Civil society plays key role in policymaking in a changing climate:

As the international climate negotiations are moving at a slow pace, developing countries are creating
new policies to deal with climate change; a new report by a coalition of NGOs demonstrates that civil
society is critical to policy processes that aim to tackle climate change and protect the poorest and most
vulnerable communities from its impacts.

Civil society plays key roles in pushing for new laws, programmes, policies or strategies on climate
change, in holding governments to account on their commitments; in identifying the lack of joined-up
government responses to climate change; and in ensuring that national policy making does not forget
the poor and vulnerable.

These are the findings of a report launched today at the UN climate talks in Bonn by a coalition of more
than 20 civil society networks in developing countries, with support from the International Institute for
Environment and Development (IIED) and CARE through the Climate Capacity Consortium.

The report — Southern voices on climate policy choices: civil society advocacy on climate change —
provides an analysis of the tools and tactics advocacy groups use to influence policy responses to climate
change.

The report highlights the importance to civil society networks of engaging with the media to reach the
general public and key decision-makers, and of having good relations with governments to influence
policy making and planning.

In Zimbabwe, for example, the Climate Change Working Group has successfully advocated for a new
national climate change strategy. And as a result of advocacy activities by the Cook Islands Climate
Action Network, a climate change unit has been established within the office of the Prime Minister to
ensure that the issue falls within the portfolio of the highest government officials.

The report also describes how civil society advocacy efforts have influenced international processes,
donors and multilateral organisations such as the World Bank, and in some cases the private sector.

“Many of even the world's poorest countries now have active civil society coalitions that work on
climate change, and they are increasingly influential,” says the report’s editor Dr Hannah Reid of IIED.
“These coalitions can play an important role as bridges between vulnerable communities and those with
the power to enact policies that can protect people from the impacts of climate change. This report will
help these coalitions learn from each other as many operate in isolation.”

William Chadza from the Civil Society Network on Climate Change in Malawi says: “It is interesting for us
to see how colleagues in countries as distant as Vietnam work with vulnerable communities as they
adapt to climate change and strive to ensure their government can address these people’s concerns.”

“While some governments in industrialised nations seem to ignore climate change, this report shows
how in the global Southern civil society organisations are working hard to promote solutions and climate
justice for those affected.”
The report also describes some of the challenges experienced by these coalitions. Many acknowledge
that they lack the skills and resources they need to meet their advocacy objectives. And where relations
between government and civil society are weak, civil society involvement in key policy making arenas
has not been adequate.

The report includes contributions from more than 20 climate networks and their member organisations
in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. The networks work together in the Southern Voices on
Climate Change programme, which is funded by the Government of Denmark through the Climate
Capacity Consortium, comprised of four Danish NGOs, Climate Action Network International and IIED,
with CARE Danmark as the lead agency.

Source: www.iied.org

Egypt: UN experts alarmed by restrictions on civil society ahead of

climate summit:

GENEVA (7 October 2022) - Egypt must ensure the safety and full participation of all parts of civil society
at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP27) in
November, UN human rights experts* said, after a wave of government restrictions on participation
raised fears of reprisals against activists.

This new wave follows years of persistent and sustained crackdowns on civil society and human rights
defenders using security as a pretext to undermine the legitimate rights of civil society to participate in
public affairs in Egypt.

“Arrests and detention, NGO asset freezes and dissolutions and travel restrictions against human rights
defenders have created a climate of fear for Egyptian civil society organisations to engage visibly at the
COP27,” the experts said.

They warned that Egyptian NGOs have previously been subject to harassment, intimidation and reprisals
for cooperating with the UN.

A lack of information and transparent accreditation criteria for Egyptian NGOs, a coordinated increase in
hotel room rates, undue restrictions to freedom of peaceful assembly outside the COP27 venue, and
unjustified delays in the provision of visas to those travelling from abroad were the main concerns for
civil society activists, the experts said.

Civil society plays an essential role in the advancement of climate action, and the experts underscored
that Egypt should ensure safe and meaningful participation at COP27, including for independent civil
society.
“Instead of further limiting their rights, civil society actors and human rights defenders, including those
working on climate rights, must be given an opportunity to raise awareness about their views and
protection needs,” the experts said. “We strongly believe that COP27, organised by the United Nations,
should uphold the public’s right to participate in the conduct of public affairs, as recognised by Egypt.”

The experts expressed their support to calls by civil society that the UNFCCC Secretariat should develop
human rights criteria that countries hosting future COPs must commit to meeting as part of the host
agreement.

COP27 will take place in Sharm el Sheikh from 6 to 18 November.

The experts are in dialogue with the Government of Egypt and the UNFCCC Secretariat on this issue.

Source: Office of the high commissioner for human rights

Food systems with regards to climate change:

Traditionally, Egypt’s food system has been facing longstanding agricultural development challenges and
has especially been susceptible to the impact of exogenous shocks, due to a suite of supply- and
demand-side drivers, including agronomic, socioeconomic and institutional drivers, which put pressure
to eradicate poverty and achieve food security.

**On the supply side, burgeoning climatic changes, represented by higher temperatures and direct heat
stress, and lower rainfall and increased water needs, bring harsher conditions for food production,
particularly in the Nile Delta region where up to 60% of food is produced in Egypt (Badreldin et al, 2019).
Recent projections show, for example, by 2050 climate change will significantly reduce crop yields,
leading to about 6% decrease in total food production in Egypt, about 15% decrease in wheat
production (UNFCC, 2015), 22% decrease in maize production, and around 24% in pulses production
(Perez et al., 2021).

