Blog

This blog is the second part in an Editor’s Pick Series highlighting USAID’s work with Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

• 04/19/2022
• Sophie Schrader

African and Asian countries have developed Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).

• 03/23/2022
• Funke Aderonmu

In order for USAID to have maximum impact in confronting the most urgent demands of the climate crisis, improved participation at all levels is key. Thus, an increased emphasis on working with Indigenous Peoples and local communities is critical to USAID’s climate efforts.

• 03/03/2022
• Sophie Schrader

With agriculture driving deforestation, global climate protection and biodiversity conservation goals seem to collide with the drive to produce more food. Researchers warn of an impending “food security-biodiversity-climate” crisis and “looming land scarcity.”

• 10/12/2021
• Daniel Evans

In May, Climatelinks explored the important role that women and girls—in all their diversity—play in responding to climate change. We featured how the Advancing Gender in the Environment (AGENT) partnership harnesses data for climate advocacy and action through a gender lens.

• 06/24/2021
• Climatelinks

Climate mitigation is essential for helping communities prepare for the impacts of climate change and prevent worst-case climate scenarios. USAID helps countries achieve more ambitious climate targets under the Paris Agreement and provides the foundations for sustainable growth through renewable energy and natural climate solutions.

• 05/20/2021
• Isabela Barriga

Cocoa certification may not be doing its job. The expansion of the international cocoa industry across the world’s tropical regions has caused significant destruction of tropical forests, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and destroying habitat.

• 03/11/2021
• David Miller

Climatelinks has a new design and updated content – just in time for the United States to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. The site has been revamped to better meet the needs of the USAID, its climate and development partners, and the climate community around the world. 

• 02/17/2021
• Climatelinks

Kelo Uchendu, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Nigeria, founded the Gray2Green movement in 2018. Grey2Green raises awareness about climate justice and works on student-led engineering projects to innovate new sustainable technology.

• 02/04/2021
• Ruby Rorty

Landfills and wastewater treatment plants generate methane, a potent greenhouse gas (GHG), from decomposing organic waste and wastewater treatment processes, respectively. What if there were ways to reduce GHG emissions while simultaneously creating renewable energy? And what if there were additional benefits beyond reducing emissions and creating energy?

• 12/04/2020
• Peter Nash

There is an urgent need to speed and scale up profitable business models that secure sustainable, deforestation-free supply chains. There is also a need to develop innovative strategies to scale landscape restoration and conservation.

• 10/28/2020
• Climatelinks

Why do many community-based forestry enterprises (CBFEs) perform poorly even after years of donor and government investment? This was one of the questions that motivated a USAID Productive Landscape (ProLand) project investigation into CBFEs as a strategy for improving land management.

• 08/14/2020
• Mark Donahue, Ian Deshmukh

There is no doubt about it: The world is experiencing an unprecedented wave of urban population growth. Although the challenges posed by this phenomenon are great, the opportunities for advancing equity and sustainability are just as considerable. Indeed, designing “neighborhoods for all” was the central theme of a recent industry training seminar coordinated by the USAID South Africa Low Emissions Development (SA-LED) Program.

• 08/13/2020
• Erica Slowik

To support developing countries’ long-term climate mitigation strategies—plans for reaching ambitious, mid-century greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals—USAID’s Transparency and Long-term Strategies (T-LTS) project will soon start a number of activities. These activities include conducting workshops on regionally important topics in Asia and Latin America, helping countries link long-term strategies to their five-year emissions reduction targets, and extending sectoral planning to 2050 for better sequencing and improved coordination around climate goals.

• 07/31/2020
• Derina Man

Worldwide, local communities in the tropics and subtropics control 22 percent of the forest carbon in those regions. For several decades, development organizations have promoted sustainable forest use approaches to help communities manage these forests. One such approach is the establishment of community-based forestry enterprises (CBFEs) that sell forest products or services.

• 05/19/2020
• Mark Donahue, Ian Deshmukh