The Climate Centre supports Red Cross/ Red Crescents activities worldwide. The Centre contributes to these activities by providing technical support and advice in programme development, implementation and obtaining financial resources. The Red Cross/ Red Crescent programmes experience listed in this section aim to inspire other National Societies in addressing climate (change) risks. 

For more country information, visit the worldmap.

Information on programmes and Climate Centre support

Asian Ministerial conference

The Asia Pacific zone covers 45 countries and experiences 79% of the world’s disaster related fatalities. Increasing  climate risk threatens hardearned development gains. A strategy for dealing with this is to better understand and pre-empt climate related hazards through systematic use of climate information available for early warning. This can occur on timescales of hours, days, weeks, months and even years ahead of time. Download here (pdf, 899 kB) the complete Case Study. Go here for more information on the Conference.

China

On 27-28 July 2010, representatives from the Red Cross Red Crescent and the Chinese government met, for the first time, as a group. What was unusual about this meeting was the convergence of government departments including those responsible for agriculture, health, climate change, and disaster management, as well as the meteorological office, with Chinese Red Cross counterparts from village up to provincial level. One experience that all participants share in common is the changes to climate that are occurring in Fujian province of China. Download here (pdf, 315 kB) the complete Case Study with the outcomes of the meeting in Fujian.

Syria

In November 2009 the Syrian Arab Red Crescent carried out vulnerability and capacity assessments in two of the most affected communities - Al Hassakeh and the city of Deir Elzour (in the East), focusing on sites in remote areas. The participatory assessments (which were carried out in cooperation with local community and authority) identified tree planting as a key activity that would help mitigate the effects of the drought. Download here (pdf, 2 MB) the case study (in English). The Arabic version can be downloaded here (pdf, 6 MB). Also have a look at these communication materials: Poster Safe Latrines, this Poster on personal safety, and a Poster on drought.

Solomon Islands

The climate is  changing and communities in some countries are already feeling the heat. Climate information in the form of trends and forecasts, combined with tried and tested disaster risk reduction measures, can help anticipate disasters before they happen and enable communities to prepare for and cope with them. Fundamental to this approach is strengthening partnerships between the humanitarian sector and those working in the field of climate change. National Societies in the Asia-Pacific region have been showing the way in this important area. Read more:

• Bridging the Gap, Integrating climate change and disaster risk reduction
• Solomon Islands Red Cross Preparedness for Climate Change phase 2 background document

• Here is the story of one Red Cross society’s effort to incorporate climate change into its regular work, and what it found  on Pileni island – remote even by the standards of the Solomon Islands. In 2010 the Solomon Islands Red Cross (SIRC) began working with the small – very small – community on Pileni which is grappling with the impacts of climate change and the uncertain future they generate. Read further. (pdf, 361 kB)

Seychelles

Seychelles Red Cross took on climate change and found that there are networks to be tapped into and that much can be done to prepare. Read more.

Vietnam

What does a changing climate mean for vulnerable people in Viet Nam, and how could the Red Cross help enhance their resilience? The Vietnam Red Cross has been learning by doing since 2003. By understanding the projected impact of global warming on the occurrence of extreme weather events, and adjusting disaster management programmes accordingly, the Vietnam Red Cross aims to contribute to safer communities for people living in disaster prone areas. Read more:

• Preparing for climate change in Viet Nam_February (pdf, 179 kB)
• Viet Nam programme and Climate Centre support (pdf, 229 kB)
• Health risk management in a changing climate: An operational research on dengue fever prevention in Vietnam. Download the leaflet here (pdf, 59 kB).

Indonesia

In the context of a changing climate, rainfall in Indonesia is projected to increase in some regions and decrease in others. The wet season will probably get wetter, the dry season drier, and extreme events such as floods and droughts are expected to multiply. Palang Merah Indonesia (PMI – the Indonesian Red Cross) has increasingly invested in disaster risk reduction over the past years, in particular through an integrated community-based risk reduction strategy (ICBRR). ICBRR’s objective is to strengthen the capacities of vulnerable at risk communities to cope with disasters and to reduce their vulnerabilities to natural and man-made hazards. Read more:

• Palang Merah Indonesia and integrated community bas (pdf, 218 kB)ed risk reduction (pdf, 218 kB)
• Indonesian programme and Climate Centre support (pdf, 26 kB)
• YouTube: Beyond Response-Adapting to Climate Change at the Indonesian Red Cross

Great Lakes

In the Great Lakes region of Africa there is a beautifully succinct proverb which people sometimes cite when confronting the general challenges of life: a stone you see in good time will not damage your hoe. It encapsulates much of the philosophy underpinning the Pledge Project, which was born in 2007 when the Netherlands government and Red Cross jointly pledged to help a pilot group of National Societies adapt their efforts to reduce disaster-risk to the ever-rising hazards of climate change. Download the complete leaflet here (pdf, 654 kB).

