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OEA/Ser.G

CP/INF. 7881/17

20 December 2017

TEXTUAL

REMARKS BY MS. HEATHER COLEMAN, CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY DIRECTOR, OXFAM AMERICA, DURING THE JOINT MEETING OF THE PERMANENT COUNCIL AND THE COMMITTEE ON HEMISPHERIC SECURITY REGARDING THE SECURITY IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, HELD ON DECEMBER 12, 2017


Organization of American States

Joint Meeting of the Permanent Council and the Committee on Hemispheric Security Regarding the Security Implications of Climate Change

Remarks of Heather Coleman, Climate and Energy Director, Oxfam America

Oxfam is a humanitarian and development agency that works to invest in lasting solutions to lift people out of poverty. And in this capacity we are experiencing on the front lines with the communities that we serve that more people are being forced to leave their homes than ever before. In 2016, 24 million people in 118 countries and territories were displaced by natural disasters - 3x as many as were displaced by conflict. And we are still in the early stages of climate-driven catastrophes.

No country is immune. While climate change affects us all, the degree to which we can cope with the impacts is significantly influenced by wealth, access to and control over resources, social status and power. It is no surprise that the impacts of climate change are felt first and hardest by the poorest and most marginalized populations, who are disproportionately women, children, indigenous peoples and other groups already faced with inequality and increased vulnerability.

Oxfam released a paper last month in which we find that between 2008-2016, people in low- and lower-middle-income countries were about five times more likely than people in high-income countries to be displaced by sudden-onset extreme weather disasters. Numbers likely low because doesn’t account for slow-onset events.

Oxfam estimates that more than 3 million people in low-income countries have been newly displaced by extreme weather disasters over the first nine months of 2017, of whom more than half were displaced by drought.

Our own experiences and observations as a global humanitarian agency mirror what came out of a 2015 report authored by the US Department of Defense to Congress on climate and security. They themselves identified the following key security risks from climate change:

-  More frequent and/or more severe extreme weather events require substantially more humanitarian responses, especially given urbanization trends and increased flooding risk.

-  Persistently recurring conditions such as flooding, drought, and higher temperatures impact agriculture, electricity and health, leading to migration, especially for vulnerable populations and fragile states.

-  Sea level rise and ocean impacts mean more flooding and impacts to food stability andtourism, especially along coasts.This results in displacement (both first and second order) and threats to the economic and political stability of countries.

In Central America, countries like El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have been experiencing high levels of food insecurity in recent years which is exacerbating existing drivers of instability. (And as you all know emigration has increased substantially from these countries since 2010.) We know as Oxfam, and this is confirmed in the research, that more than half of the households in vulnerable regions in Central America, like the Dry Corridor, are spending more than two thirds of their income on food, which reflects a high level of economic vulnerability to food insecurity. Climate change magnifies these kinds of threats.

I know it is not lost on any of you the devastation that was brought on the CARICOM states by hurricanes Irma, Jose, and Maria. The devastation from Maria alone in Puerto Rico has led to 10,000 people fleeing per day (at the peak of the devastation). Even those who are fortunate enough to find a safe place to go have to leave behind their neighbors, their schools, and their daily lives—and many don’t know whether, or if, they will ever be able to return, a question made far more difficult by the rising seas, shifting rains, and monster storms fuelled by climate change.

There is increasing pressure on institutions and governments to strengthen coordinated efforts to invest in DRR and to strengthen capacities to respond to disasters. And it is my understanding that this is a topic that received quite a bit of attention last week at the Caribbean Comprehensive Disaster Management Conference in regard to the Inter-American Convention to Facilitate Disaster Assistance.

So, what are some of the solutions?

-  As Oxfam, in addition to our strong humanitarian support when disaster strikes, we are working to support long-term solutions, including measures to address both climate emissions (mitigation) and climate impacts (adaptation), and we are working diligently to mobilize more resources to cope with impacts that cannot be avoided, including funding for smallholder farmers to cope with climate impacts, finance for loss and damage, and improved measures for displacement and migration.

-  In El Salvador, Oxfam has invested in DRR projects that have been shown to strengthen livelihoods and food security, particularly in climate-smart agriculture, savings/loans clubs and women’s empowerment. We’ve promoted innovative, women-centered approaches to enterprise development resulting in rapid achievements in terms of income generation and progress towards gender equity. Some lessons learned are that we need a more differentiated approach to analysis of vulnerability, to ensure inclusive, well-targeted interventions. We also must prioritize locally-led responses that target and empower the most vulnerable. Finally, investments in low-emissions, resilient infrastructure are essential to weather future disasters and to reduce the impacts of our built environment on emissions trends.

-  Oxfam has also found that displacement can be minimized through stronger action on mitigation and adaptation in the immediate term. And there isn’t one global forum where these issues must be addressed, in fact each region, sub-region, and country is going to have to be part of the solution base, which is why I am thrilled to see that the OAS is focusing on this topic today.

-  On the mitigation front, countries and other actors must focus on long-term global solutions to addressing climate change, because we can’t afford ever-increasing price tags to provide the much-needed assistance to respond to and cope with ever-increasing climate catatrophes. In this sense, we agree with the US Department of Defense’s 2015 assessment that climate change is very much a security risk.

Unlike with many security threats, we have virtually universal global agreement on the causes of climate change, we know that we as humans have caused much of it, we have a good sense of the current and pending impacts, and we know there are any number of solutions available to address the problem.

The Americas are responsible for roughly a quarter of global emissions, and many countries are showing leadership far beyond what is expected. But sadly, our collective efforts are falling short, and impacts are happening, and those impacts are going to get worse.

The question is not whether we can avoid climate impacts; rather, it is a question of how much we are willing to risk by failing to act quickly enough, and how we are going to protect the populations that are hit the hardest: what are we going to do in the wake of rising seas, monster hurricanes, food crises, and the waves of people increasingly unable to cope with these threats? Smart responses mean planning ahead for these increased impacts in the short term while supporting global measures to get our emissions down to levels the Earth can digest over the longer term.