Early action and the climate crisis: could social protection be a game changer?

A changing risk landscape, exacerbated by climate change and COVID-19, is setting us behind on poverty targets, and narrowing the window of opportunity for action. Crises are increasingly multidimensional, severe and frequent, with many countries experiencing multiple overlapping crises, both recurrent and protracted, with climate change deepening and driving new and unexpected risks.

Current disaster response, adaptation, and mitigation measures to address climate vulnerability and risk are insufficient and the existing international humanitarian institutional architecture is already overstretched. There is a strong imperative for decisive collaborative action and good reasons for social protection to play a larger role.

Increased attention to how an integrated approach to early action and social protection can present a game-changer in how we address the risks faced by climate vulnerable populations, supporting REAP’s goal to make 1 billion people safer from disaster by 2025.