Climate action

Communities around the world increasingly require support in adapting to climate change and coping with extreme weather events. Current actions are inadequate in view of the severe consequences of climate change.  

Finnish Red Cross responds to the increasing needs through climate-smart action and advocates for multistakeholder collaboration to find solutions. 

Vulnerable people receive humanitarian aid and support to strengthen their climate resilience through us.

How we help

As the world's largest humanitarian actor, the Red Cross wants to play a strong role in responding to the impacts of climate change and contributing to climate change mitigation.

The Red Cross' work on climate change focuses on risk reduction, mitigation and delivering humanitarian aid in disaster situations.

Through our disaster preparedness work, we strengthen the resilience of people and local communities to the problems posed by climate change and contribute to the development of early warning systems.

As part of our work, we continuously assess climate risks, their impacts and make use of long-term climate projections.

Strengthening local preparedness and developing anticipatory action

We support our local partners to be able to prepare for disasters and extreme weather events and act in advance of the impacts it may cause.

Local resources and the ability to take early action at a local level play a crucial role in reducing the impacts of disasters, saving lives and protecting property and livelihoods.

We strengthen the disaster preparedness of communities in various ways, including by organising preparedness drills and increasing cooperation between different actors.

Anticipatory action refers to actions taken before a crisis hits, based on forecasts or predictions, to prevent or reduce potential disaster impacts prior to a shock or before acute impacts are felt. It includes financing that is released on the basis of pre-identified triggers.

Read about Philippine RC experiences with early action and climate change.

Early warning early action

We participate in the development of early warning systems by ensuring their accessibility and that the forecasts and warnings issued lead to action at a local level.

Read more about the Kenya Red Cross Society’s experiences of the functionality of early warning systems in the face of worsening drought.  

We contribute to the UN’s ‘Early Warnings for All’ initiative. The objective of this initiative is to ensure that reliable weather forecasts and warnings are available to everyone by 2027.

We cooperate with the Finnish Meteorological Institute for example in Nepal, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania with the aim that weather forecasts and warnings lead to community-level action. Here you can read more about how early warning systems work. Read about the cooperation with the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

Analysing climate risks

We support our local partners in assessing climate risks and the needs of at-risk people. Local and indigenous knowledge play a key role in climate risk assessments and the planning of activities.

Close cooperation with the relevant authorities and institutions is likewise necessary.

We carry out climate risk assessments as part of our development cooperation projects. Special attention is put on the rights and agency of women, girls and persons with disabilities.