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From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

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FROM POVERTY TO POWERfrom this have also undermined the solidarity that previously helped<strong>to</strong> ensure the communal maintenance of dykes, thus exposing coastalvillages <strong>to</strong> climate-related rises in sea levels. 110 In the absence of publiclyplanned adaptation based on broad consultation, private responseswill occur instead and these may well exacerbate the wider community’svulnerability <strong>to</strong> climate change.Appropriate technologies – new and old – will also be needed forpoor farmers <strong>to</strong> adapt <strong>to</strong> climate change, and will require significantnational and international agricultural research in<strong>to</strong> drought- orflood-<strong>to</strong>lerant varieties of seeds. Social organisation and local landpolicy will also be essential if poor farmers are <strong>to</strong> succeed in using newseeds. In Mozambique, where climate change is expected <strong>to</strong> bring bothdrought and floods, groups of villagers have experimented withdrought-resistant varieties of rice, maize, cassava, and sweet pota<strong>to</strong>.By working in groups, combining poor and better-off households andinvolving both female and male farmers, the villagers were able <strong>to</strong>share the risks of new practices and learn for themselves through trial,error, and experimentation. These informal associations have started,with some success, <strong>to</strong> lobby local authorities responsible for landallocation so that farmers obtain parcels of land in several differentlocations. This diversification of seeds and soil strengthens theirresilience <strong>to</strong> either more drought or more floods.Climate change is the biggest threat <strong>to</strong> long-term poverty reduction– and yet reducing poverty is essential in equipping poor people <strong>to</strong>deal with unavoidable climate impacts. As the evidence of climatechange accumulates, the necessity for urgent action <strong>to</strong> tackle itbecomes undeniable. Climate change is not a linear or reversibleprocess, but it appears <strong>to</strong> have a number of unpredictable ‘tippingpoints’ that, once passed, could have catastrophic and irreversibleconsequences. It is in no country’s long-term interest <strong>to</strong> wait untilmillions of people are tipped over the edge in<strong>to</strong> climate disaster.As the Stern Report confirmed in 2006, 111 mitigation – rapid cutsin emissions <strong>to</strong> avoid catastrophic climate change – is essential andurgent. However, time is not on the side of the ‘indecision-makers’who for years have stalled and delayed international agreement <strong>to</strong> act.Unless global emissions begin <strong>to</strong> decline by 2015, there is little chanceof avoiding catastrophic climate change beyond 2 o C – with devastating266

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