Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

CLASS interventions on climate change is premised on the five principles below;

• Improved risks knowledge
• Continuous access to basic services
• Healthy environment
• Equitable social and economic safety nets and resources
• Accountable policies and legal frameworks.

Activities

• Climate change awareness. Done through mentorship, training and events
• Green livelihoods
• Climate advocacy
• Coping strategies for example, use of clean energies (solar oven technology at the hub and solar lights/touches in the communities), energy saving cook stoves (adapted by community members).

Milestones/success

Climate Change awareness

Carried out Training in Climate Change core topics (definition, causes, effects, and adaptation/mitigation measures) reaching 68 youth aged 15-24 years (38 male, 30 female of which 3 male and 2 female with disabilities) at the Innovation hub and 120 youth in CoC clubs and 12 climate activists in the community.

Green livelihoods

Use of solar oven technology for baking. 3 youth engaged in the climate smart Bakery and Bread making and selling at the innovation hub.

Collection and sales of plastic to recycling company.

Climate Advocacy

Climate Advocacy through leaders' engagement at all levels

• Discuss and understand Climate risks/effects with major focus on prolonged drought, flooding, bush fire/wild fire and unpredictable rainfall pattern
• Propose and adopt Climate actions.

1. Asking leaders through Sub County leaders' engagement (power holders here include; Sub County council members headed by LCIII, production officers, SAS, PDCs) on Climate change to create awareness on coping mechanisms. Like encouraging community members to plant fruit trees, fast growing and maturing crops, crop rotation, use seed that are certified and improved, soil care, use of organic manure, simple irrigation (use of watering cans), rain water harvesting and storage.

2. Asking local leaders to enact byelaws on wetland degradation, plastic waste management, tree planting, and other relevant coping mechanisms and enforce them.

3. Ask leaders to embark on having climate data to inform planning.

4. Ask leaders to allocate and increase budget for climate action at Sub County.

Climate Actions and coping strategies

• Community adapting improved cook stoves that saves fuels and emit less or no smoke
• Young people and community members embracing tree planting including fruit trees
• Plastic waste collection and management
• Youth groups are also be highlighting the intersections of climate resilience with sanitation, the right to water, and essential services for all
• Use of solar for lighting in the communities and baking at the innovation hub through solar oven technology
• VSLA activities due to poverty brought about by climate change, members are diversifying their economic livelihoods using the saving from VSLA activities and borrowing VSLA loans to help them address emergencies and or challenges brought by climate change.

Documenting loss and damage

CLASS today commences the journey of gathering and documenting stories on loss and damage caused by climate change for the first time;

Nancy Akello, CLASS Climate Change activist had the opportunity to share her interesting stories in the journey of climate change activism. She narrated how she reached out to the community and documented a story of loss and damage from one of the farmers who faced crop failure due to extreme drought experienced in the due course of the year 2023.
The pain of food loses, uncontrollable pest and diseases, economic depression, violence and poverty escalation due to climate change impacts remains a hailing catastrophe and from the story, farmers remains helpless and hopeless with no options but to keep trying amidst season failures.

Climate change is real, it will worsen more and we all have a part to play to curb climate change impacts, said Nancy Akello.