

The world’s poorest have contributed very little to climate change yet are often the most exposed to its devastating impacts. Hundreds of millions of children and their communities now face a changing world in which they are at greater risk from more violent storms, worsening droughts and floods and environmental degradation.
While the most obvious signs of the new normal are bushfires and super-cyclones, billions of people are facing more imperceptible changes brought about by climate change that are threatening their way of life and the ways they make a living. Decades of success in reducing poverty could be reversed without massive efforts to stop climate warming and to help people deal with the changes that are already upon us.
As the earth and rivers dry, as sea levels rise and glaciers shrink, and as agricultural land degrades in the face of expanding deserts, people and nations are being forced to make desperate choices. Should I migrate to the city or make a dangerous attempt to get to ‘the West’? Do I send my children out to work instead of to school in order to survive? Do I move my cattle onto new pasture land or take water from a neighbour’s well. New challenges, tensions, conflicts, disasters, all fueled by climate change. So new thinking, new programmatic responses and greater agility are needed to respond to our fast-changing world.
As stewards of creation we believe God has given humans a mandate to protect and care for the environment. The natural world and its carefully balanced systems reflect the divine nature of God and His love for the world. Caring for the earth is especially important because three quarters of the world’s poor live in rural areas and rely on agriculture, making them particularly susceptible to climate change.
But we are deeply concerned at what we are witnessing and hearing. As a global organisation present in 100 countries, we have unique access to grassroots communities the world over. They have been telling us for years that things are worsening, that the seasons are unreliable. So, we are working hard to respond by partnering with them to build their resilience, to become climate-change and disaster-ready, and to respond to crises when they happen.
Climate change could push more than 100 million additional people back into poverty by 2030.
Global warming is likely to rise 1.5C above pre-industrial levels between 2030 and 2052 if emissions continue to increase at the current rate. The existing rise of 1C has already led to more extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing arctic ice.
Empowering children
We help children learn about climate change, and partner with schools and government ministries to educate children and listen to children’s concerns, sharing them with the UN and governments and calling on them to bring about policy change.
Children like 16-year-old Cherry and 11-year-old Min in Myanmar are eager to help by planting trees and sharing their experiences from the consultation workshop with the other children and adults in their communities.
Worried that disaster will happen again, Cherry has a plan: “Our youth group will dig a canal, clean the rubbish and share knowledge.”