UNEP: Global change in land productivity, 1981-2003 (1 February 2009)

- UNEP: Africa: Change in cereal output, 2080 (1 February 2009)

- UNEP: Impact of drought on livestock numbers in select African countries (1 February 2009)

Blogs

- UN Dispatch frequently posts on climate-change related issues

- Head Down Eyes Open: Counting the human cost of climate change (8 June 2009)

- Head Down Eyes Open: Developing countries paying an enormous price for climate-related disasters (19 June 2009)

[Ethiopia affected by decreasing rainfall - Photo from Oxfam]