Across the world, climate change is impacting people’s lives and transforming ecosystems. The climate crisis is a humanitarian crisis. In the last five years, 1.59 billion people have been affected by climate and weather-related disasters; as a result, around 130 million people have been internally displaced. Aside from the immediate impacts, climate change also brings slow-onset impacts, affecting food security, livelihoods and economies. There is a need for urgent climate action across three dimensions: mitigation to cut carbon emissions; adaptation to reduce climate risks; and loss and damage to address unavoidable climate risks and limits to adaptation. Volunteer interventions at local and global levels continue to drive environmental outcomes and climate action, whether through spontaneous community-based actions or highly specialized support at the global level. However, the evidence of volunteers’ contribution is limited.

UNV has conducted a study on ‘The contribution of volunteers to climate action and community resilience’. The UNV climate action study provides evidence of how volunteers across the world are engaging in actions that help their communities adapt to – and build resilience against – the impacts of climate change. This study presents four key contributions of volunteers to climate action and community resilience: 

• knowledge and capacity-building; 

• disaster preparedness and response; 

• implementation of mitigation and adaptation measures; and 

• climate governance. 

Gender and youth appear as cross-cutting themes across the study, recognizing the critical role of young people and women in climate action and the need for gender- and age-inclusive volunteerism to achieve climate justice.  

This webinar seeks to showcase evidence of how volunteers across the world are engaging in actions that help their communities adapt to, and build resilience against, the impacts of climate change. The webinar will also discuss the guidance provided in the study for policymakers in United Nations, Member States, governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to identify strengths and areas for improvement when assessing their own work on volunteerism and climate action.