About us
World Vision is Australia's largest charitable group. World Vision helps over 20 million people every year, thanks to the support of more than 400,000 Australians.
World Vision provides relief in emergency situations and works on long-term community development projects. Together, these address the causes of poverty and help people move towards self-sufficiency.
World Vision considers climate change to be a critical issue that must be addressed across all of our development and advocacy work. From addressing the causes through to assisting those suffering the effects, World Vision is addressing climate change-exacerbated poverty in many ways.
Many of our existing programs, such as One Earth and the emergency relief we are providing for the Global Food Crisis, incorporate measures and actions to address the effects of climate change.
As a matter of policy, World Vision:
- acknowledges and accepts the clear and present danger of human-induced climate change;
- determines to ensure that our Australian operations achieve zero net carbon-dioxide emissions by 2015;
- determines to increase environment-enhancing development activities such as reforestation, agro-forestry, and organic and conservation farming in World Vision’s programs;
- determines to work to increase communities’ resilience to the effects of climate change, e.g. disaster preparedness planning, and improving food and water security measures in World Vision’s programs;
- determines to increase its efforts to educate governments, the public and private sectors, donors and the World Vision partnership in their understandings of climate change and its effects on people living in poverty;
- calls for Australia to support strong, binding emissions reduction targets;
- calls for a reduction of at least 40% in Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 2020, followed by further reductions of at least 75% by 2050, by means of the most economically efficient, socially equitable, and environmentally responsible means available;
- calls for significant increases in public research funds directed towards climate change dynamics, renewable energy technologies, carbon capture and sequestration, energy efficiency, crop varieties, range management options, sustainable nomadic practices and other adaptation and mitigation options that will reduce the vulnerability of poor communities to climate change;
- calls for significant increases in aid directed towards helping developing countries to improve energy efficiency, to adopt renewable energy technologies and to adapt to climate change; and
- calls for a commitment by the Australian government to work in partnership with the Pacific states and territories for the resettlement of Pacific Islanders