Caritas calls for rethink on climate aid

Transcript

The Catholic aid agency Caritas has called for governments to rethink climate aid  because of severe food and water shortages across the Pacific island region over the past year.

It's reported a marked drop in access to nutritious food and safe drinking water in its latest report on the state of the region's environment.

The region saw an extended dry period from El Nino weather conditions and devastating events like Cyclone Winston.

Director of Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, Julianne Hickey, told Sally Round malnutrition and longer term impacts have become evident, education is being affected and food and water shortages are causing hardship, illness and even death.

JULIANNE HICKEY: We have used an indicator and it is our assessment of looking at what has been happening to communities and to people with regards to things like coastal erosion, the impact of severe weather events and what it means for things like their food and water supplies. We heard of hunger, we heard of people who died as a result of that, of the hunger and the droughts and so our assessment particularly around food and water has increased to severe.

SALLY ROUND: So can you just give us some examples of what Caritas field workers have witnessed? Can you just give us a picture of how severe things are getting.

JH: In Papua New Guinea as a result of the El Nino,  we saw thousands of people who had to travel for days to get food and water and we needed to respond with both the emergency response but also look at the long term resilience of those communities. Because we know these forms of drought are likely to happen with increasing regularity. Just last week I was in Kiribati and there are deep concerns about the current drought and the fact that a lot of the village water supplies are running dry and that because of the coastal erosion those wells are also becoming increasingly brackish. The water tanks are empty and having access to safe and clean water is something that affected a number of communities in the Pacific and which often leads to children being hospitalised with water borne diseases.

SR: Another example you gave in the report was in Fiji after Cyclone Winston, communities having to pound their cassava crops with paracetamol just to soften them up.

JH: Absolutely. I saw the Namosi community had ... basically their food supplies were empty, six weeks after Cyclone Winston, so the only root crops they could get they would try and soften it so the children could eat it, with paracetamol. That was a particularly shocking example for us.

SR: Also documented were threats from, not natural causes or climate induced causes, but human activities like mining. What did you find there?

JH: We heard of increasing concern across the Pacific about deep sea mining. The Bishop of Kiribati told me last week that he's deeply concerned about what it might do to the reef because the people in Kiribati need the reef for the health of all the fish around. I mean that's their main staple, it's their sustenance and he's concerned that the rush towards deep sea mining is going to impact the food supplies for the people across Kiribati. We also saw in Fiji how the potential mining in some communities is going to affect both the water supplies and potentially the food as well and certainly  communities are trying to stop some of the onland mining as well because of the impact on their environment.

SR: One of the main thrusts of the report is that Australia and New Zealand need to allocate more funds for climate aid and prioritise spending for this. Caritas has done some analysis of their climate aid funding. What did you find?

JH: We find that when it comes to mitigation, putting things in place like solar power and some of the essential infrastructure, there are some great projects there. There are some large scale development work on essential infrastructure that is to be commended. However we found that (inaudible) finance, that which enables small scale community-led development projects to happen, is inadequate. There are a number of funds that have been set up by the UN or coming out of Paris, things like the Green Climate Fund, but they're large, they're unwieldy, they're bureaucratic which may get things done at a country level but what we're seeing is that there are far too many communities who are needing to either move now or to adapt urgently their way of life and their lifestyles and no climate finance is reaching them so we call for governments to urgently assess how they can ensure that funding can get to those communities.

SR: You're saying that a disproportionate amount of New Zealand spending for instance is going on maintaining infrastructure and economic development which isn't sustainable. You've also criticised Australia, promising a billion dollars over the next five years for climate aid but that's not extra aid. You've been quite critical there.

JH: We have. We think that it is a disproportionate amount and we've also struggled to find the funding, the new climate funding that has been promised and we're going to continue to try and seek clarity on those bits of infrastructure that actually do make an impact for people rather than just building runways or jetties. How will that impact the communities and how will it enable them to adapt to those changes.

SR: How do you think the aid budgets should be spent now and what proportion of them should go towards climate aid funding?

JH: I think there should be a total rethink of how funding goes to climate finance. We really need to understand the needs  and start with the needs of those most impacted and ensure that regional governments , other countries and the local governments and the local structures are all part of  that solution so that finance  can actually reach those people who need it most.