Getting started
Experts expect that there will be more frequent and intense weather related disasters, making it harder for poor people to pick up the pieces and stretching the resources of aid agencies further and further. Now is the time to start supporting communities as they being to prepare for the new and increased threats that climate change brings but the question often is: where do we begin?
Our challenge as members of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement is to integrate available knowledge about climate change into our humanitarian work. This task requires some learning and a lot of new thinking about how it can be integrated into existing programmes.
Download here the factsheet 
(pdf, 50 kB) (in English) on 'Getting Started'. The factsheet is also available in Russian (pdf, 146 kB).
39 National Societies have already embarked on asking what climate change means for them and how they can address it. They took the first steps in the 'Preparedness for climate change' programme and working through different stages discribed in the web-based guidance note. For a summary on how climate change will affect their programmes and the priorities they set to address climate change, click here.
“If we don’t work on these water problems we will become even more vulnerable” Mirna Zelaya, El Salvador Red Cross.
The Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Guide also has a chapter on 'how to get started'. The guide presents five years of experiences from more than thirty national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, in particular in developing countries.
National Red Cross Red Crescent Societies that are getting started are often approaching new partners and climate-related stakeholders (pdf, 132 kB) and we listed a number ideas on questions (pdf, 185 kB) to ask these new partners.
Related links
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- UN Development Programme climate change country profiles
- National Adaptation Programmes of Action
- World Bank Climate Portal which summarises projections
- 'On better terms' a glance at key climate change and disaster risk reduction concepts
- Information on the growing number of international funding initiatives to help developing countries address the challenges of climate change
- Taking action on climate change in the Seychelles: a Preparedness for Climate Change case study (pdf, 257 kB)
Main topics:
- Disaster Management
- Health and Care
- Early warning early action
- Advocacy
- Communications
- Community risk reduction
- Youth
- Getting started
Disaster Management
Climate change can act as a catalyst for enhanced disaster management.
Health and Care
Many national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies will be touched by the health implications of climate change.
Early warning early action
Routinely taking humanitarian action before a disaster or health emergency happens, making full use of scientific information on all timescales.
Advocacy
The Red Cross and Red Crescent never works in isolation. Partnerships are more important than ever in the context of global warming.
Communications
The global climate is changing and the past no longer explains the present.
Community risk reduction
The Red Cross and Red Crescent has traditionally focused on response. But now other aspects, including risk reduction, are also given priority.
Youth
Red Cross Red Crescent youth take action to reduce the impacts of climate change.
Getting started
The Red Cross Red Crescent has a growing body of experience working on addressing climate change. Here’s how to use it to get started.
Take a look at Red Cross Red Crescent climate change activities on the worldmap
