Strategies for climate actions, and putting them into practice – Introduction
Any effective response to climate change and its impacts must take a multi-stakeholder approach. The government, financial institutions, technical experts, civil society organisations and community all have to be involved. Some governments are already taking action in line with the nationally determined contributions and acknowledging the needs of their specific communities, especially the most vulnerable community members. Communities have also taken adaptive actions to prepare for natural disasters and the effects of the changing climate. As we saw in the earlier units, the pace of climate change and the extent of its impacts mean we need to respond very quickly by taking a sustainability pathway and making choices that strengthen long-term resilience. A behaviour change from the “business as usual” scenario to a search for sustainable solutions is a critical component of a successful climate change mitigation strategy. That means that communities need to have the required awareness, knowledge, capacity and skill to make the shift to climate-smart choices.
Outcomes
On completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- recognise other communities’ proactive measures and link them to your own context by exploring the following topics:
- Climate actions: A multi-stakeholder approach
- Engaging communities in climate action, campaigns and policy advocacy at the local level
Terminology
Multi-stakeholder: Describes a process in which diverse actors (e.g., government agencies, NGOs, private actors, donors, etc.) collaborate to achieve a common goal.
Multilateral: Involving more than two groups of people, countries, etc.
No-till agriculture: Also known as zero tillage, this is an agricultural technique of growing crops or pasture without disturbing the soil through tillage.
Crop diversification and intercropping: Growing more than a single variety of crop in one farm or in a diversified way to provide income security in the event of crop failure.
Agroforestry: Practice of growing trees and shrubs alongside crops to support biodiversity and soil fertility.
Integrated pest management: Controlling pests, weeds and diseases by combining biological, cultural and chemical approaches and reducing dependence on synthetic pesticides.
Nature-based solutions: Actions to protect, sustainably manage and protect ecosystems that address societal challenges such as climate change, human health, food and water security, and disaster risk-reduction effectively and adaptively and simultaneously benefit human well-being and biodiversity.
Micro-grids: A localised, self-contained — that is, it can work independently of the main power grid — energy system designed to serve a specific location such as a cluster of villages, university campus or hospital.