Helping the World Prepare: A Primer on U.S. International Adaptation and Resilience

The climate crisis is existential, and the impacts of climate change that are being felt around the world threaten to undermine development gains, exacerbate geopolitical tensions, accelerate the food security crisis, and result in greater instability and humanitarian need.

Even if all nations implemented their announced mitigation pledges , with emissions peaking in the mid-2020s, climate change will still impact many facets of human life and every sector of society. into the hands of people who need it; advancing security and resilience in agriculture, health, water, and infrastructure systems; and mobilizing private sector capital, innovation, and engagement.

In November 2021, President Biden announced the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE). PREPARE unites the diplomatic, development, and technical expertise of the United States with the goal of helping more than half a billion people in developing countries adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change by 2030. Co-led by the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), PREPARE is America’s contribution to the global effort to build resilience to the impacts of the climate crisis in developing countries . PREPARE is helping to close the gap in early warning systems and put climate information into the hands of people who need it; advancing security and resilience in agriculture, health, water, and infrastructure systems; and mobilizing private sector capital, innovation, and engagement.

Effective, inclusive investments in climate adaptation can minimize the impacts of climate change, and in some cases, even prevent them . Every $1 invested in adaptation yields between $2-10 in economic benefits. These benefits help avoid losses in lives and livelihoods as well as lower financial costs, create meaningful jobs, contribute to greater security and stability, and strengthen capacity to protect hard-won development gains from being eroded by storms, droughts, rising sea levels, and other climate impacts.

PREPARE builds on over a decade of U.S. government (USG) experience in climate adaptation programming and diplomacy. Previous U.S. foreign assistance for climate adaptation has demonstrated the kinds of dividends that can be expected. This report highlights examples of programs–from USAID and NOAA to USDA and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)–that the USG intends to scale and further evolve to become more fit to tackle the compound risks that vulnerable countries and communities face in this increasingly complex and interconnected world.

This report includes examples of how U.S. federal agencies are beginning to implement the PREPARE Action Plan, as well as underscores our commitment to design, monitor, evaluate, and learn from our investments in PREPARE. Since President Biden launched PREPARE in 2021, federal agencies who have worked on adaptation previously have built on past experiences with climate adaptation and rolled out new programs in support of the objectives in the PREPARE Action Plan. PREPARE has also activated agencies with limited engagement to identify how they, too, can contribute to the objective of helping more than half a billion people in developing countries adapt to the impacts of climate change.

President Biden has committed to work with the U.S. Congress to provide a six-fold increase of finance for climate adaptation through PREPARE from the historically highest-funded level. If fully resourced, PREPARE can achieve its goal of supporting more than half a billion people to adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change. U.S. agencies can build on the work they have started– scaling what works and supporting new and innovative programs and ways of partnering.

Source: Biden Administration
Year: 2023