Strategies for Achieving the Objective
Through the President’s Climate Action Plan, the President’s Global Climate Change Initiative, and USAID’s Climate Change and Development Strategy, the United States has made low-emissions, climate-resilient
sustainable economic growth a priority in our diplomacy and development. Our efforts involve two major areas of engagement: (1) lowering the atmospheric accumulation rate of greenhouse gases that cause climate change; and (2) helping societies anticipate and incorporate plans for responding to potential climate change impacts. The United States is leading efforts to address climate change through international climate
negotiations while enhancing multilateral and bilateral engagement with major economies. It is also enhancing partnerships with other key countries and regions. The United States is focusing its efforts on actions that support, among others, successful implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement including supporting developing countries in implementing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and in developing and implementing their National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).
These efforts deliver results that contribute to an ambitious and effective global response to climate change to the year 2020 and beyond.
The United States is building partnerships to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants and from deforestation. For example, the United States works to secure a global phase-down of hydro-fluoro-carbons through the Montreal Protocol. If implemented, this could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 90 gigatons of CO2 equivalent by 2050. The United States is also building capacity for countries to undertake low-emission development strategies and actions. This work includes assisting countries to increase their capacity for cross-sector planning and formulating sectoral policies for low-emissions economic growth. Other efforts aim to expand clean energy generation and transmission and to increase energy efficiency while phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption. This requires mobilizing public and private investments in cleaner energy, implementing enhanced land-use practices, and building public-private
partnerships that reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
The Department of State and USAID’s climate-smart agriculture efforts involve implementing technologies and practices that increase climate resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. State and USAID are also working to promote sustainable land uses, which combine climate change mitigation and resilience with long-term growth. Additionally, State and USAID support adaptation planning processes in vulnerable countries and communities by developing support tools that use climate science and improve access to data. These integrate climate data into planning decisions. They also strengthen public participation in climate change planning, especially by women, vulnerable populations, indigenous groups, and minorities. State and USAID back actions that increase climate resilience with respect to water security, land management, disaster planning, financial risk management, and management of biodiversity and natural resources.
The United States supports bilateral and multilateral programs by working with the most vulnerable
communities, least developed and developing nations, and the major greenhouse gas emitters. Among the
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programs and efforts to achieve their overall climate change objectives, the Department of State and USAID have chosen to highlight efforts to support Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) as a cross-cutting Agency Priority Goal. Through LEDS assistance, the Department of State and USAID seek to guide policy-makers in analyzing, making policy decisions and mobilizing investments enabling them to develop along a lower emission pathway, which contributes to greenhouse gas reduction efforts. The main programs for providing LEDS assistance, the Enhancing Capacity for LEDS (EC-LEDS) program and the LEDS Global Partnership (LEDS GP) are unique State and USAID partnerships that blend their respective strengths in diplomacy and development.
These programs stand as key elements of U.S. climate assistance, alongside other critical efforts including: (1) the Major Economies Forum; (2) Clean Energy Ministerial; (3) Climate and Clean Air Coalition; (4) Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA) 2020; (5) The National Adaptation Plans (NAP) Global Network and (6) a range of multilateral funds, such as the Green Climate Fund, Clean Investment Funds, and funds focusing on adaptation such as the Least Developed Countries Fund and the Special Climate Change Fund.
Strategic Objective Progress Update
USAID and the Department of State are making significant progress in implementing this strategic goal and objective. The U.S. government plays a leadership role in addressing climate change through international climate negotiations, while enhancing multilateral and bilateral engagement with major economies and enhancing partnerships with other key countries and regions. As part of this effort, the U. S. government was deeply engaged with major economies to secure mitigation contributions before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties in Paris in 2015 and will now support partner countries to implement the contributions. There has also been significant progress on non-UNFCCC fronts (for example, the United Nations Environment Programme’s Climate and Clean Air Coalition, Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA) 2020, Power Africa, The Global Resilience Partnership, Climate Services Partnership, and the Public-Private Partnership for Climate Data: Tools for Resilient Development announcement by President Obama at the 2014 UN Climate Summit).The Department of State and USAID have determined that performance towards this objective is making noteworthy progress.
