“Climate change is at its heart about people and how to shape a future for humanity that promotes well-being while ensuring that the natural and nature-based services upon which we all depend—including our precious atmosphere—continue to function and support sustainable development for all. The projects and practices compiled in this report underline the urgency to build a low- emission and resilient world that can nurture and nourish the most vulnerable and those least responsible for the rising risks posed by unchecked climate change.” – Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary UNFCCC

I would like to thank Climate Action Network South Asia and UNICEF in India for this inspiring report and to recognise the extraordinary people spotlighted in its pages.

The ‘community-based women and child centred adaptation projects’ documented here give us real cause for optimism that the decisions and policies taken at the global and national level can be translated into real and positive change on the ground.

Climate change is at its heart about people and how to shape a future for humanity that promotes well-being while ensuring that the natural and nature-based services upon which we all depend—including our precious atmosphere—continue to function and support sustainable development for all.

The projects and practices compiled in this report underline the urgency to build a low- emission and resilient world that can nurture and nourish the most vulnerable and those least responsible for the rising risks posed by unchecked climate change.

The Paris Climate Change Agreement provides a historic blueprint for a better, healthier world based on national action and international cooperation. It requires all hands on deck if we are to succeed.

That includes visible, trusted leadership, practical policies and inclusive community-wide engagement to accelerate and spread successful local climate solutions that address the needs and hopes of  women, children and indeed all vulnerable populations.

The Paris Agreement, and the related Sustainable Development Goals, have put the world on a challenging but exciting and fundamentally necessary journey. Their successful implementation will also rest on action under other related international agreements including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

I am also fully committed to translate the Gender Action Plan, agreed by governments at the last UN climate conference in Bonn in November 2017, into actions within and beyond the formal UN processes.

Our agenda is about the restoration of balance between the needs of societies and the need to ensure that a healthy planet is handed onto the next generation and generations to come.

Local solutions not only solve local problems, they also contribute to the global well-being. Defying Climate Change is about building resilient communities in India. But its stories of hope, positivity and inspirational change on the ground can echo to all corners of the world.

Download the report at: https://goo.gl/JsM7cW

Patricia Espinosa, 

Executive Secretary
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change