Right to Survive

By 2015 more than 375m people are likely to be affected by climate related disasters – a projected increase of 54% – and this threatens to overwhelm the world’s current capacity to respond.The world must be better prepared to cope with helping more vulnerable people facing worsening disasters and rich countries must stop the worst of future harm by signing a global deal to tackle climate change.A fundamental overhaul in the way the world responds to international humanitarian crisis is required to address these growing pressures, worsened by the looming threat of climate change:

• We need $42 billion more now each year in humanitarian aid to help meet people’s basic needs and another $50 billion now each year to help developing countries adapt to the effects of climate change.
• Rich countries, most responsible for the problem, must stop harming by rapidly cutting their carbon emissions and start helping by providing more money and support to help vulnerable countries adapt.
• National governments and the international community must provide more and better, more flexible aid. Aid should be provided on the basis of need – not tied to strategic or political interests, or favor one affected group over another or cherry-pick high profile emergencies.
• To avoid the most extreme potential impact of climate change in the longer term, developing countries must give greater priority to responding to emergencies and reducing people’s vulnerability to them.