As part of the inauguration week of the Global Year of Action of the “Together We” campaign, aimed at promoting integral ecology by simultaneously protecting people and our planet, Caritas Internationalis today launched its new publication Displaced by a Changing Climate: Caritas Voices Protecting and Supporting People on the Move. The publication explores the experiences of individuals displaced within and across borders due to climate change and is a result of collaboration between National Caritas Organisations from diverse regions.
Displaced by a Changing Climate: Caritas Voices Protecting and Supporting People on the Move focuses on the predicament of displaced people due to the impacts of climate change. Data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report indicate that over 20 million people have been internally displaced by weather events, which is over double the average number of people internally displaced due to conflict.
With the upcoming COP28 in Dubai (November 30 – December 12) and through this publication, Caritas aims to show the faces behind the experiences, and give a voice to those whose stories are not heard or acknowledged in international fora where global climate discussions are taking place.
At the press conference, Alfonso Apicella, Global Campaigns Manager at Caritas Internationalis, spoke of the integral link between this publication and the overall Caritas Together We campaign. “This intersection highlights for us the vital role of public participation and its huge potential for shortening the gap between campaigning, research and intervention that Caritas have been hearing for years from our global network and beyond,” he shared.
Through the letter-writing initiative at the heart of the Global Year of Action for the Together We campaign, people are invited to share their messages calling for concrete climate action on www.togetherwebelong.caritas.org.
During the press conference, Alistair Dutton, Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis, stressed that there is a “moral responsibility” to ensure that unscrupulous hyper-industrial activity carried out by companies in Western operations does not harm people in developing nations. “The reality is now that the climate is becoming so much more erratic, so much more extreme, so much harder, that people can no longer recover. They are being driven from their homes,” he said. “The people who are now facing real and present loss and damage from which they cannot recover have no means to find alternative ways of living.”
Cécile Stone, lead author of the report, presented Caritas’ paper containing several stories and testimonies of people suffering displacement as a result of planning, finance, legal and policy gaps. She said there is a dire need for policymakers to face reality and take action. “There is a void left by governments and, in many places, Caritas tries to fill this void but its efforts represent a drop in the ocean compared to the magnitude of the issue. People should not be left to shoulder alone the impacts of displacement. They need support,” she said.
Amidst the trials highlighted by those displaced due to the impacts of climate change, Cristina Dos Anjos da Conceição, Caritas Brazil National Advisor for Migration and Refugees, shared her reflections, “In this report you can also hear in the stories of people that there is hope. This publication is important to give visibility to this issue, to the lives of so many people who suffer from this reality of being displaced by climate change, and to provoke a dialogue with governments directly so that the human rights of these people can be protected.”