Climate change poses significant disruptions — both positive and negative — to development and the administration of official development assistance (ODA). Many UK-based international civil society organisations (ICSOs) have started integrating climate change into their work. Although plenty of research has explored the synergies between development and climate change adaptation from a conceptual point of view, it has tended to dilute the experience of ICSOs on the ground. The new structure of climate finance, whereby assistance may be directed through governments, will have repercussions on ICSOs.
This briefing aims to highlight some UK-based ICSOs’ experiences of integrating climate change into development work to help us understand how they can get involved in delivering and implementing climate-informed responses.
Policy pointers:
- climate change presents significant disrupting risks to ICSO business models and development mandates. Organisations are considering how systemic changes will fit into long-term visions
- ICSOs will need to be climate-competent and able to integrate climate into their work and the way they work. Only then can they play an important role in accessing and channelling climate finance to locally driven climate initiatives
- climate finance presents certain opportunities for innovative programmes and the scaling up of successful projects
- the emerging climate finance landscape could create a range of new roles for ICSOs — from implementing climate-informed responses to empowering national and sub-national governments and other organisations to access new finance