Adaptation, Renewable Energy & Sustainable Landscapes

Description

These three programs help poorer nations adapt to the impacts of climate change, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and build more resilient and sustainable economies. These funds are in high demand by countries that are experiencing increasingly severe climate impacts every year but lack the resources to adapt to a changing environment.

What does it buy?

Adaptation programs help countries and communities access and use climate and weather data and tools, allowing them to develop strategies to build resilience to climate variability and risks. Since 2010, renewable and clean energy programs have supported $12 billion of new energy investments, including providing solar lighting and clean cookstoves to 10 million people across India and African nations. Sustainable Landscapes programs help curb deforestation, address rural poverty, and improve land-management in important biomes such as the Andean Amazon, Central Africa, and Indonesia.

Why is it important?

• Adaptation programs reduce the impact of severe weather and natural disasters on critical infrastructure, agricultural productivity, and public health. Enhancing developing countries’ ability to prepare for disasters saves lives and is more cost-effective than responding to disasters once they’ve occurred.
• Over 860 million people still lack access to any form of electricity. Renewable energy programs lift people out of poverty through access to reliable electricity by leveraging private sector and non-governmental investment. These programs are critical in mitigating the amount of GHG emissions that will be produced by new energy consumers.
• Sustainable landscapes programs leverage funding from other donor countries and provide significant benefits, including increased biodiversity, more sustainable food production, and cleaner air and water.

Why should Americans care?

• Climate change does not see borders. The effects of climate change, variability, and extreme events outside of the U.S. are affecting U.S. trade and the economy, including U.S. businesses with overseas operations and supply chains.
• The impacts of climate change, variability, and extreme events will likely: slow or reverse social and economic progress in developing countries; undermine international investments and assistance, increasing the need for humanitarian action and disaster relief; and exacerbate conflict, which has implications for U.S. national security.

What more could be done?

• Congress should require specific funding levels for Adaptation, Renewable Energy, and Sustainable Landscapes in bill text, ensuring that at least a minimum amount of funding is spent on these critical programs.
• Additional funds could help local populations and economies that depend on natural resources and favorable climate conditions, such as agriculture, fishing, and tourism, adapt to climate change.
• These programs are critical to the sustainability of development projects in other sectors. Additional funds could leverage the benefits of other development investments in agriculture, food, and health programs.
• Coastal areas comprise only 20% of available land but are home to almost half of the world’s population. Rising ocean temperatures and levels, as well as an increasing number of weather-related emergencies, threaten people living in coastal areas at increasing rates. Additional funds could provide additional support to coastal populations.