CARE about Climate Change

Global warming is a leading issue of concern worldwide, especially to CARE, as an international organisation working in many countries already seeing the devastating effects of climate change. What role does CARE take amid the world’s current climate chaos, and how does our CARE Challenge Team fit in?

Climate Change and Poverty

At CARE, we recognise that climate change poses an enormous threat to humanity, with millions of the people we serve overseas already experiencing the effects on their everyday lives. While our lifestyles in the West contribute further to the problem, it is the poorest people who are hardest hit by the effects, though they have contributed the least to its causes. More people are suffering from hunger than ever, with a decline in the productivity of natural resource based livelihoods. More people live without access to adequate water, and health threats associated with abject poverty are increasing. Perhaps most alarmingly, the world is already seeing an increase in the frequency, scale and intensity of conflicts over natural resources- especially water.

CARE’s Challenge

CARE’s work in over 60 countries encompasses a well-informed response to climate change, including projects helping the most vulnerable communities adapt to its unavoidable impacts. This includes strategies to reduce disaster risks, promote more resilient livelihoods and tackle the underlying causes of vulnerability. We run multiple-benefits projects that simultaneously reduce greenhouse gases, reduce poverty and conserve critical ecosystems- from agro-forestry in East Timor, Guatemala and Indonesia, to sustainable land-use change projects in Africa, Asia and South America. We help make Carbon Markets work equitably for poor people, including a pioneering project to promote the use of fuel-efficient cook stoves in Africa.

CARE Challenge Series

In the CARE Challenge Team, we are as passionate about all of CARE’s projects as we are about our Challenge Series. Like everyone who takes part in our events, knowing that our hard work is helping to fund important projects overseas is very important to us, and the issue of climate change and the environment is at the forefront of our minds when planning and running events. We specialise in UK-based events, and do our best to minimise our impact on the environment, both locally and globally. We have a strict code of conduct, developed alongside the Institute of Fundraising, which includes limiting participant numbers and using less popular routes on some of our events to reduce the effects of erosion in sensitive areas. We donate two per cent of profits to maintain footpaths in the areas where we hold our events and we even run litter-picking contests so we leave the footpaths cleaner than when we arrive! We also try to avoid disturbance in local villages by considering times of arrivals and choosing considerate places to park and hold briefings, therefore limiting noise pollution. We cap participant numbers and limit teams to one vehicle each to minimise carbon emissions. Finally, we offset carbon emissions with partner organisation www.climatecare.org, and we strongly encourage all participating teams to do the same.

Teams can be sure that taking part in a CARE Challenge will not only have a conscientiously minimal impact on the environment, but will also be raising much-needed funds to help CARE’s projects overseas- many of which have been set up to make the world’s poorest people less vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and to give them more sustainable and environmentally friendly life choices.