ICRC publishes 2025 special appeal for climate-related work
By the Climate Centre
The ICRC has published its special appeal for 2025 that aims to enhance the resilience of millions of people “affected by the compounding impacts of conflict and climate risks”.
“While climate change affects everyone, it disproportionately harms marginalized communities, especially those in conflict-affected areas where violence and weakened institutions severely limit the ability to cope,” the International Committee said in a statement last Thursday.
“Conflict also exacerbates environmental degradation, further eroding resilience and deepening cycles of instability.”
The ICRC operates in all but four of the 50 countries considered most vulnerable to climate change but least prepared to adapt.
Nearly half of the 122 million forcibly displaced people worldwide live in areas facing both conflict and severe climate hazards, in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and the Middle East, for example.
In response, the ICRC and its partners – including National Societies and the Climate Centre – deploy “a conflict-sensitive, climate-informed approach to deliver principled assistance to, and strengthen resilience for, hard-to-access populations … leveraging community networks to implement effective, locally adapted solutions.”
With a budget of 175 million Swiss francs, relevant activities include the promotion of international humanitarian law and dialogue with authorities and non-state armed groups, distributing lifesaving supplies, restoring water and health-care, ensuring critical infrastructure remains functional, and helping family members separated by climate-related disasters find each other.
‘It’s only by integrating climate and environmental risks into operations
that we can ensure humanitarian
response remains effective’
ICRC-supported work will also include: combining nature-based and technological safety nets to protect agriculture, sustain livestock, and preserve food security; supporting communities with financial assistance and skills, and climate-resilient livelihoods; supporting early warning, contingency planning, and access to climate information.
Quoted in the appeal text, ICRC Environment and Climate Change Adviser Bann Zahir says: “It is only by integrating climate and environmental risks into our operations and decision-making that we can ensure our humanitarian response remains effective, adaptive and sustainable – supporting recovery, strengthening people’s resilience, and preserving dignity amid evolving climate risks.”
The ICRC will institutionally advocate for “integrated responses, generating evidence from our operations, and partnering with key actors to ensure that inclusive climate action reaches conflict-affected communities,” according to the statement last week.
In 2025, the ICRC aims to support just over 30 million people with climate-smart water, energy and sanitation infrastructure, more than 2 million with climate-smart food production, and at least 250,000 with broad household resilience to climate and environmental risks.
In June the ICRC’s special appeal for strengthened food security said climate change “worsens the situation by damaging crops, displacing communities, and destabilizing food systems [while] global food markets remain volatile, with trade disruptions, currency depreciation, and rising import costs making food unaffordable for the most vulnerable.”
In Myanmar’s Shan state, ICRC personnel assist with the rehabilitation of a water pipeline that will support community farms. In its new climate-related appeal, the ICRC plans to help Myanmar’s farmers adopt climate-smart agriculture with knowledge on climate trends and sustainable farming, including eco-friendly fertilizer, seed bags, and salt-tolerant rice. (File photo: Htun Thein/ICRC)