Resources: humanitarian

Asking the right questions about climate change risk and effects

Van Aaist, M., Helmer, M., de Jong, C. et al., 2007, The Red Cross and Red Crescent climate guide: Asking the right questions about climate change risk and effects. Published by the Red Cross/Red Crescent Centre on Climate Change and Disaster Preparedness.

As the authors wrote in the introduction of the manual, this is a guide on asking the right questions about how climate change affects people, and on how to find the right answers to these questions. After a section with background information on climate change, such as the scientific consensus about it, its humanitarian consequences and its general implications for humanitarian aid and assistance, the manual is divided into six modules discussing the six components of climate risk management: getting started, dialogues, communications, disaster management, community-based disaster risk reduction, and health and care.

At the beginning of every section some real-life case study from the experiences of the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement are presented, followed by a ‘how-to’ step-by-step guide on how to tackle the issues presented. Case studies from three specific geographical areas are also analysed more in detail. One from Indonesia, a country that is very vulnerable to climate change and that has in the past years experienced frequent natural disasters, two from Ethiopia and Rwanda, where climate change is having a very negative impact on food security, and one from Nicaragua, hit by Hurricane Felix in September 2007.

© 2010 People and Development.