Blog

Urban microgrids are high on the global development agenda. They are attractive for many reasons, most recently for their relevance to climate change adaptation and mitigation. They have proven resilient to extreme weather events, and, because they create commercial opportunities for low-carbon generation technology, they can reduce greenhouse gases from the urban sector in the long term.

• 08/23/2019
• Michael Ashford, Lisa Pagkalinawan

In November, I took a canoe trip down a rural western Madagascar river expecting to see a lot of lemurs, but instead I saw thousands of hectares of burned-down forest. The problem extends all over Madagascar, even encroaching on national parks.

• 06/18/2019
• Rob Cohen

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

We asked Climatelinks community members to share their resources at the intersection of energy efficiency, emissions reductions, air pollution and related health issues in urban areas.

• 06/18/2018
• Katherine Cunningham, Joyce-Lynn Njinga

Until recently, the health sector was largely missing from the climate change arena – but this is changing.

• 05/24/2018
• Climatelinks

We’ve all heard the numbers – the global infrastructure investment needed to keep up with projected economic growth is severely lacking. In cities, where 54% of the world’s population now lives, it is estimated that US$4.1 to 4.3 trillion in urban infrastructure investments is needed. To make that infrastructure climate resilient and emission reducing, the estimate increases by 9-27%.

• 03/30/2018
• Climatelinks

One of South Africa’s largest and most well-known cities, Cape Town, has dominated headlines since the beginning of the year as the dreaded Day Zero approaches: the day when the city’s reservoirs go below a critical threshold and the city will turn off municipal water supply to many homes and businesses. 

• 02/16/2018
• Jeremy Gorelick

By working together to reduce fragility and vulnerability, could we not only better prepare for disaster, but also help prevent conflict? We have the policy tools to take an integrated approach to climate, conflict, and disaster—but we need the political will to use them.

• 01/25/2018
• Florian Krampe, Roberta Scassa

Sea-level rise poses challenges for cities in both developing and developed countries. One city in the United States offers an example of how coastal cities are coping with this challenge. Their approach may be of interest and use to practitioners working in developing countries.

• 01/16/2018
• Christine Chumbler

Here in Nepal, more than 13,000 kilometers (8,077 miles) away from Houston, the worst monsoon season in years is also inundating villages outside the capital. Extreme flooding has killed more than 1,400 people and impacted 41 million people across South Asia, and heavy rains have also claimed lives in Sierra Leone, China, Indonesia and Niger.

• 12/07/2017
• Arivudai Nambi Appadurai

he Coastal City Adaptation Project was spotlighted at the May monthly Adaptation Community Meeting.  The project has had a range of valuable, scalable experiences, particularly in its sustained support for two major cities, Pemba and Quelimane.

• 06/05/2017
• Climatelinks

Proposals of existing projects or brand new ideas can be submitted on the Best Climate Practices website from 13 March to 31 May, 2017.

• 04/06/2017
• Climatelinks

“Climate work is practical, common-sense, good development,” said Carrie Thompson, deputy assistant administrator at the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

• 12/29/2016
• Graham Norwood

• 12/14/2016