Ahead of climate change conference, Red Cross stresses humanitarian climate emergency, underlining need for action

GENEVA

Ahead of this week’s start to the UN COP30 climate change conference, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) on Tuesday warned that the climate emergency is increasingly becoming a humanitarian catastrophe, demanding urgent global action.

"The climate crisis is also a humanitarian crisis," Ninni Ikkala Nyman, the IFRC climate change lead, told reporters in Geneva. She stressed that Red Cross and Red Crescent teams are responding daily to "more frequent floods, droughts, heatwaves and storms" placing lives, livelihoods, health, and food and water security under threat.

Nyman highlighted last month’s devastating Hurricane Melissa as a stark warning of escalating climate extremes. Preparedness and early action provided "valuable time to build shelters, evacuate people out of harm’s way, preposition aid and help to prepare communities" for the unprecedented category 5 storm.

The IFRC has launched emergency appeals for Cuba and Jamaica, both hit hard by Melissa, and urged further support as recovery efforts begin.

Melissa’s "violent and rapid intensification needs to be a wake-up call,” Nyman said, stressing that climate change is making storms stronger and more unpredictable.

Beyond the Caribbean, she cited humanitarian responses to Pakistan’s devastating monsoon floods, climate-fueled drought in Somalia, and destructive wildfires across Europe, including in Türkiye.

At the COP30 conference, set to start on Thursday in Belem, Brazil, the IFRC will call for urgent action across three priorities: protecting health and wellbeing, investing in people and communities, and acting before disasters strike, said Nyman.

"Heat waves already kill almost half a million people each year, yet only 0.5 per cent of adaptation finance goes to health programs," Nyman noted, calling for climate-resilient health systems.

She warned that less than 10% of adaptation finance reaches local communities, and with a global pledge to double adaptation finance expiring this year, "the gap is still widening."

"Without urgent action to strengthen local resilience, humanitarian needs will continue to rise," she said.