Blog

Climate change impacts different regions in different ways and, as such, requires tailored initiatives to meet local development needs. Every region will face challenges brought on by the climate crisis and will integrate programs and systems to adapt.

• 01/20/2022
• Sophie Schrader

Climatelinks had a big year in 2021! More than 284,000 people used the site, visiting from more than 220 countries around the globe. In December 2021, we outlined the top 5 photos, blogs, and resources of the year, as well as blogs and resources that you may have missed.

• 01/18/2022
• Sophie Schrader

During November, we highlighted USAID’s work leading up to and during COP26, as well as updates regarding the new USAID draft Climate Strategy. Gillian Caldwell, the Agency’s Climate Change Coordinator, produced a blog on confronting the climate crisis, released alongside the draft Climate Strategy. Additional blogs highlighted how USAID and other development partners can support national adaptation plans and the need for immediate climate action in the Caribbean.

• 12/03/2021
• Sophie Schrader

Countries in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean have always been vulnerable to natural hazards, but climate change trends project that disasters—hurricanes, tropical storms, flash floods, drought, and extreme heat—are becoming more frequent, intense, costly, and time-consuming to recover from.

• 08/31/2021
• Wendy Putnam

Across the globe, people are struggling to improve air quality, but the sources of pollution that cause the most harm are a moving target. They can differ by location, time of year, and time of day.

• 07/29/2021
• Lauren Azmon

Brazil is one of the six countries of the Amazon basin covered by SERVIR-Amazonia, including Colombia, Peru, Guyana, Ecuador, Suriname.

• 04/23/2021
• SERVIR Global

In Indonesia’s Papua Province, a province on the eastern edge of the Indonesian archipelago that shares an island with the nation of Papua New Guinea, reducing deforestation is the most effective way to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

• 04/22/2021
• Christine Chumbler

BiodiversityLinks, USAID’s newly refreshed and relaunched knowledge portal for biodiversity conservation, features key USAID tools and resources, as well as new evidence and learning.

• 03/09/2021
• Climatelinks

Those who live in and around the Dominican Republic’s Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo UNESCO Biosphere Reserve have a first-hand understanding of the costly realities of climate change. Harsh, dry conditions and extreme weather make climate risks part of daily life and a top consideration in efforts to protect endemic species.

• 01/07/2021
• Jamie Carson, Elizabeth Hutchison

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

The Congo Basin of Central Africa hosts the second largest tropical forest in the world. The forests of the Congo Basin provide a range of environmental services to local forest-dependent communities, the surrounding region, and globally through climate regulation and carbon sequestration. Fostering the sustainable use of this vast, critical resource is imperative and requires a better understanding of existing forest resources, including changes in forest and land cover.

• 04/22/2020
• Eva McNamara, Olivia Freeman

There is an increasing awareness of the importance of adapting agricultural systems and rural livelihoods to the challenges caused by climate change. This awareness has come hand in hand with the need to guarantee that both men and women — of different ages and ethnicities — can adapt equally to the effects of climate change. And while, in recent years, the importance of integrating gender issues in climate change initiatives in the agricultural sector has been increasingly acknowledged, it is not always obvious how to systemically and practically carry out gender integration.

• 03/31/2020
• Mariola Acosta, Lauren Sarruf Romero

Since 2012, the USAID Vietnam Forests and Deltas program (VFD) has been helping the Government of Vietnam develop and operationalize a national Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) program that has already directed over USD $500 million to forest owners as financial compensation for maintaining forest cover. For example, Vietnam’s hydroelectric power plants now reward upstream forest owners whose trees keep soil in place, avoiding the sediment buildup that drives up operating costs.

• 03/19/2020
• Lauren Keller

The Climatelinks community contributed over 100 resources in 2019 on a wide range of topics, from monitoring and evaluation of urban climate adaptation to climate risk screening tools for low-emission energy development. Each contribution is available from the Climatelinks Resource Library.

• 12/24/2019
• Isabela Barriga

Amid growing recognition that climate change is not just an environmental issue, but a concern in all sectors, USAID’s adaptation investments are helping the Agency and its partners more effectively assess, plan for, and manage climate risks.

• 12/19/2019
• Erin Martin