Water scarcity is another serious sustainability threat for Egypt’s food production, as the country relies
almost entirely on irrigation. Besides climate and environmental changes, water resources in Egypt have
been decreasing due to rapid population growth and increasing wealth, which increased demand for
food production. With an annual per capita share of renewable water resource ranging between 550
and 560 cubic meters, Egypt has already approached the water poverty threshold and is facing an
annual water deficit of about 54 billion cubic meters (FAO, 2016). This constrains the expansion of
agricultural area and puts pressure on the capacity of the food system to increase agricultural
production and food supply.

On the demand side, Egypt’s population has been growing at 2.1% in recent decades, hitting 100 million
inhabitants in 2020, and recording an increase rate of about 14% since the 2006 census (CAPMAS, 2017).
In connection with this, rapid and unplanned urban expansion have been associated with massive loss of
fertile agricultural land, which is estimated at nearly 30,000 hectares per year (Badreldin et al., 2019). In
addition, poverty is widespread in the country. It is estimated that at least 57% of Egypt’s population is
either living in poverty or at risk of falling into poverty (World Bank, 2019). Expenditure on food absorbs
the greatest portion of Egyptian households’ income (about 45%), which aggravates the consequences
of any supply price shocks on household nutrition and food security.

Furthermore, the interplay of these supply- and demand-side drivers of the Egyptian food system has
always made the country highly dependent on food imports, reaching 45% of domestic food demand.
For example, self-sufficiency ratios for cereals, vegetable oils, oil crops, and sugar crops are particularly
low, at 58%, 26%, 35%, and 73%, respectively (Abu Hatab and Hess, 2021). Such over-reliance on global
markets for meeting the food needs of Egypt’s growing population leaves Egypt highly exposed to price
fluctuations and shocks in international food markets.

Source: Siani

Best way to ensure survival: how to take adaptation and mitigation

hand in hand to deal with climate emergency:
NASA is a world leader in climate studies and Earth science. While its role is not to set climate policy or
prescribe particular responses or solutions to climate change, its purview does include providing the
robust scientific data needed to understand climate change. NASA then makes this information available
to the global community – the public, policy- and decision-makers and scientific and planning agencies
around the world.

Climate change is one of the most complex issues facing us today. It involves many dimensions –
science, economics, society, politics, and moral and ethical questions – and is a global problem, felt on
local scales, that will be around for thousands of years. Carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping greenhouse
gas that is the primary driver of recent global warming, lingers in the atmosphere for many thousands of
years, and the planet (especially the ocean) takes a while to respond to warming. So even if we stopped
emitting all greenhouse gases today, global warming and climate change will continue to affect future
generations. In this way, humanity is “committed” to some level of climate change.

How much climate change? That will be determined by how our emissions continue and exactly how our
climate responds to those emissions. Despite increasing awareness of climate change, our emissions of
greenhouse gases continue on a relentless rise. In 2013, the daily level of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere surpassed 400 parts per million for the first time in human history. The last time levels were
that high was about three to five million years ago, during the Pliocene Epoch.
Because we are already committed to some level of climate change, responding to climate change
involves a two-pronged approach:

Reducing emissions of and stabilizing the levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere (“mitigation”);

Adapting to the climate change already in the pipeline (“adaptation”).

Mitigation and Adaptation:

Mitigation – reducing climate change – involves reducing the flow of heat-trapping greenhouse gases
into the atmosphere, either by reducing sources of these gases (for example, the burning of fossil fuels
for electricity, heat, or transport) or enhancing the “sinks” that accumulate and store these gases (such
as the oceans, forests, and soil). The goal of mitigation is to avoid significant human interference with
Earth's climate, “stabilize greenhouse gas levels in a timeframe sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt
naturally to climate change, ensure that food production is not threatened, and to enable economic
development to proceed in a sustainable manner” (from the 2014 report on Mitigation of Climate
Change from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, page 4).

Adaptation – adapting to life in a changing climate – involves adjusting to actual or expected future
climate. The goal is to reduce our risks from the harmful effects of climate change (like sea-level rise,
more intense extreme weather events, or food insecurity). It also includes making the most of any
potential beneficial opportunities associated with climate change (for example, longer growing seasons
or increased yields in some regions).

Throughout history, people and societies have adjusted to and coped with changes in climate and
extremes with varying degrees of success. Climate change (drought in particular) has been at least partly
responsible for the rise and fall of civilizations. Earth’s climate has been relatively stable for the past
10,000 years, and this stability has allowed for the development of our modern civilization and
agriculture. Our modern life is tailored to that stable climate and not the much warmer climate of the
next thousand-plus years. As our climate changes, we will need to adapt. The faster the climate changes,
the more difficult it will be.

While climate change is a global issue, it is felt on a local scale. Local governments are therefore at the
frontline of adaptation. Cities and local communities around the world have been focusing on solving
their own climate problems. They are working to build flood defenses, plan for heat waves and higher
temperatures, install better-draining pavements to deal with floods and stormwater, and improve water
storage and use.
According to the 2014 report on Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (page 8) from
the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, governments at various levels are also
getting better at adaptation. Climate change is being included into development plans: how to manage
the increasingly extreme disasters we are seeing, how to protect coastlines and deal with sea-level rise,
how to best manage land and forests, how to deal with and plan for drought, how to develop new crop
varieties, and how to protect energy and public infrastructure.

Source: global climate change (nasa)