Although the agricultural sector now makes up only a one-digit percentage of the total GDP, it is large enough to keep Hungary self-sufficient in food production. According to Zoli, 60% of the land is used for agricultural purposes. Furthermore, one-tenth of the country’s total area is under permanent cultivation.

However, the Dominican Republic was ranked the 11th most vulnerable country in the world for climate change in 2017. As mentioned by our voice, increasing floods and landslides threaten the tourists and coastal service facilities, and damage fisheries by being located in the centre of a hurricane belt. At the same time, the arid parts of the northwest are experiencing higher temperatures leading to more drought, which drops crop yields and water supplies.

According to an assessment done in 2020, 61% of Bulgarians want their governments to act on the climate change, just like our voice from Bulgaria. However, mid this year, the government did not even join the European Union’s Climate Low to reduce greenhouse emissions by 55 per cent (compared to 1990 levels) by 2030 and reach climate neutrality in the next 30 years. Our voice highly worries about this denial of climate change by the Bulgarian population and its government.

In 2013 Super Typhoon Yolanda, one of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded in the region, made landfall leaving millions displaced and over 6000 people dead. However, typhoons are not the only threat this Southeast Asian nation faces due to climate change. With so many islands, and so many people living on these islands that are heavily dependent on natural resources such as fish for their livelihoods, storm surges, flooding and the devastating effects of climate change on these resources means a significant percentage of the nations residents may be facing a future of food insecurity, loss of property and displacement.

There is still time for us to take action though, and this will involve more finances and efforts being directed into adaptation and building resilience - one of the main goals of the recent COP26 talks. But we cannot just sit around and wait for action, we must, as Mitzi highlights in her message ‘rise up and fight!’.

Our voice of the month is Cristian, a farmer from Puerto Gaudal, Chile. Chile is a well-known global biodiversity hotspot possessing around 30,000 species while 25% are endemic. Next to a changing climate, some of the major threatening factors to biodiversity are exploitative agriculture and forestry industry with urbanization. He shares what he has witnessed as a farmer in ‘Coihue’ forest and warns of the severe dangers to biodiversity. Coihue is a type of tree that can be found in the Andean-Patagonian forests. Creating untimely landscapes, some of them remain over centuries and become monumental trees delivering many legends over the generations. However, now these trees are under the severe threat of dying out.

To deal with biodiversity loss, the Chilean government participates in the Paris Agreement, and many local initiatives are in action to implement nature-based solutions to mitigate the impact of climate change and preserve species. To keep the legends of the trees alive longer, it is time for bold actions, as Cristian says.

Although many dry and sunny days are the norm for the Greek summer, changes in the country’s climate do have a significant impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. Seaside tourism is a vital driver of the Greek economy but because this sector is nature-based, it is highly vulnerable to climate change. For example, a rise in Greece’s average sea level is increasingly endangering the country’s coastline.

To put the economy on a climate-neutral pathway, Greece recently increased its climate ambition for 2030 and developed a long-term vision towards climate resilience. However, to avoid the destruction of infrastructure, loss of property and loss of human life that Constantinos is worried about, the country needs to implement more ambitious and immediate actions.

Adaptation across various sectors, including those determined to be the most vulnerable (such as those mentioned above), have been made a priority in the countries National Development Plan (2014- 2030), but it is not enough for one country to act alone. What we need to ensure the future of those countries most vulnerable to climate change such as Paraguay, is strong collective global action, and we need it now, because 'el futuro es hoy' -

the future is today.

Droughts, food insecurity, and violent conflict are already, and without mitigation - will continue to be increasing problems for the country which is home to over 52 million people - all directly as a result of climate change. For Ibrahim, it is unclear what the future holds for his country, but he, like many of us, continues to hold on to a hope of better things to come, because there is hope to be had, we just have to act, and we have to act now.