There is strong progress on the LEDS Agency Priority Goal (APG). The focus of the joint Department of State and USAID APG is to enable economic growth together with significant reductions in national emissions trajectories through 2020 and the longer term by supporting the development and implementation of LEDS. Specifically, this APG measures the progress of EC-LEDS and the multilateral Low Emission Development Strategies Global Partnership (LEDS GP). The Department of State and USAID exceeded the end of their fiscal year target for the number of country programs initiating technical assistance with Ethiopia becoming the 26th country where technical assistance has been initiated.
The EC-LEDS program is now well into the implementation phase. Overall progress on implementation is measured on an annual basis. The current APG builds on the previous Goal and focuses on areas identified as key to successful LEDS development and implementation. USAID and the Department of State worked with each partner country team very closely to determine achievable and ambitious targets for their program. In FY 2015, U.S. government technical assistance resulted in a combined total of 46 milestones achieved, from a baseline of 15, exceeding the combined total target of 45. For LEDS development, the U.S. government team
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achieved 30 major milestones, from a baseline of nine, meeting the target. The U.S. team exceeded its target of 15 major milestones for LEDS implementation with a result of 16 from a baseline of six. This, in part, highlighted a speedier transition that originally anticipated from LEDS development to LEDS implementation. Founded by the Department of State, the LEDS GP is a multilateral platform for enhanced coordination, information exchange, and cooperation among countries and international programs working to advance low emission climate resilient growth. The LEDS GP is a full-fledged global initiative supported by three regional platforms and more than 140 member governments, multilateral organizations, and implementing partners. This success was a result of strong support from the Department of State, USAID, interagency leadership and staff, and very strong interest from international partners. Participation in the LEDS GP and associated capacity building and trainings is significantly ahead of the pace outlined in the quarterly APG targets. Feedback collected at the events illustrates the ways in which participation helped strengthen individuals’ capacity and knowledge, and application to national processes. For example, one participant from the Ministry of Environment in Cote D’Ivoire noted that “my participation in the LEDS Global Partnership has allowed me to build relationships with international organizations for renewable energy development projects in Côte d'Ivoire. These contacts and projects reassure policymakers of my proposals for activities aimed at reducing carbon emissions.”
The LEDS GP has also conducted several Remote Expert Assistance on LEDS (REAL) projects that provided assistance directly to government agencies. In addition, a number of countries have reported back to the LEDS GP Secretariat concrete examples of how they have meaningfully applied capacity that was gained through the LEDS GP. For example, experts from six different institutions and governments provided valuable suggestions to strengthen Kenya’s Framework for Climate Change Policy, including suggestions on strengthening monitoring and evaluation indicators. Comments provided by the LEDS GP experts were incorporated into the revised version of the policy which was validated by the Cabinet and presented to the Parliament for approval. This policy will provide a framework for action that promotes low carbon development in Kenya and is an important milestone in the country’s path for developing its economy while reducing GHG emissions. TFA 2020 is a public-private partnership founded by the United States and the Consumer Goods Forum. Its members take voluntary actions, individually and in combination, aimed at reducing tropical deforestation associated with the sourcing of key commodities. TFA 2020 brings together critical stakeholders to tackle commodity-driven tropical deforestation using a range of market, policy, and communications approaches. Since 2012, the alliance has expanded to include 61 members, including the governments of the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Liberia, Indonesia, Ghana, and Norway, as well as private sector and civil society partners such as McDonald’s, Unilever, Cargill, the Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Federation, and others.
Since the creation of TFA 2020, the United States has played a leadership role in standing up the organizational structure by providing funding for the interim Secretariat; convening key partners; communicating on TFA 2020 in international fora; and providing financial and technical support to key initiatives. TFA 2020 was highlighted at the 2014 United Nations Climate Summit and is aligned with U.S. Government programming to reduce tropical deforestation. For example, the United States, led by USAID and the Department of State, worked with key private sector partners in Indonesia to develop deforestation-free palm oil production commitments and in Colombia worked with the government and stakeholders to design a national-level TFA 2020 strategy for beef, soy, and palm oil development while building secure, safe communities in Colombia.
