Blog

In 2020, the Climatelinks community focused on a broad range of monthly themes, including disaster risk management, private sector engagement, energy, and sustainable landscapes. Below you’ll find a selection of great stories that were not as heavily viewed, and that you may have missed when they were originally posted:

• 12/23/2020
• Stephan Hardeman

Climatelinks’ Resource Library houses a variety of climate-related resources from scaling up energy efficiency to community-based forestry enterprises. In 2020, the Climatelinks community contributed over 150 resources on a wide range of topics.

• 12/22/2020
• Isabela Barriga

The Climatelinks Resource Library grew by 150 documents in 2020, covering a wide range of topics from climate finance to human health. Do you have a favorite Climatelinks resource from this past year? Make sure you didn’t miss these great resources from 2020.

• 12/17/2020
• Isabela Barriga

USAID should work to increase ownership of the climate risk management (CRM) process by design teams to ensure CRM doesn't stall out after the assessment phase, external evaluators recommended in a recent evaluation.

• 12/16/2020
• Isabella Genta

Over the course of 2020, the Climatelinks community contributed over 120 blogs on topics varying from mangrove restoration in coastal Sierra Leone to flood early warning systems in East Java, Indonesia. Below are the five most visited blogs of 2020.

• 12/15/2020
• Stephan Hardeman

Energy efficiency is a critical ingredient in the fight against climate change. Reducing the amount of electricity needed to carry out even simple daily tasks can help curb greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.

• 12/08/2020
• Nora Brown

In July 2019, USAID launched a new Environmental and Natural Resource Management (ENRM) Framework to coordinate, unify, and elevate environmental and natural resource management across the Agency. The Framework outlines a unifying vision to address emerging challenges and the most critical threats to the environment and development, and serves as a guiding document for cross-sectoral investments in environmental and natural resource management.

• 12/07/2020
• Christine Chumbler

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

Women are the primary custodians of natural resources in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region and are at the forefront of the impacts of climate change. Yet, when it comes to decision-making and research on managing these resources, women’s voices are rarely heard.

• 12/02/2020
• Rajesh Bahadur, Poonam Tripathi, Utsav Maden

The majority of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and they continue to grow by more than 75 million people per year. Cities, especially rapidly growing cities, are likely to be the driving economic force in many countries, even more so than they are now.

• 12/01/2020
• Stephan Hardeman, Colin Quinn

This is the second of three blogs examining the issues of the COVID-19 pandemic for sustainable landscape programs. The first blog discusses how deforestation and forest fragmentation can increase the likelihood of future pandemics.

• 11/24/2020
• Eric Haxthausen

Originating in Turkey, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers traditionally have met the vast majority of Iraq’s water needs. The rivers are used to pump water into millions of homes and irrigate the historic Mesopotamia agricultural fields.

• 11/17/2020
• Owen Scott

There is a wealth of options to consider when financing urban infrastructure. Some of these include but are not limited to: public-private partnership models; user fees or other domestically mobilized resources; loans from commercial or multilateral development banks; grants from facilities like the Green Climate Fund; or contributions from local businesses.

• 11/12/2020
• Max Lohmann

According to USAID’s Southern Africa’s Climate Change Risk Profile, “Changes in water quality and availability will be the dominant changes seen under a new climate.” The sensitivity of livelihoods and economies to these changes, together with a lack of access to drinking water (and contamination of existing supply), threatens water security and resilience in a region where water demands are rising in response to an increasing population.

• 11/10/2020
• Suvritha Rampha, Steve Collins

In 1976, Salvador Dali painted an 99 ¼ inch by 75 ½ inch oil painting he called “Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln - Homage to Rothko (Second Version)” (Figure 1). When viewed up close, we see the nuanced details of the artist’s work and are likely distracted by the dominant figure that is so clearly in focus.

• 11/06/2020
• Agrilinks