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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI15042610/00001
Notes
- Abstract:
- Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our generation. USAID—as part of the broader Presidential Global Climate Change Initiative (GCCI)—is addressing this challenge in ways that recognize both its severity and the opportunities clean economic growth presents to spur innovation and encourage investments that will have longlasting environmental and development benefits. If we support countries to build climate resilience and move towards a “low carbon” economic growth pathway,we can help provide more stable and prosperous futures for the U.S. and for our partners, including new markets for clean technology and expansion of the green economy. Alternatively, if we are unable to meet this challenge, climate change could jeopardize many of the development gains the international community and the U.S. government have worked for decades to secure.
USAID’s work on climate change fits into a larger domestic and international policy context and is guided by Administration policy as developed in the President’s Global Development Policy, the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review,USAID Forward, and the GCCI. Additionally,USAID’s Policy Framework 20112015 defines the following as one of seven Core Development Objectives for the Agency: Reduce Climate Change Impacts and Promote Low Emissions Growth. USAID has a long history of programming in sectors relevant to climate change and will draw lessons learned from this history to shape efforts under this strategy.
The goal of USAID’s 20122015 Climate Change and Development Strategy is to enable countries to accelerate their transition to climateresilient low emission sustainable economic development.To accomplish this,USAID will pursue three strategic objectives (SOs):
SO 1. Accelerate the transition to low emission development through investments in clean energy and sustainable landscapes
SO 2. Increase resilience of people, places, and livelihoods through investments in adaptation; and
SO 3. Strengthen development outcomes by integrating climate change in Agency programming, learning, policy dialogues and operations
These three strategic objectives,while clear and distinct, can be divided into two discrete, complementary approaches: 1) dedicated climate change programming that tackles the unique risks and opportunities presented by climate change; and, 2) integration of climate change within other core development programs. The first approach— dedicated programming—captures both SO1 and SO2,mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation consists of activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions,while adaptation activities build resilience to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. The second approach—integration— captures SO3, and thus builds climate resilience and loweremission approaches into USAID’s entire development portfolio.
In order to effectively use these resources in a budgetconstrained environment,USAID is committed to focusing and concentrating climate change investments for maximum impact. This commitment means that we are unable to work in every developing country at risk from climate change impacts or with the potential for low carbon sustainable growth. To make tough decisions about where to focus resources,USAID has defined clear criteria by which it programs its dedicated climate change funds:
■ Clean Energy Criteria:: USAID prioritizes existing major emitters, countries projected
work with a mix of the to significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions under businessasusual scenarios, and partners most able and ready to demonstrate leadership in clean energy development.
■ Sustainable Landscapes Criteria:: USAID prioritizes partner countries with globally important forest lan
work with dscapes (e.g. the Amazon basin and the Congo basin which have high current and future carbon storage potential); high demonstration potential (e.g. early movers able to demonstrate credible resultsbased payments for carbon storage under Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) programs); commitments to developing monitoring, reporting, and verification systems, and enabling policy structures such as land and resource tenure.
■ Adaptation Criteria:: USAID prioritizes work withcountries, both in terms of exposure to physical im
vulnerable pacts of climate change and socioeconomic sensitivity to those impacts. These include the likelihood of significant physical changes, dependence of population on climatesensitive sectors, percentage of population in highrisk areas (e.g. lowlying coastal areas), and the ability of a country’s economy to respond to climate changes. Thus,USAID is prioritizing working with least developed countries (especially in subSaharan Africa), small island developing states (SIDS), and glacier dependent countries. Integrated programming will be supported through increased resources allocated to training and outreach, development of guidance for country strategies, project design, and other Agency policy instruments. In an effort to develop innovative approaches to effective integration, USAID is also pursuing a set of integration pilots selected based on criteria such as their ability to successfully integrate climate change with other top Agency objectives and their potential to generate integration lessons and tools.
USAID considers mitigation, adaptation, and integration to be equally important strategic objectives: an emphasis on all three is essential to fully realizing partner countries’ ability to achieve climateresilient low emissions growth and to ensure that USAID development investments are resilient to a changing climate and pursue emission reduction opportunities when possible. As the learning, evaluation, and research agendas embodied in this strategy yield insights into best practices and USAID’s comparative advantage in climate change programming, prioritization among objectives may be necessary and justified.
By the end of the strategy period, the Agency will have implemented its Fast Start Financing1 in support of these SOs (see page 8 and Annex 1 for more detail about Fast Start Financing); supported the development of Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) in 20 countries (see page 14 for more information); implemented pilot projects, training programs, and research strategies that help integrate climate change considerations with other top Agency priorities, including the Global Health and Feed the Future Initiatives; and learned a tremendous amount about the most effective ways to support low emission, climate resilient growth. USAID will then be in an even stronger position to program the next generation of climate change funds according to these best practices and to consider climate change more fully in the design and implementation of its broader development portfolio. For each SO, the strategy lays out both measures of expected outcomes over the life of the strategy and more aspirational, longerterm goals indicating the desired impacts of our efforts over a time period beyond the strategy. The goals and expected outcomes of this Strategy will inform a coherent evaluation and learning plan— a vital contribution to a field still working to define and measure success writ large.
The strategy also includes a roadmap for implementation. This roadmap identifies priority countries for SO1 and SO2 that have already been selected under GCCI, and also describes six key areas of focus for integration efforts under the leadership of the Agency’s Global Climate Change Coordinator. The Coordinator will lead efforts to 1) award and guide Mission integration pilots; 2) develop guidance for country strategies, project design, and other Agency policy instruments; 3) develop a climate change and development research agenda; 4) implement an evaluation and learning plan; 5) create new partnerships with the private sector and other partners; and 6) conduct inreach and outreach in support of this strategy. To do this, the Global Climate Change Coordinator also will lead a process to more formally identify roles and responsibilities as well as a governance structure within the Agency for implementation of this strategy. Each of these efforts is in the spirit of and consistent with the USAID Forward reforms, launched in 2010 by Administrator Shah to unleash the Agency’s potential to achieve highimpact development. This effort has an emphasis on new partnerships, innovation, and a focus on results.
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- Florida International University
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