Climate change threatens the future of humanity on our planet. In our project countries in the Global South, young people are directly affected by the impacts of climate change.
Examples include youth in Mozambique who have lost their homes and loved ones due to violent cyclones in 2019, or youth smallholder farmers in Brazil's northeast whose crops are at risk due to the lack of rain and severe drought. Also affected are the young refugees in the Sahrawi refugee camps, where temperatures soar to 50 degrees during the day. They have all contributed nothing to climate change themselves, but now have to live with the consequences.
A new environmental roadmap
Today, there is an awareness that emissions harmful to the climate must be reduced urgently and immediately at all levels. In order to be able to halve its own CO2 emissions, terre des hommes schweiz in Basel, together with its sister organization Terre des Hommes Suisse in Geneva, with the advice of the Climate Action Accelerator organization, has surveyed its own emissions for 2019 at the Swiss location as well as in the country offices and analyzed the data. The good news is that we are already an organization with relatively low CO2 emissions. We do not transport goods from A to B and work with local partner organizations. We have selected our investment portfolio and our pension fund according to ethical and ecological criteria. Most of our employees* come to work by bicycle or public transport. terre des hommes switzerland supports this environmentally conscious behavior by financing the half-fare card. We have been trying for a long time to fly little and of course only economy class and within Europe if possible not at all. On site, we work with local experts instead of flying in photographers, for example. On the basis of the data collected, we have, after internal discussion, developed the Climate Roadmap in which we set out exactly how we can halve our CO2 emissions. In addition, concrete principles are now being drawn up in various areas, such as new travel regulations. This means that before every trip we check whether it is urgently necessary. Another example is new rules on procurement.
Climate justice in focus
Our plan to reduce CO2 emissions goes hand in hand with our efforts to decentralize, which we are already implementing. In the course of decolonization, Tayson Mundaraki from Zimbabwe is now part of the Basel team - thanks to teleworking. At the same time, he is physically closer to the partner organizations. In the area of teleworking, we have also learned from the times of the Corona pandemic, when we introduced more home offices. Many of the employees who commuted daily before the pandemic now only have to come to Basel twice a week. Many conferences are now accessible online. In addition, in June 2022 we moved from our former office, which was in a poorly insulated building, to Basel's kHaus am Rhein, where we are using the new concept of co-working space, opening up many new perspectives on a resource-saving way of working. The topic of climate justice is at the top of our agenda. That is why we are also involved in various networks for climate justice, such as the Climate Alliance, the Climate Protection Switzerland Association and the Climate Justice Working Group of Alliance Sud. Because we know that major changes are necessary to guarantee the habitability of the planet for the future. On this path, national legislation is a very important milestone. Therefore, we actively support the call to vote on June 18 with a "Yes" for the climate protection law to vote.
Author: Annette Mokler, Development Policy and Program Coordination Western Sahara at terre des hommes switzerland
