Blog

Water security is integral to the health and sustainability of our communities and ecosystems. Achieving water security, however, is challenging for several reasons including poor governance, resource competition and poorly-conceived economic development.

• 05/20/2019
• Basil Mahayni

In 2017, hurricanes Irma and Maria were forecast to hit the Dominican Republic. ClimaPlan, a USAID project working with the Dominican municipality of Las Terrenas, recognized that these hurricanes would provide an opportunity to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the city’s climate resilience and adaptation capacity.

• 05/16/2019
• Molly Hellmuth, Joanne Potter

Extreme heat is often referred to as a “silent killer.” Its impacts are not starkly visible like the destruction caused by a flood or hurricane, but it can be equally catastrophic. For example, a 2010 heat wave in Russia killed an estimated 55,000 people.

• 05/01/2019
• Joslin Isaacson

Finding ways to adapt to the effects of climate change is no longer optional for most communities - it is necessary. The question is, what are the range of strategies for adaptation? Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is a nature-based and people-centered approach that emphasizes ecosystem integrity as crucial for human resilience to climate change.

• 04/30/2019
• Anila Jacob, Jennifer Kane, Christine Chumbler

“The water is pushing very hard on our islands and communities,” recounted the Bonthe Deputy Mayor, during a recent meeting with USAID staff in the southwestern district of Sierra Leone. His description captures the profound impacts that climate change is having on coastal communities.

• 04/29/2019
• Julia Bradley-Cook

The integration of biodiversity and climate considerations in development programming can lead to long-term benefits in both sectors. For example, diverse ecosystems recover more quickly from destructive climate events, and healthy coastal environments protect vulnerable communities from extreme weather.

• 04/17/2019
• Tiffany Gibert

The implementation of climate resilient low-emission development (LED) strategies is essential for ensuring the integrity and performance of LED programs and projects in the face of evolving climate impacts.

• 04/11/2019
• Molly Hellmuth, Joanne Potter

Happy World Water Day! This year’s “Water for All” theme highlights the importance of leaving no one behind. It brings to light the fact that billions of people still live without access to safe water.

• 03/21/2019
• Stephan Hardeman

In Peru, a new cross-sector initiative supported by USAID and the Government of Canada is moving beyond concrete-and-steel projects to an expansive new vision of 21st-century water infrastructure that includes natural ecosystems, ancestral approaches, and people themselves.

• 03/06/2019
• Genevieve Bennett

The ability of the world’s poorest farmers and pastoralists to adapt to a changing climate will affect the food security of millions across the world.

• 02/14/2019
• Nathanial Matthews

Face-to-face participatory processes, merging weather station observations with satellite data, and bridging the supply and demand side of climate information services (CIS) are some of the promising options for improving CIS.

• 02/12/2019
• Isabela Barriga

Northern Guatemala, together with neighboring Mexico and Belize, is home to the largest tropical forest north of the Amazon. Like many other tropical forests, the Selva Maya faces pressures from unsustainable logging and land clearing for agriculture.

• 02/07/2019
• Christine Chumbler

The Mara River winds for nearly 14 thousand kilometers from the Mau forest in Kenya to Lake Victoria in Tanzania. It supports huge wildlife populations in two key conservation areas (the Masai Mara National Reserve and Serengeti National Park) described as “the eighth wonder of the world.”

• 01/30/2019
• Owen Scott, Fernanda Zermoglio

To help encourage private investment in this monumental task, NREL has supported the Power Africa Beyond the Grid Program by helping build an enabling environment for bankable, microgrid investments.

• 11/20/2018
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory

This blog features some of our favorite videos that were added to the website in 2018.

• 11/20/2018
• Stephan Hardeman