Matthew Anderson-Stembridge, (l) Executive Director of the NRPE, John L. McCullough, Executive Director and CEO, CWS, and Walter Grazer, Special Advisor to NRPE (r). Photo: Martin Shupack/CWS
WASHINGTON, DC — The best–perhaps only way–to manage climate change is to take into consideration all the areas on which it has an impact. To that end, national and international experts from government and faith-based relief and development organizations gathered at the May 19 International Adaptation Conference at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill to examine best practices for helping the most vulnerable people in developing countries adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Jonathan Pershing, deputy special envoy for climate change for the U.S. Department of State, emphasized the importance of developing an approach that addresses all the elements of climate change, from health, water and energy to food security.
Climate change, he said, “no longer is manageable as a separate issue; we can’t treat it in splendid isolation.” The day’s discussions at the conference, sponsored by the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, focused on those issues and on the urgent need to address adaptation in developing countries now rather than later.
Moderating a panel on food security in the face of climate change, Church World Service Executive Director and CEO John L. McCullough stressed the importance of understanding “exactly how and how much climate change alters the equation for how communities produce food and how families secure sufficient food.”
Maurice A. Bloem, CWS Deputy Director and Head of Programs, urged an expansion in the definition of food security “to include availability, access, utilization and stability, with nutrition aspects clearly spelled out.”
By including utilization and stability, Bloem said, a full range of interventions, such as provision of fortified food and necessary multi-nutrients, could be combined with “actions focused on developing sustainable food production to ensure ongoing availability of nutritious food,” using climate-adaptive agriculture approaches.
Supplementing available food sources with multi-nutrient interventions are especially important to children in the first 3 years of their lives to prevent irreversible damage to brain and physical development.
Bloem concluded that, while addressing climate change and food security problems in developing communities, “our solutions are often focused on staple crops, but there should also be a focus on dietary diversity with household-level food production that includes nutrition-rich sources such as vegetables, fruits, small livestock and community fish ponds.”
In providing sustainable, climate resilient food production solutions for the world’s poorest, he underscored the need for accompanying education to emphasize the importance of consuming a diverse diet.
In the end, comprehensive food security solutions are also income-generating, Bloem said.
A panel dealing with the challenges of climate change in an increasingly urban world included discussion of the likelihood that existing vulnerabilities in growing urban areas will be exacerbated by changing weather patterns.
Church World Service Immigration and Refugees Program Director Erol Kekic detailed how urbanization, partially caused by climate change and lack of adaptation strategies, negatively impacts refugees fleeing persecution and seeking safety in urban settings and people forced to migrate because of flooding, droughts or other changes in the natural environment.
CWS integrates climate change adaptation issues and approaches in all of its development and disaster mitigation programs. The agency recently joined with a coalition of development, faith-based and environmental organizations representing millions of members and supporters in a May 18 letter to leaders of the House Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs to urge full funding for the President’s international climate change finance request of $1.329 billion as the minimum amount needed for the International Affairs account for Fiscal Year 2012.
The money would fund programs that assist the most vulnerable countries and populations to adapt and build resilience to a changing climate, reduce emissions from tropical deforestation and degradation, and deploy international clean energy.
In the face of challenges to the Clean Air Act, Church World Service also has joined with other faith community advocates in urging members of the U.S. Senate to oppose any efforts to undermine the authority of the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
Copies of Church World Service’s new publication “Adapting to Climate Change” were distributed at the May 19 conference. The resource, created in collaboration with United Methodist Women, explores what local partners in developing nations can teach people living in the U.S. about living wisely in a climate-challenged world.
Also participating on the adaptation conference panels were David Saperstein, Religious Action Center; Andrew Steer, World Bank; Sanjeev Krishnan, Clean Economy Network; Jonathan Speer, U.S. Department of State; Cheryl Rosenblum, CNA; Sanjeev Bhanja, Evangelical Fellowship of India’s Commission on Relief; Jefferson Shriver, Catholic Relief Services; Mark Van Putten, Conservation Strategy; Val Shean, Christian Veterinary Mission, Uganda; David Gandhi, Catholic Relief Services; Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio, Rockefeller Foundation; Marcus Moench, Institute for Social Environmental Transition; Cristina Tirado, Center for Public Health and Climate Change, Institute of Public Health; Matthew Anderson Stembridge, National Religious Partnership for the Environment; Dale Evans, Food for the Hungry; Bill O’Keefe, Catholic Relief Services; and Timi Gerson, American Jewish World Service.