21 March 2011
A Maasai stands on cracked earth in front of a baobab tree close to the silted up Kioga river. Picture: Brent Stirton/Getty Images/WWF-UK
Introducing Climate Week...
Today, Monday 21 March 2011, marks the start of the UK’s first ever Climate Week. It is a new national occasion, backed by the Prime Minister, Al Gore and celebrities such as Paul McCartney, as well as a huge number of people and organisations from every part of society.
Climate Week provides an opportunity to raise awareness and highlight and inspire innovative ideas which will help protect our planet and the people who live on it.
Climate change is already affecting the world’s poorest countries – from increased frequency and severity of flooding in Bangladesh to changing rainfall patterns across Africa, bringing drought and crop failures to countries like Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan.
As well as being hit first, the poorest are also hit hardest because they are less equipped to cope with the effects of climate change.
With a 2 degree increase in temperature we could see:
- Increased weather variability, more frequent and intense extreme events, and greater exposure to coastal storm surges would lead to a much higher risk of catastrophic and irreversible impacts
- Between 100 million and 400 million more people could be at risk of hunger
- 1-2 billion more people facing water shortages
- a permanent loss of 4-5% GDP in Africa and South Asia
That’s why international support is needed to help communities adapt to the impacts of climate change and to help countries develop infrastructure that supports growth and withstands future climate instability.
The award-winning scuba rice
Climate Week was launched with its inaugural awards which celebrate the UK’s most innovative, effective, and ambitious organisations, communities and individuals and their efforts to combat climate change.
The Department for International Development funded project Scuba Rice won the award for 'Best Initiative by a Governmental or Statutory Body'.
Scuba rice is flood resistant - it can breathe underwater for up to two weeks and recovers once the waters subside. It responds to complete submersion by effectively becoming dormant, saving energy until the floodwater recedes when it can continue growing again. In this way it escapes drowning.
It was developed by the International Research Rice Institute (IRRI), which receives core funding from DFID.
Scuba rice is targeted at South Asia and minikits containing five kilogram packets of seeds are currently being distributed to farmers across India.
Within one year of release, the flood resistant rice has reached more than 100,000 Indian farmers and it's hoped it will be fully adopted within five years.
What DFID is doing on climate change
Climate change is already taking its toll on the world's poorest people. We are committed to helping poor people fight and deal with climate change.
We will:
- Help millions of poor people protect their lives and livelihoods from the
impacts of climate change
- Support poor countries to develop in ways that avoid or reduce harmful
emissions of greenhouse gases
- Help millions of poor people secure clean energy
- Give more protection to the world’s forests and the 1.2 billion people
who depend on them
DFID funded research
DFID has a significant and growing portfolio of research on how climate change is likely to affect poor people and what can be done about it. Our research covers everything from climate science and impact modelling, to adaptation and mitigation. It is generating practical tools and technologies that can be applied in the field and which make a real difference to people's lives. For example:
- Our partnership with the UK Met Office's Hadley Centre is working on the production of improved short and long-range weather and climate projections for use in flood and drought early warning and adaptation planning.
- Our agricultural research portfolio is supporting innovations in agricuture to tackle climate change stresses on the major food crops, such as scuba rice and water efficient maize.
- Our partnership with the World Bank is providing climate change negotiators with estimates of the global and national costs of adaptation to inform their dicussions on international finance.
- Our Climate and Development Knowledge Network is providing advice on climate compatible development to developing countries.
Investments in research represent good value for money. The returns to investments in agricultural research through the CGIAR for example, are high - for every £1 invested, at least an additional £9 worth of benefits accrue in developing countries.
See what impact our work is having on people's lives: