Climate crisis and human rights: Time for joint action for future

Kevin John Pulley*

Today, the climate crisis is one of the greatest threats to our planet and all living things, including human existence. Disasters caused by climate change all over the world directly affect basic rights such as the right to life, health, food, water, hygiene and a decent standard of living. In a country like Turkey, which is highly prone to natural disasters, this reality is becoming more familiar every day.

In recent years, disasters such as floods, forest fires, heat waves and droughts have seriously threatened agriculture, food production, housing and health. All these events underscore that the climate crisis is not only an environmental issue, but also a profound human rights issue.

Turkey's Steps to Tackle the Climate Crisis

By ratifying the Paris Climate Agreement in 2021, Turkey started to take a more decisive stance in the fight against the climate crisis. In this process, the Directorate of Climate Change was established; the 2024-2030 Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Strategy and Action plans were prepared; and Turkey’s Nationally Determined Contribution to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was updated. Turkey set a new roadmap to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 41% by 2030.

The first Climate Council, organized in 2022, brought together nearly 1,000 representatives from public institutions, universities, the private sector and civil society; however, there was no explicit emphasis on the direct participation of humanitarian actors responding to disasters (e.g. AFAD and TRC). It is vital that humanitarian organizations, which are on the front line of responding to the disasters caused by the climate crisis, take part in these discussions.

Localization Perspective in Disaster Risk Management and Climate Policy

Our experience shows that climate policies developed to address the climate crisis and disaster risk management efforts cannot be considered in isolation. Traditionally, humanitarian organizations have been seen as institutions that provide basic needs such as shelter, food, and water in the context of emergency response to climate-related disasters, i.e. as a "last resort" for those affected by the disaster. Although, these interventions within the scope of emergency operations are usually limited to short-term solutions, these organizations have valuable experience and knowledge that can contribute to disaster preparedness. Even so, we still see that the rate of humanitarian organizations in Turkey being involved in projects focused on climate change adaptation and disaster risk management is low. Thus, we need to increase the involvement of humanitarian organizations and bring civil society, public and private sectors together in the fight against the climate crisis with a collective mind.

At this point, I would like to share an experience from our field operations in response to natural disasters that we, as Support to Life, have clearly seen as a big impact on communities and strategic inspiration for our future interventions. Since 2005, Support to Life has been carrying out emergency relief by responding to floods, forest fires and earthquakes. The main principle of our post-disaster recovery and preparedness activities is to support the empowerment of local communities and lay the foundation for a disaster-resilient society. With this goal in mind, we launched the 'Locally-Led Empowerment' program in 2022, where we provide microgrants to support disaster resilience projects developed by local communities in the Kastamonu flood zone and the Marmaris and Manavgat forest fire zones. This first application of the community-led crisis response approach in Turkey has become an important model for efforts to address the climate crisis. The program was also implemented in disaster areas following the February 6 earthquakes in 2023, with more than 300 local projects funded and successful results achieved.

Today, Support to Life continues its advocacy and coordination efforts with its localization strategy in disaster risk management, emphasizing the importance of building a disaster resilient society. The localization perspective, which is increasingly being adopted in the global humanitarian aid system, is an effective method to ensure that local communities are more prepared in combating the climate crisis and more experienced in disaster risk management. Our experience shows that when disaster strikes, the first responders are the local people themselves. Localization in disaster preparedness not only strengthens the response and resilience capacities of these local communities but also improves their practices of acting in solidarity. In the fight against the climate crisis, these local communities, with their high awareness of the environment in which they live and their experience acting in solidarity with one another, will undoubtedly be the most effective actors.

Common Roadmap for Common Solutions

I have already mentioned the need for a multi-stakeholder approach to tackling the climate crisis. It is important to ensure this cooperation through partnerships between actors working with different focuses within civil society. There is an urgent need for humanitarian and development actors to work together and combine their knowledge and expertise. Development actors can benefit from humanitarian organizations' experience in rapid project implementation and in working with civil society, while humanitarian actors can benefit from the long-term nature of development projects and their experience in working with the private sector.

In addition, humanitarian actors working directly with local communities can provide accurate and frequent data for academic research on disaster risk management, helping to make university studies more reliable and predictive. This data can enable universities, in collaboration with the private sector, to be more productive on innovating new climate technologies and practices that humanitarian actors can implement. Furthermore, humanitarian actors can play an effective advocacy role in awareness campaigns and fundraising efforts, while development actors can provide effective support in complex grant writing and project management processes. Such collaborations can lead to more sustainable and effective projects to address the climate crisis.

Time to Protect the Future

As a problem that threatens all of humanity, the climate crisis requires a multifaceted approach that brings together private and public sectors, humanitarian and development actors. Turkey has taken an important step by abandoning the 'business as usual' approach to climate change. Now it is time to ensure that humanitarian and development actors also stop doing business as usual and start working together. In this way, it will be possible to develop joint projects to protect both our planet at the macro level and our local communities in Turkey at the micro level; and to ensure that human rights are not overshadowed by the climate crisis of today and tomorrow.

December 10th Human Rights Day is an opportunity not only to talk about rights violations, but also to remember and remind us of the urgent steps needed to take in order to protect human rights. Today is the time to take action in solidarity to mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis that threaten human rights, especially the most fundamental of all: the right to life. We believe that civil society organizations like Support to Life, which are willing to take responsibility in this area, should be the callers and implementers of this solidarity, and we say #SolidarityHeals against the climate crisis.

*Research and Policy Expert, Support to Life

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