In vulnerable communities, fragile environments, and some of the world’s hardest-to-reach places, Mission East joins with people as they work to lift themselves out of poverty and marginalization.
Guided by a commitment to justice, we are at the forefront of climate crises, supporting resilience and adaptation where they are needed most.
Scientific knowledge, combined with political will, needs to pave the way to address how climate change and affects the poorest and most vulnerable.
Wealthy, developed countries must lead in contributions to Loss and Damage Funds. Contributions should be just and proportional to a country’s emissions, both historical, foreign, and domestic.
Mission East calls for severely-affected climate fragile countries to be released of all foreign debt to to enable their investment in climate crisis mitigation and adaptation measures.
Water
Climate crises are experienced largely through changes in the water cycle and rain patterns. Reduced rainfall reduces harvests, drying wells and springs leave people without safe drinking water, flooding kills people, destroys houses, livestock and crops; increased heat makes life more fragile and painful in hot regions.
The climate crisis is a water crisis. Working on water needs to be a priority. Only 0.5% of water on Earth is useable and available freshwater – and climate change is dangerously affecting that supply.
Mission East projects focus on water resilience – ensuring that as the climate changes, people have enough water to drink, that communities develop climate resilient agricultural practices around careful water use, and that people are prepared for and protected against floods and excess heat.
For every dollar invested in land reconstruction that addresses drought comes back 30 times! But rebuilding land is not enough, we need to improve the way we cultivate the land so that we can grow more crops – sustainably, with less water on less land.
In Afghanistan, Nepal, North Korea and Myanmar, we have introduced a wider range of crops – especially vegetables, which grow better in different heat patterns. We also introduce improved disease and pest control systems and varieties that are more disease resistant.
The world needs to pay more attention to integrated water solutions – looking at all the different water related consequences of climate change, and engaging youth in water project design, change management and future focussed solutions.
Mountains
Covering more than 27% of the earth’s surface, mountains sustain more than half of the global population through their ecosystems. Mountains are ‘water towers’, providing critical freshwater to lowlands and hosting one-third of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity.
Climate change disproportionately affects mountain ecosystems, leading to challenges such as glacial floods, landslides, and ecosystem degradation that impact both mountain and downstream communities. Current Loss and Damage mechanisms do not adequately address the unique vulnerabilities of mountain regions.
Thosi Sunar, aged 50, lives in the mountainous and remote Humla district in Karnali province, Nepal. He once could rely on a bountiful harvest every half-year from his terraced fields; brown rice, apples, walnuts, and millet among other crops. Now, even the best harvests can only sustain his family for six. Thosi and others like him turn to cutting down firewood even though it is dangerous and contributes to making things worse.
Thosi also points out that their drinking water sources have dried up. “We used to drink water from the river,” he recalls, but those rivers have dried up, leaving the village to rely on what little water remains from distant taps.
When asked about the future, Sunar and his fellow villagers express little hope. The struggle for basic necessities like water, food, and access to education, is so all-consuming that the concept of long-term resilience seems almost laughable. “We don’t have a future,” he says bluntly. “Most of us are uneducated. Even when we send our children to school, it’s only to learn how to write their names. Higher education is too costly for us.”
Climate change is not only a scientific reality for these farmers; it is a daily, lived experience that compounds their hardships.
Along with partners the Himalayan Education and Development Nepal (HEAD Nepal), Mission East and and Karnali Integrated Rural Development & Research Center (KIRDARC) have education, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and livelihoods projects to assist people across Humla and the broader Karnali province.
As Mission East, we advocate for an equitable distribution of Loss and Damage funding that explicitly prioritises the unique vulnerabilities and needs of mountain communities. Financial support must address immediate recovery and long-term adaptation for communities whose well-being and resilience are essential to maintaining ecological balance and supporting downstream populations.
By establishing dedicated funds for mountain regions, including the Himalayans, within Loss and Damage frameworks, international climate policy can provide targeted relief and adaptation resources, fostering sustainable livelihoods and environmental stability in these high-risk, yet, vital ecosystems.
Climate Crises and Persons with Disabilities
In countries where climate crises are having devastating impacts, the threats faced by persons with disabilities are even more severe, and this group is rarely recognised as an official stakeholder.
