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Countries around the world are contending with a wide range of climate impacts, from more intense heat waves, droughts, storms, and floods, to slower-moving changes like sea level rise and ocean acidification. Climate variability and trends have profound impacts across sectors that undermine current and future progress towards development goals, such as food security, improved health and biodiversity, and economic growth.
 
To improve the effectiveness and sustainability of development efforts, national governments anticipate and adapt to expected changes in their development investments, and donors such as USAID practice climate risk management, whereby they systematically assess, address, and adaptively manage program risks for present and future climate conditions. Well-designed and accessible climate information services, tools, and resources are essential to prepare for and adapt to change. A well organized, forward-looking response by governments and the private sector, awareness and understanding of how best to adapt, and access to the necessary resources to take adaptive measures are all important building blocks to successful climate adaptation.
 
Sound land management and advanced energy solutions represent long-term solutions to climate change, while promoting economic growth and livelihoods here and now. These pathways help countries meet their targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions. Forest and soil conservation, management, and restoration are nature-based solutions that reduce land-based emissions, the source of approximately one-quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Cost-effective renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements present opportunities for addressing the largest, global source of emissions while building clean, reliable energy sectors that can grow economies, secure cleaner air and greater environmental sustainability, and support developing country partners on their journey to self-reliance.

Features

Sustainable Landscapes

Partnering with governments, USAID is assisting in planning and implementing policies to address drivers of land-based emissions. By building capacity for rigorous, transparent monitoring of forest and carbon stocks, USAID supports REDD+ project development.  Other activities work to identify better practices and on-the-ground opportunities for low-emissions agriculture.

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Adaptation

USAID has partnered with more than 24 countries to help reduce their vulnerability to weather and climate risks. Through technical assistance, USAID supports countries and communities to build their capacity to independently predict and prepare for climate variability and change so they can effectively deal with associated stresses and minimize losses and disruption.

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A construction worker works on a set of energy meters.

Energy

USAID partners with countries to establish the foundations for low emission energy systems. Private investment in clean technologies such as such as wind, solar, geothermal, and small-scale hydropower is helping to scale up deployment of these systems. Technical assistance from USAID helps countries plan for and design efficient ways of integrating variable renewable energy into national energy systems.

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A trainer teaches community members in Ndera, Rwanda, how to build a crop bed.

Climate Risk Management

Climate risk management (CRM) improves the effectiveness and sustainability of USAID’s efforts, ensuring U.S. taxpayer dollars are well spent and more effectively supporting countries in their journey to self-reliance. USAID implements CRM by systematically assessing, addressing, and adaptively managing climate risk in new strategies, projects, and activities, facilitating resilience to both the current and future climate.

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Integration

A number of USAID activities are now contributing to both climate change and development objectives. In addition, USAID is systematically conducting climate risk management of all new USAID strategies, projects, and activities to improve their impact and sustainability. The agency also invests in formal and informal training of its staff on global climate change considerations to grow its technical capacity to address climate change across all sectors.

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SERVIR-Mekong’s Geospatial Technology Helps Combat Forest Fires in Northern Thailand

March marks the onset of the dry and hot season in Thailand. In the region, dry vegetation coupled with small human-made fires often result in uncontrolled forest fires. Agricultural burning and forest fires, including transboundary haze, contribute to high levels of pollution. Forest fires release particulate matter (PM) into the atmosphere including PM2.5 which are microscopic particles with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less – 30 times smaller than the diameter of the human hair.
  • Ankit Joshi
Recent forest fires in Chiang Rai province (Northern Thailand) started at night and continued to burn parts of the forest the following day.

Climate-Smart Innovations for Root, Tuber, and Banana Crops: Towards a Food- and Nutrition-Secure Future

Climate change and population growth are increasing concerns for global food security. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached record high levels and the world is currently on track to overshoot the targets of the Paris Agreement, heightening the importance of developing technologies to help farmers adapt to climate change. This is especially urgent for the poorest and most vulnerable farmers, who already struggle to produce enough food.
  • Willy Pradel and Marcel Gatto for AgriLinks
Sweetpotato producer, Lilongwe, Malawi, May 2018. Photo credit: Willy Pradel.

Short-Lived Climate Pollutants: What they are and why they are a big deal

Air pollution is the world’s largest environmental health risk, contributing to an estimated 6.7 million premature deaths each year globally. It is also a critical development challenge because low and middle income countries (LMICs) experience the greatest health burdens from poor air quality.
  • Jacquelyn Spade, Nila Cousar
Graphic showing pollutants, sources, and major impacts to outline the sources and impacts of highly potent short-lived climate pollutants.