FAQs

There is no one size fits all approach to climate action. We work with children and their communities to develop locally led solutions that will last.

• An example is Chauk community, which lies in the ‘dry zone’ of Myanmar and is prone to fires and flooding. Disaster Preparedness Plans have been established in 19 communities to improve their preparedness and resilience, including through an early warning system and the establishment of freshwater tanks. 
• World Vision is working with farmers in Timor-Leste to restore previously unusable land, to increase resilience to climate-induced shocks. Communities used to employ a ‘slash and burn’ practice to maintain soil fertility, meaning they would indiscriminately burn wood from the forest. As a consequence, soil quality has been degraded and forest cover reduced. With the support of World Vision’s Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) programme, farmer groups are now learning how to regenerate trees and shrubs from the ‘underground forest’ of living tree stumps and roots, breathing life back into original land cover.
• In Ethiopia, a trial run by World Vision saw 2,500 fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly stoves distributed to a community. Local women were chosen to participate in the project and trained in how to make the stoves and run their own businesses. The evaluation showed the stoves reduced the amount of carbon monoxide released during cooking by up to 53%, and that the amount of firewood needed was reduced by up to 49%. Community members said they also noticed a dramatic reduction in the time spent collecting firewood and their children missed less school.
• In Senetwo, Kenya, World Vision is implementing its FMNR programme alongside local farmers. Senetwo is prone to drought due to the impacts of climate change, the impacts of which are worse for people living with disabilities. Through FMNR, World Vision is training smallholder farmers and pastorialists with disabilities to regenerate living root systems on their lands to regrow them into mature trees, boosting soil fertility and soil moisture. Disabled farmers say that FMNR offers a sustainable solution to drought that allows them to better provide for their families during the dry season without needing to rely upon others.

Climate justice aims to address these inequities through justice-oriented climate action. This means ensuring that communities that are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis are treated fairly and have equal access to resources and opportunities.

  It may mean that countries which are greater contributors to carbon emissions have to do more to help address the impact of climate change.

Climate justice is about combining climate action and equity – which means the burden and benefits of addressing climate change are distributed fairly.

World Vision New Zealand has committed to making a 20% reduction in our organisation’s climate emissions by 2030 and to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

This is part of an overall environmental and climate action strategy which sets measurable targets to reduce our environmental impact, including our carbon footprint.

In addition, World Vision has introduced an Environmental Stewardship and Climate Action policy to ensure that our programming is environmentally sustainable and focused on climate action. This includes work such as Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration, climate smart agriculture, water resource management, energy efficient technologies, and waste management protocols.
 

The climate crisis is a global challenge that requires collective action. We see the climate crisis as an environmental and social justice issue which is underpinned by deeper societal inequalities, in particular the fact that many low-income countries (developing countries) have contributed the least to climate change and carbon emissions but are paying the greatest price in terms of impact on their communities.

Historical and contemporary contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, such as wealthier countries like New Zealand, face fewer consequences compared to structurally disadvantaged communities, including children, Indigenous peoples, people with disability, and those in poverty.