The marginalisation faced by persons with disabilities are magnified as early warning systems, evacuation plans, and refugee accommodation fail to take into account how people can benefit if, for example, they are not able to hear the warnings, flee a flash flood, or live in a tented camp equipped only with standard sanitation facilities.
Mission East and Disabled Peoples Organisation Denmark (DPOD) have commissioned a 2024 pilot study Bridging the Gap: Disability and Climate Resilience which underscores our position that we cannot address the climate crisis fairly and efficiently persons with disabilities are included in all planning and decision-making.
In UN climate negotiations, disability organisations are de facto excluded as they are not recognised as an official stakeholder group equal to the private sector, local government, trade unions, gender representation, research and environmental organisations, farmers, indigenous peoples, and youth.
Mission East calls for governments to live up to their moral and legal obligations as signatories to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and ensure that people with disabilities influence to ensure fair, sustainable, and inclusive solutions to the climate crisis.
Climate change is reinforcing existing barriers and making life even more precarious as basic services are reduced and maintaining livelihoods requires sweeping adaptations. For example, during water shortages, travelling to collect water is more difficult or may not be possible. In communities heavily reliant on natural resources and agriculture, where adaptation to climate change means migration and/or livelihood diversification, it is harder for people with disabilities to travel to non-adaptive shelter or adjust to non-agricultural livelihoods.
As we transition our societies to greener lifestyles, and as we adapt our cities and infrastructures to withstand climate change, we must avoid building new barriers for people with disabilities. We should use this transition and adaptation as an opportunity to remove existing barriers. Universal design and accessibility should be the foundation of any climate adaptation, so that the solutions are not only technically possible, but also genuinely accessible to everyone. It is not only a human right, but also a prerequisite for people with disabilities to be able to contribute to and benefit from society’s adaptations.
Clean Cooking
Traditional cooking practices are a leading threat to the health of African people, even surpassing malaria and tuberculosis in combined contributions to death. While appropriate clean cooking technologies are in high demand, these are unfortunately not affordable to all.
Mission East expects leaders at COP29 to progress on establishment of an UN-level governing body to facilitate implementation of Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement which sets the stage for the implementation of a UN Clean Development Mechanism-style approach and allows market actors to engage within carbon credit generation and trade.
Electrical clean cooking technologies are emerging, offering metered usage and allowing for low-cost, solid evidence of emission reductions. We must support the distribution of these technologies to the people who need them most.
The first of its kind solar-driven electric cookstove, the ECOCA, is developed by the Danish company and private sector partner of Mission East, Pesitho.
Mission East is testing a market-driven financing model allowing people in rural Nigeria to affordably rent ECOCA cookstoves.
In the arid Nigerian environment, collecting firewood puts people at risk because of the surrounding conflict. The result often becomes making the choice between trading humanitarian food rations for wood fuel. Having a solar-driven electric cookstove can be life-changing for a family, resulting in electricity access, income opportunities, energy savings, reduced time spent on cooking related tasks as well as reduced exposure to smoke and to risks related to firewood collection.
In an expected scale-up of the pilot project, the equipment cost will – with the financing model being tested – be covered by Danish organisations, companies and private individuals with a socially responsible profile looking for reliable means of compensating for their negative climate impact and contributing to a ‘just transition’ by providing modern cooking opportunities and leveraging livelihood improvements for the most vulnerable. An internal datalogger and meter in each cookstove enables digital Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (dMRV) of the carbon emission reductions, thereby allowing those financing the cookstoves to obtain clear evidence of their emission off-setting.
Ukraine
Cement production counts for 8% of the annual carbon emission annually, and considering the massive destruction taking place in current war zones, the need for cement or other building materials are likely to increase in the coming years.
While alternative cement products with lower carbon emissions already exist and technologies are constantly improving, these have not yet obtained any substantial market share. One impediment is stigma. In the European Union, legislation determines that low carbon cement should be referred to as “binder” rather than “cement”, implying these to be sub-standard products. Some low carbon cements do comprise compositions involving longer hardening periods and/or lower strength, but are still suitable for covering many of the building and re-building needs existing in for instance Ukraine.
In Mykolaiv, through partnership with Neo-Eco Ukraine, and with Funding from Danida, 6,435 families will have the opportunity to rebuild their homes using ‘green concrete’ which is produced using recycled materials. The demonstration plant will generate jobs and contribute to the local economy along with avoiding more than 30,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions through the project period.
