Barbara Stocking, CEO of Oxfam Times Online 31 Jan 09;
I’ve been at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week and there has been much talk of leadership and what we need to do to get out of this economic crisis. Oxfam’s solution, at first glance, may seem kind of counter-intuitive. Because, at a time when many people are worrying about whether they will be able to pay next month’s rent and governments are focused on bailing out the banks, Oxfam is advocating massive investment in strategies to combat climate change and calling for billions of dollars of financing to help poor countries adapt to the impacts already being felt. We’re doing this because we know that if we don’t spend this money now, we will be facing a much bleaker future of climatic chaos and increased inequality and suffering.
You may wonder what an organisation like Oxfam that works on aid and development is doing talking about climate change, traditionally the preserve of green groups. The answer is twofold: people and poverty. Climate change is hitting poor people hardest and blocking their efforts to get out of poverty.
It is the massive disasters that grab headlines –floods, hurricanes, droughts - and these have been more frequent or more intense over last 20 years, almost certainly as a result of climate change. But it’s also the every day effects that concern me – because they are more insidious and make life even more difficult for people who already struggling to get by.
I’m talking about things like not knowing when to plant or harvest your crops as a result of rainfall patterns changing and making agriculture less predictable; having to walk further each year to collect water; or finding fewer and fewer fish to catch in usually abundant waters. Women are particularly hard hit – they bear the burden of care, are usually the ones to fetch water, and it is the girls that get taken out of school to help. In extreme cases, women are selling their bodies to supplement dwindling incomes.
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It’s sometimes hard, in relatively well-off Britain, to realise the relevance of the debate on climate change. Decisions such as whether to build a third runway at Heathrow or a new coal power station at Kingsnorth are presented to us as pragmatic choices between the concrete virtues of economic growth and energy security versus the nebulous and still debated phenomenon of climate change. But it is wrong to think that our actions will not have wide-reaching negative effects. Textbooks teach us that economic growth is not a zero sum game, but if the growth is at the expense of the planet we all live on, then one day, in the not too far distant future, we will all have to start paying the price.
I have been a guest at Davos this week, talking to people about the issues Oxfam works on, and have been struck again by how out of touch many of the participants are with the real world. There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth, even some statements approaching remorse or apology, but it is still a world where GDP is King (not Queen, I note, still aware of how few women there are here).
I am worried about poor countries and how they will be hit by the downturn. They’re already seeing a fall in remittances and investment, and there’s a danger that as in previous recessions, rich countries will use straightened circumstances at home as an excuse to cut back on development aid. This must not happen. On the contrary, we must redouble our efforts to counter inequality and lack of opportunity, and this means keeping aid up as well as investing more in green technology to tackle climate change.
I worry, but I also hope: that this crisis will be an opportunity, for us to embrace a new model of growth, which is more equitable and more inclusive, and which places a realistic value on the environment and the future we all need to share. There have been some glimmers of enlightenment among the elite on the snow-covered streets of Davos this week, and I know that elsewhere too people are waking up to the potential for us to take a new road out of this mess. This year will be critical for climate change – with the big UN meeting in December to agree a new global deal. At Oxfam we will be doing all we can to ensure that our leaders reach a fair and effective deal as part of their efforts to escape the current economic crisis.
