2.2. What is at stake?

“For millions of the world’s poorest people, climate change is not a future scenario, it is already undermining their efforts to escape poverty and reinforcing their vulnerability.” – UNDP Human Development Report 2007/2008

As we know, climate change is caused by a rise in greenhouse gases⁸ that has led to increased concentration of these gases in the atmosphere, which in turn has led to the greenhouse effect depicted in Figure 1.

Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group I Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis Geneva: IPCC, 2007

The change in global temperatures has resulted in changing weather patterns with some devastating results predicted.
This phenomenon has specific relevance in the poverty alleviation context as it multiplies and amplifies current development challenges. Climate change also reinforces existing vulnerability patterns as the exposure to risk becomes more frequent, intensive and unpredictable. Furthermore, climate change is clearly a threat to humanity as a whole, but it is the future generations and mostly the poor and marginalised – those constituencies with the least responsibility for the ecological debt industrialised nations are running up – who will face the most immediate and severe consequences.

Expected effects of climate change
400 million more malaria cases globally
600 million more cases of malnutrition
332 million internally displaced people due to rising sea levels
1.8 billion more to face water stress
Source: UNDP Human Development Report 2007/2008

Climate change is therefore not solely an environmental issue: it is also a social justice or “climate justice” issue, as those least responsible are the most affected, the least informed about the impact on their livelihoods, and are systematically excluded from high-level decision-making discourses and processes.

Given this context, it is argued that ICTs can fundamentally empower people through access to critical knowledge, awareness raising and knowledge sharing, even within the most remote communities. ICTs can carry the voice of the poor and marginalised to the level of decision makers in order to demand action from their leaders to produce lasting and large-scale change in policies.

Key developmental facts about climate change
* The poor and marginalised are least informed about the potential impact of climate change on their livelihoods, therefore scientific jargon and high-level concepts about climate change need to be demystified to make them comprehensible and applicable to the layperson.
* Climate change fundamentally changes vulnerability patterns for the poor and marginalised
* The poor and marginalised are the most vulnerable with the least resources to adapt to climate change, calling for basic awareness raising, capacity development and knowledge sharing among communities
* Coping solutions and adaptation strategies need to be localised and decentralised with grassroots interventions to be initiated.
* The voices of those most affected by climate change are not sufficiently included in the policy debate with the subsequent search for solutions and informed decision making.
* Vulnerability and risk can be substantially reduced by enabling access to and the sharing of information and knowledge.

⁸ Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N20) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

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