Climate Justice
Climate justice refers to the idea that all people should have equal access to the Earth's resources and be protected from the impacts of climate change. It encompasses a wide range of issues, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, protecting vulnerable communities from the effects of climate change, and ensuring that the costs of addressing climate change are shared fairly. Climate justice also includes the protection of human rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, and the rights of future generations. It also addresses issues of social and economic inequality and aims to ensure that the most marginalized and vulnerable communities are not disproportionately affected by climate change.
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At The Climate Project Foundation, we have adopted Climate Justice as a movement to address inequities with adaptation strategies and long-term mitigation. All our initiatives are strategically built on the ethos of utilizing solutions at hand while optimizing adaptation. To do so, we tag the opportunities of empowerment with our initiatives.
Making Maharashtra Villages
Water-sufficient
The climate change-induced diminishing monsoon is expanding to the drought prone-areas of Maharashtra. The water bodies in the affected parts of Maharashtra continue to recede during the pre-monsoon season, affecting the villagers especially women, who are responsible to fetch water for the daily household chores. Water crisis has forced women in some parts of Maharashtra to walk long distances every day and even risk their lives to fetch drinking water by climbing down deep dried wells.
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The Climate Project Foundation under the guidance of Col. Shashikant Dalvi (Retd.) took up the task of making the villages in Maharashtra water sufficient through rainwater harvesting
technique. The project was initiated in the 4 villages (Koregaon, Kurvandi and Thugaon) of Ambegaon Taluka in Pune district. With the kind support from ICICI, MAPS Industries, Vasundhara Sanvardhan, Pune, member of the Panchayat Samitis, Sarpanch, local officials, village residents and other on-ground partners, we have been able to complete the Rainwater Harvesting project at the four villages of Ambegaon Taluka in October 2021, making them tanker-free.
Empowering the Local Communities
in Odisha
Climate change has led to an increase in the frequency and intensity of the extreme weather events like cyclones, and floods in the coastal states. Odisha, the eastern coastal state of India, witnessed three cyclones in the year 2021. Super cyclones like Yaas caused heavy rainfall, sweeping and damaging the houses, farmlands and uprooting the trees on its way. The cyclones impact lives and livelihoods of lakhs of people especially the poor coastal communities.
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To help these coastal communities in Odisha, The Climate Project Foundation launched ‘Mission One Million fruit trees’ in 2019.
The mission was launched to help the small and marginalised farmers by generating sustainable livelihoods and ensuring food security through plantation of fruit trees. During 2019-2021, 8.30 lakh trees were planted in the Puri district alone. In the long term, the mission would also help in climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Climate Change Education in rural districts of Maharashtra
The Climate Reality Project India focuses on education and capacity building in a fight against climate change through its Education Programs i.e. Teachers Training Program and Green Campus Program. The Education programs aim at sensitizing the educators and students about climate change impacts and solutions at hand. We prioritize local solutions and empower educational institutes to take climate action.
We collaborated with one of the biggest educational societies in Maharashtra, Rayat Shikshan Sanstha with 444 Secondary Schools to take climate change education for deeper engagement in rural districts of Maharashtra. Our Teachers Training
Program is being implemented in 50 schools and Green Campus Program in 5 schools from 5 districts (Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Solapur and Pune) of Maharashtra in its first phase. This will ensure that the educational institutions have capacities to teach about climate change and create a green and sustainable environment for students to learn and take the message of sustainability forward through climate actions.