Chad: Hadissa Djoko Moutta, was forced to flee her home due to the climate crisis. The 40 year old woman now lives in Koula-Mainarom, Chad. She can be seen fetching water in one of Oxfam's water installations. Photo: Adam Kraglaye/Oxfam

Climate change causes and impacts

What is climate change?

Climate change refers to any change in our climate over a period of time. When we talk about climate change, it is usually about the human-induced change in the climate that is threatening our future on this planet.

How are humans changing the climate?

Our planet has a natural greenhouse effect, which helps to sustain life. Since the industrial revolution, developed countries have been releasing enormous amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The increased amounts of greenhouse gas emissions are overwhelming our atmosphere, trapping the sun’s rays and heating the Earth at a rapid rate. It is sometimes referred to as the “greenhouse effect” and it is changing our natural climate at a much faster rate than we have ever seen.

The most important greenhouse gases that are driving climate change are carbon dioxide and methane. Carbon dioxide is released from mining and burning fossil fuels, like oil and coal. Trees trap carbon, so deforestation — the large-scale clearing of forests — is also increasing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Methane emissions are released from agriculture, fossil fuels and decomposing landfill waste.

Effects of climate change on weather and the environment

Climate change is often associated with a warming environment, but it’s not just average temperatures that are rising. The increase in global temperatures is causing ice sheets and glaciers to melt, which is making sea levels rise and reducing the amount of land available for humans and animals to inhabit. With more heat and energy in the atmosphere and oceans, our weather is also becoming more extreme and unpredictable. This means that extreme heat, fires, floods, cyclones, and storms are increasing in number and intensity.

The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is made up of the world’s leading climate scientists. The IPCC’s sixth assessment report states that humans have unequivocally caused climate change. Global surface temperatures have risen 1.1°C since pre-industrial times due to the increased greenhouse gas emissions produced by humans. Human-caused global warming is now affecting extreme weather in every part of the world.

Climate change as a threat to vulnerable communities

The global climate crisis will affect all of us, but not equally. One of the greatest injustices of climate change is that it hurts those who are least responsible for causing it, and who are least equipped to protect themselves from it.

Climate change is already hurting billions of people around the world, but it is an even bigger threat to people living in poverty or with a disability, indigenous communities, women and girls.

Indigenous communities are at risk of losing thousands of years of connection to their land, as seal level rise and extreme weather causes mass displacements. Gender inequality

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The importance of achieving the Paris Agreement

In 1994, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) came into force with 196 countries — also known as parties — signing the treaty; nearly every country in the world. Every year since, the signatory parties have met at Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings to negotiate a global response to climate change.

In 2015, the COP21 meeting in Paris led to the Paris Agreement — a legally binding international treaty on climate change. The goal of the Paris Agreement is to “pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels” (UNFCCC).

If we can keep global warming below 1.5°C, we have a chance to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. But to do so, global greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 and decline 43% by 2030.

Advocating for government action

The climate crisis demands urgent action from everyone, particularly our political leaders. Wealthy countries have contributed more to climate change than low-income countries, and they have a responsibility to help low-income countries reduce their emissions and adapt to a changing climate. Yet wealthy countries are falling short of their goal to raise $100 billion per year in climate finance to help low-income countries adapt.

As one of the world’s wealthiest countries and highest greenhouse gas emitters, Australia has a responsibility to people who are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and an opportunity to be a world leader in investing in clean, green, sustainable industries.

Climate change impacts

Those on the frontline of the climate crisis — women, youth, indigenous communities, Pacific Islanders, and people living in economic uncertainty around the world — are being hit the hardest. But they are fighting back and driving positive action that benefits everyone.

More than a billion people worldwide live in low-lying coastal regions and are vulnerable to rising sea levels. Claire Anterea works for the Kiribati Climate Action Network in the Pacific and is one of the country’s leading climate advocates.

“We see a lot of places disappearing … My island is only two metres above sea level. If the erosion and if the sea level rise keeps on growing, then I know that we don’t have somewhere to go.

“If I stand by myself, I don’t think someone will hear me among the crowd. But if we speak and scream out, as the Pacific nations, I think that my voice will be heard. So being together, working together and speaking together, it’s important for me, a woman from a tiny island.

Oxfam’s commitment to addressing climate change

Oxfam believes all lives are equal and no-one should live in poverty. We uphold this belief by challenging the inequalities and injustices that keep people trapped in poverty, here in Australia and around the world. Together with a global network of partners, allies and loyal supporters, millions of families have lifted themselves out of poverty.

The climate crisis threatens to undo much of the progress we’ve made in the last 70 years. Climate change is the single biggest threat to Oxfam’s vision of a just and sustainable world — a world free from poverty. That’s why we are working urgently through our campaigns, advocacy and programs to halt climate change in this critical decade.

In our development programs, we are helping people who are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change to prepare, adapt and respond to it. We work with local partners and communities to help them increase their climate resilience through activities like learning new farming skills or diversifying their income.

Frequently asked questions

What causes climate change?

Climate change — sometimes referred to as global warming — is being caused by the amount of greenhouse gases humans are releasing into the atmosphere, particularly carbon dioxide and methane. Carbon dioxide is released from mining and burning fossil fuels like oil and coal. Methane is released from agriculture, fossil fuels and decomposing landfill.

These greenhouse gases trap heat from the sun in the Earth’s atmosphere. As a result, the planet is warming, ice caps and glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising and more extreme weather is devastating humanity and our environment.

Wealthy countries like Australia are the biggest contributors to climate change. We have generated enormous wealth through mining and burning fossil fuels, but it has come at a great cost to our environment and the people who are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, who are now facing the brunt of the climate crisis.

Bangladesh: With help from Oxfam partner JAGO NARI, Dulu Begum has become a community leader and an outspoken advocate for reducing disaster risks. Photo: Elizabeth Stevens/Oxfam.

Bangladesh: With help from Oxfam partner JAGO NARI, Dulu Begum has become a community leader and an outspoken advocate for reducing disaster risks. Photo: Elizabeth Stevens/Oxfam.

AREAS OF WORK

Gender equality
First Peoples justice
Climate change
Economic equality

All around the world, women, girls and people of diverse genders and sexualities are more likely than men to face discrimination and violence, and to live in poverty. They are also less likely to have the power to change their circumstances.

Gender inequality is caused by gender bias in our systems, structures and attitudes, which create an environment where women, girls and people of diverse genders and sexualities are denied their rights to learn, earn equal pay, hold leadership positions and live safely. Oxfam is working with communities, local leaders and governments to transform the balance of power between men and people of other genders, and build more equal societies.