Small-scale farmer in Ecuador ©Santiago Serrano

Progressio has called on decision makers not to forget the world’s poor and ensure that water is a key part of the pivotal climate change negotiations to be held in Copenhagen this December.

Speaking at Stockholm’s World Water Week, a gathering of thousands of individuals and organisations working on water-related issues, Progressio’s Environmental Policy Officer, Petra Kjell, said: “Climate change for our partners in the developing world is all about water change. The small-scale farmers we work with in places like Ecuador are already telling us they don’t know when to plant their crops due to changes in rainfall or shifting weather patterns. Water isn’t coming, there is no rain, or all the rain comes in one go and ruins their crops. Water changes are undermining the basis for their livelihoods.”

Progressio is calling on decision makers to prioritise water at the Copenhagen climate change summit in December as part of its “Just Add Water” campaign, arguing that for 70% of the world's poor who depend on small-scale farming for food, changes in rain and weather mean the crops they rely on are being put at risk.

Petra adds: “We need to link high-level negotiations with what is actually happening on the ground – we are running out of time. At the end of the Copenhagen negotiations, we don’t want a piece of paper that doesn’t do anything or mean anything. This agreement needs to be real for the poor people Progressio works with on the ground.”

To listen to Petra’s interview with the Global Public Policy Network on Water Management (GPPN), click here.