Addressing urban poor difficulties alongside climate change challenges was the main concern at one of the key sideline events at the recent Conference of the Parties for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Warsaw.
Called the “Momentum for Change: Urban Poor” initiative, it focused on ground-breaking projects conducted by a number of organisations around the world that seeks to help this poverty-stricken sector reduce their risks from climate change impact.
Momentum for Change, organised by the UNFCCC, also conducted different fora for climate change action benefitting women, increasing financing for climate-friendly investments and tapping information and communications technology (ICT) to boost mitigation and adaptation efforts.
In this video, some founders and members of the 24 projects under the urban poor initiative spoke about their respective work, highlighting how the climate change vulnerability of the poor must be alleviated, especially given that they have less resources to cope and are typically living in vulnerable areas.
Dr Vanesa Castán Broto, principal investigator of Public Private People Partnerships for Climate Compatible Development (4PCCD), a programme that assists neighbourhoods in Mozambique to develop climate change action plans, explained that the poor have ideas about their cities and the way it should be based from their experiences. She said many of them have lived through disasters and know first-hand what climate change means.
