29th January, 2021
https://actionaid.org/publications/2021/avoiding-climate-poverty-spiral-...
Full Report here:
In a world facing the escalating impacts of global warming, social protection measures have a crucial role to play in protecting women, communities and economies from from the catastrophic impact of the climate crisis, and avoiding the climate poverty spiral. Social protection tools can be used to address climate-induced loss and damage, strengthen resilience, and advance development goals and human rights.
KEY MESSAGES
In a world facing the escalating impacts of global warming, social protection has a crucial role to play in protecting women, communities and economies from catastrophic climate impacts, and avoiding the climate poverty spiral. Social protection tools can be used to address climate-induced loss and damage, strengthen resilience, and advance development goals and human rights.
• Social protection can be used to address a range of human rights infringements related to loss and damage scenarios including: reduced income and food insecurity from crop losses or reduced fish catch; loss or damage to homes and possessions; loss of livelihood options caused by sudden climate disasters and slow-onset changes; temporary displacement, distress migration or planned relocation as a result of climate impacts; as well as when women and families are left behind by migrating husbands or family members and have no reliable income.
• Social protection tools such as unconditional cash and food transfers, minimum crop price guarantees, job guarantees, cash or food for work, asset building, replacement school meals, housing support and support for retraining, reskilling and investments for new livelihood options, can all be used strategically to help families and communities cope with the loss and damage from the impacts of climate change.
• The Covid-19 pandemic and the rapid and widespread adoption of social protection tools such as food relief, cash transfers and furlough payments to help people survive while preventing further disaster have shown the necessity of social protection schemes to help individuals, especially women, households and national economies when crises strike. Key lessons must be learned from this response.
• Governments must systematise national social protection systems and plans that provide basic coverage, ensure universal access, are proactively gender-responsive, and are shock-responsive in that they are able to respond quickly to meet climate challenges, including slow-onset impacts. If done well, social protection measures can bring profound development and human rights benefits while also scaling-up to address climate impacts and strengthen resilience as needed.
• Addressing the multiple inequalities and disproportionate impacts faced by women, girls and marginalised communities must be central to addressing climate-induced loss and damage. Policies must make a specific effort to target women, otherwise they are likely to miss out on the support they need.
• Social protection deserves far greater attention under national and international climate discussions, although it is currently overlooked in favour of riskier approaches such as private insurance. The international community, particularly under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), its Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage (WIM) and Technical Expert Group on Climate Risk Management (TEG-CRM) must move forward an agenda to scale up climate-proofed social protection systems. Governments and the WIM must ensure that social protection measures to address loss and damage are adequately financed through approaches including international climate finance, debt relief and progressive taxation.
• Governments and the WIM must ensure that social protection measures to address loss and damage are adequately financed through approaches including international climate finance, debt relief and progressive taxation
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