How your donations help combat climate change

Climate change is not only an environmental issue, but a real humanitarian problem that threatens the safety, health and livelihoods of billions of people living in poverty around the world.

Increasing emissions of greenhouse gases are inducing extreme and abnormal weather conditions. Poor people mostly rely on agriculture and fishing for living, and thus hugely dependent on predictable weather patterns. Oxfam frontline staff witnessed that increasing numbers of climate disasters such as abnormal rainfall, sea level rise, floods and drought had hit poor people first and hardest. Yet, poor people have little resources, techniques and information to avoid or to cope with the external shocks. Climate crisis is pushing more people into the vicious cycle of poverty and increasing their vulnerability to risks.

Oxfam Hong Kong launched ‘Stop Poverty! Stop Climate Change! Campaign’ in October 2008, striving to stop climate change from deepening poverty and undermining the effort of poverty reduction works. We address the problem through emergency relief, poverty reduction and development programmes, policy advocacy, campaigning and public education.

Better environment from Solar Stoves

Zhongzhuang Village is a remote and arid place in Xiangquan town, Anding Prefecture, situated in South West of Lanzhou City, Gansu Province. Life is difficult for the poor rural communities as weather conditions unfavorable for farming prevail throughout the year, in addition to insufficient transportation and ecological environment degradation. The problem is further worsened by the increasingly frequent strike of natural disasters such as flood, mudslide, hail and frost – a trend said to be induced by climate change.

Oxfam Hong Kong is working with villagers on a series of eco-friendly poverty reduction programmes that help the communities adapt to the impact of the extreme weather patterns and climate change - installing solar stoves to replace firewood, and using livestock’s waste to produce biogas. These technologies allow villagers to save money and time they used to spend on collecting firewood and buying charcoal. More importantly, they are contributing to a better ecological environment.   

Oxfam also supported the community to build flood-resisting infrastructures like dikes, construct new roads and plant trees in the barren hills so as to  prevent water and soil erosion.

Plastic bottles – save lives, save the environment

In the Bihar state of India, rainfall pattern has become increasingly abnormal and unpredictable, causing severe and wide-spread floods year after year. That means loss of lives, homes and crops to the rural communities living in the Himalayan region. Climate change is to blame.

In order to help affected communities reduce vulnerability to floods, Oxfam Hong Kong has been incorporating disaster risk reduction measures into livelihood projects in 35 villages at-risk in Bihar. Today, more than 29,000 people have learned skills to prepare for floods, and to prevent avoidable damage.

Many of them learned how to make life jackets with used plastic bottles from trainings organised by Oxfam. These low-cost life jackets, which also help reduce solid waste, are extremely handy in floods – more than 50 lives were saved only in 2007.

Oxfam Trailwalker is Green!

‧     Water dispensers available at most checkpoints and water points (instead of bottled water)

‧     Participants advised to bring their own utensils for food and drinks

‧     Bulk purchases on most supplies

‧     Biodegradable plastic bags used

‧     Communication and donations online via website, email etc. to save paper

‧     SMS communication

‧     “Name and Shame” penalty for teams which littered

‧     Volunteers to pick up litters after completion of event

‧     Energy saving bulbs are used for all temporary electricity installation

‧     Shuttle bus service provided to reduce use of private cars