ACTED is proud to have signed up to the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organisations

ACTED is proud to have signed up to the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations following its adoption by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The Charter intends to galvanize and steer collective action in response to the dramatic impacts of the climate and environmental crises, in particular for those who will feel their impacts the most.

This freshly released Charter is the result of a broad consultative process across the humanitarian sector, and is open for signature by all humanitarian organisations. It includes seven high-level commitments to guide the sector’s response to the climate and environmental crises. First among them is a commitment to step up the humanitarian response to growing needs and help people adapt to the growing impacts of these crises. Second, the Charter makes a commitment to maximize the environmental sustainability of humanitarian programmes and operations and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while maintaining the ability to provide timely and principled assistance.

ACTED’s mission is to achieve a 3Zero world : Zero Exclusion, because nobody should be left behind ; Zero Carbon, because we only have one planet ; and Zero Poverty, because poverty should not hold back potential.

To reach this objective, we aim to green the organisation by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by at least 30% by 2025 and 50% by 2030 in line with the IPCC recommendation, and upscaling our work on climate change and environmental protection to account for a minimum of 25% of our programming by 2022. The Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations is one more step forward.

The climate and environmental crises are humanitarian crises. They affect all of us — but they do not affect all of us equally. Those who have contributed least to the problem are often at the highest risk. The Charter is our commitment to do our part to respond to these crises, meet rising needs, and work together to prevent further death and suffering.