Policy Summary: The Nexus of Fragility and Climate Risks
Climate Change Cate Urban Climate Change Cate Urban

Policy Summary: The Nexus of Fragility and Climate Risks

The research, summarized here, does not seek to establish a causal relationship between climate exposure and instability. Instead, it identifies the locations where fragility and climate risks cooccur around the world. It assesses key global fragility and climate patterns and country-specific risks to assess how these dynamics may coalesce to foster instability, strain state capacity, and undermine human security. Since places with compound fragility-climate risks may be more vulnerable to governance failures and other crises that foster humanitarian emergencies or instability, understanding their distinct fragility and climate challenges could present opportunities and focal points for intervention and risk management.

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The Intersection of Global Fragility and Climate Risks
Climate Change Cate Urban Climate Change Cate Urban

The Intersection of Global Fragility and Climate Risks

When states face fragility and climate risks simultaneously, the risks and challenges are compounded. This study seeks to identify the locations where fragility and climate risks co-occur around the world. Since these places with compound fragility-climate risks may be more vulnerable to humanitarian emergencies or instability, understanding the distinct fragility and climate challenges they face could present opportunities and focal points for intervention.

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Program Brief: Climate Change Adaptation Program
Climate Change Cate Urban Climate Change Cate Urban

Program Brief: Climate Change Adaptation Program

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has partnered with the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) to address some of the challenges through the provision of up to US$25.6 million investment over the next four years. The goal of the Program is to reduce risks to human and natural assets resulting from climate change vulnerability. The activity aims to strengthen an integrated system for the implementation and financing of sustainable adaptation approaches in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean region.

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USAID Biodiversity Policy
Biodiversity, Climate Change Cate Urban Biodiversity, Climate Change Cate Urban

USAID Biodiversity Policy

This Policy represents a recommitment of USAID to conserve biodiversity through strategic actions to reduce threats and drivers, as well as a new focus on integrating biodiversity conservation with other development sectors. A roadmap for implementation highlights the most critical steps necessary for implementing this Policy. (See Annex II.)

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Climate Change and Conflict in West African Cities: A Policy Brief on Findings From Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana
Climate Change Cate Urban Climate Change Cate Urban

Climate Change and Conflict in West African Cities: A Policy Brief on Findings From Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana

To address the relative lack of research on climate-conflict linkages in large urban areas, USAID asked the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability (FESS) to conduct a case study on two major West African cities – Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana. Field research was carried out for the case study in June and August 2013, and this policy brief presents the findings on the central questions addressed by that investigation: Are the effects of climate change likely to lead to chaotic and conflictive scenarios in West African cities? If so, under what circumstances and over what time frame; and are there preventive actions that governments and donors should take?

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Follow the Water: Emerging Issues of Climate Change and Conflict in Peru
Climate Change, WSH Cate Urban Climate Change, WSH Cate Urban

Follow the Water: Emerging Issues of Climate Change and Conflict in Peru

This study explores how the effects of climate change on water quantity, quality, and access may be factoring into aspects of localized instability, fragility, and conflict in Peru. To help guide the methodological approach, FESS developed a seven-phase framework—the Climate Change and Conflict Assessment Framework (CCCAF). The framework emphasizes one of the main conclusions of recent conflict analysis: conflict is always the result of the interactions of multiple political, economic, social, historical, and cultural factors, and these must be taken into account in any analysis. Moreover, the quality of governance and the resilience of political, economic, and social institutions all mediate the relationship between environmental change and conflict in important ways. The influence of climate change and climate-related policy and program responses on instability and conflict can only be understood within this web of relationships.

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USAID Climate Change and Development Strategy 2012­-2016
Agriculture, Climate Change Cate Urban Agriculture, Climate Change Cate Urban

USAID Climate Change and Development Strategy 2012­-2016

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 2012-­2015 Climate Change and Development Strategy is to enable countries to accelerate their transition to climate resilient low emission sustainable economic development.

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Climate Change, Adaptation, and Conflict: A Preliminary Review of the Issues
Climate Change, Agriculture Cate Urban Climate Change, Agriculture Cate Urban

Climate Change, Adaptation, and Conflict: A Preliminary Review of the Issues

The consensus of climate scientists on the probable harmful effects of climate change and the need for climate adaptation has grown stronger in recent years. However, knowledge about the potential links between climate change and conflict, as well as the appropriate climate adaptation measures to prevent or mitigate conflict, remains limited and underdeveloped. This discussion paper provides an initial examination of climate change and climate adaptation, how and where climate change may be linked to conflict, and some of the implications of these linkages for development agencies.

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