Climate solutions from the south

Communities in the global south are losing everything to the climate crisis, yet their voices are rarely heard at decision-making tables. Here are their stories, experiences and insights - the farmers, fishers and community leaders at the frontline of the worst impacts.

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Innocent people living on the frontlines of the climate crisis are sparing no effort in the battle for survival - but there’s only so much adapting you can do with so few resources.

Join BRAC’s Executive Director Asif Saleh as he returns to Bangladesh’s coast ahead of COP28 to meet the people who have contributed the least but are paying the most.

We’re all impacted by the climate crisis, but we have very different levels of vulnerability. Being able to adapt is crucial, and urgently needs to be funded better. For the impacts that are already too severe to adapt to, we also need funding for loss and damage. Both adaptation and loss and damage initiatives need to be locally-led, and funding needs to get to the ground. We need to use that funding to invest in scaling up proven solutions, and we need to rethink risk - and return.

The biggest risk is business as usual.

We know how to adapt, but the funding doesn’t. Developing countries are receiving 3% of the money they need to adapt to the climate crisis. 3 stories for 3mm of sea level rise tells the stories of the people who are paying for the other 97%.

A new home, that never really feels like home

Tackling the climate crisis – with a flower: A farmer’s diary

Women in coastal Bangladesh are losing their uteruses to the climate crisis

On tides of climate change, adaptability buoys hope

Christian Science Monitor, November 2023

Global heating could displace 216 million people by 2050, and low-lying Bangladesh and its children are among the world’s most vulnerable. Children in Bangladesh are growing up amidst this crisis, with no option but to continually adapt to it. They also have many solutions, though - this piece follows their stories.

Bangladesh is an example that climate adaptation can work, but it needs to be better financed and better implemented. Three principles are crucial - that adaptation is a nexus of development-humanitarian-climate programming, that special attention is given to the most vulnerable communities and that adaptation is locally-led.