Mozambique

Mozambique, on the east coast of Southern Africa, is economically very vulnerable to climate variability: about 75 per cent of its population depends on rain-fed agriculture. Hazards vary, depending on the geographical location of the provinces. Mostly, disasters are caused by phenomena or events with a social, economic, environmental, meteorological or hydrological touch. Drought, floods, cyclones, plagues, pests, burnings, landslides, epidemics (including HIV and aids) and in February a severe earthquake: the occurrence of disasters and emergency situations in Mozambique is on the increase. Read more:

• Pilot in Mozambique: dealing with climate change (pdf, 130 kB)
• Mozambique programme and Climate Centre support (pdf, 30 kB)

Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colombia

Latin America is visited by floods, hurricanes and droughts on a regular basis. When disaster strikes, the poor especially have little or nothing with which to protect themselves – and here “the poor” make up more than half the population. Funded by the ´Dutch National Lottery´, the National Red Cross Societies of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Columbia and Guatemala work to strengthen the resilience of people most at risk of the adverse effects of climate change. They face floods, hurricanes, droughts and often massive deforestation, making them vulnerable to natural disasters. Red Cross efforts to help them include raising awareness on the risks of climate change. Read more: 

• Preparing for climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean (pdf, 696 kB)
• Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colombia programme and Climate Centre support (pdf, 41 kB)

Pacific

The Pacific climate change programme, which kicked off in late 2005, has been funded with assistance from the Canada Fund, Japanese Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (The Federation) and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. The project began with a capacity building component: increasing knowledge and interpretation of climate change science within National Societies. Rather than presenting climate change as a stand alone scientific issue, it was discussed in the context of regular regional Red Cross meetings, relating to topics such as health and disaster management. By discussing climate change from a Red Cross perspective, the mystery could be taken out of scientific language that can sometimes be daunting. Read more:

• Tuvalu: Joining forces to tackle climate change (pdf, 1 MB)
• Pacific Red Cross Societies: Preparing for a changing climate (pdf, 270 kB)
• Tuvalu and Samoa programme and Climate Centre support (pdf, 23 kB)

Netherlands climate change programme

A national heat plan for the Netherlands, a country with grey skies and lots of rain? Yes, indeed. Climate change has its warming effects also here. The summer of 2006, the country experienced two heatwaves (in some regions even three) with the longest lasting sixteen consecutive days. July was the hottest month ever recorded in Holland's meteorological history, going back to 1706. Read more:

• National Heat Plan activated in 2010
• Climate change in the Netherlands, awareness and heatwave projects (pdf, 95 kB)

Communication materials

We have made a selection of  materials produced by different National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. On our Communication page you can upload several materials like posters and brochures that can be used for communication purposes.

Information on programmes supported by the Climate Centre

Nicaragua pilot programme

One of the first international pilot projects of the Climate Centre, in cooperation with the Netherlands Red Cross, was the ‘climate change and disaster preparedness’ programme on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragu. Read more (pdf, 21 kB).
Also: Summary final narrative report Nicaragua_March 2005 (pdf, 17 kB).

Disaster preparedness/climate change programme Viet Nam

In Viet Nam the Netherlands Red Cross completed the first stage of the ‘climate change and disaster preparedness’ programme by the end of 2005. Read more (pdf, 18 kB).
Also: Finalizing Viet Nam´s ´Preparedness for disasters to climate change´ programme 2006 (pdf, 186 kB).

Netherlands Education Campaign for local branches and Climate Beach Campaign

In 2004-2005 the Climate Centre, in cooperation with the Netherlands Red Cross and supported by the Netherlands National Committee for Sustainable Development, implemented the programme: ‘The humanitarian consequences of a few degrees more’. Aim of this programme was to inform the 339 branches of the Netherlands Red Cross about the negative impacts of climate change. Read more (pdf, 29 kB).

Co-organizing the preparations for the ‘HIER’ climate campaign of 45 NGOs in the Netherlands

This was a very exciting and successful project of the Climate Centre in 2005. Not the least because it is in itself unique that 45 NGOs are interested to work together on a new theme: climate change. Read more (pdf, 21 kB).