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Most recently, the United States supported the launch of TFA 2020’s new global Secretariat hosted by the World Economic Forum in Geneva to strengthen the worldwide coalition and deepen regional partnerships. The Secretariat is building upon the successes and best practices of individual partners, and identifying key opportunities for partners to engage in new thematic and geographic areas. It is also innovating new, system-wide solutions to the complex challenges of deforestation-free soy, beef, palm oil, and pulp and paper supply chains. USAID is participating in the Secretariat’s new Finance working group, which aims to develop and test new incentives for investments in companies that are reducing deforestation in their supply chains; the Department of State and USAID will engage in another new working group to encourage engagement by stakeholders in India and China; and finally, USAID is taking a leading role in a third working group to demonstrate that better development comes from conserving natural capital, especially tropical forests.
In addition to working with the Secretariat on global work streams, the United States continues to support specific programming to reduce commodity-driven tropical deforestation. In Paraguay, USAID is working with Minerva, FIDEI, Mennonite Cooperatives, and other private and civil society partners to develop and implement best management practices to increase sustainable production of soy and beef. This will increase the supply of sustainable commodities while reducing pressure on the Chaco, Atlantic Forest, and other critical forests in the country. USAID is initiating a new opportunity to work with TFA 2020 private sector partners to develop tools for mapping and addressing land tenure and governance challenges in their supply chains. With supply chains mapped and land rights clarified, producers have the ability and the incentive to invest in better practices and to protect their land and livelihoods, and TFA 2020 partners can better meet zero deforestation commitments and sustainable sourcing goals.
Beyond the CGF, the United States has a number of complementary programs. For example, the Department of State is working with companies, led by Unilever and Marks & Spencer that have pledged to prioritize the sourcing of commodities from jurisdictions that are implementing comprehensive forest climate programs.
These jurisdictional approaches build broad community support for better practices, monitor reduced deforestation, and reduce the cost for individual producers to the commitments to reducing deforestation in their supply chains. The United States also helped launch the BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes, which brings together public and private sector incentives to support developing countries to reduce emissions from forests and agriculture, following a comprehensive landscape approach.
NAP Global Network:
Launched by the United States with several partners at COP 20 in Lima, Peru, the NAP Global Network (NAP GN) aims to galvanize bilateral support for developing countries in their process to formulate and implement national adaptation plans. The NAP GN is also improving coordination among bilateral development partners, facilitating peer learning and exchange, and supporting enhanced leadership on adaptation at the national level.
In 2015, the NAP GN brought 11 developing countries together to start or enhance their NAP processes. The network will ramp up its efforts and begin to provide more targeted in-country support in 2016.
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To enable the most vulnerable to build resilience and break free from the cycle of crisis, USAID, together with the Rockefeller Foundation and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, have stood up the Global Resilience Partnership.
The Resilience Partnership aims to help millions of vulnerable people in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and South and Southeast Asia better adapt to shocks and stresses, whether climate-driven or otherwise. With an initial commitment of $150 million, the Resilience Partnership will invest in a more secure future by helping the global community pivot from being reactive in the wake of disaster to driving evidence-based investments that enable regions, cities, communities, and households to manage and adapt to inevitable shocks better.
The Resilience Partnership’s first activity was the Global Resilience Challenge (Challenge)—a three-stage grant competition calling for multi-sectoral teams to collaborate on innovative solutions to the toughest resilience challenges in the three focus regions. In the fall of 2015, eight winning teams were announced, each to receive approximately $1 million. This award is for the implementation of their ground-breaking solutions. Details on each of the winning teams, plus the finalists are at www.globalresiliencepartnership.org. Through the Global Climate Change Initiative, USAID is helping countries integrate approaches to addressing climate risks into their national development plans. USAID’s integration approach focuses on stakeholder engagement by identifying potential climate change impacts in key economic sectors, building consensus on prioritized actions, and empowering ownership of key actors in achieving climate resilient goals. Through the NAP GN, the United States and a number of partner countries are supporting countries to develop national adaptation plans.
Addressing climate risks requires applying weather and climate information to decision making. Through the Climate Services for Resilient Development partnership, SERVIR, and other investments in climate information services, USAID is transferring data and technology, and building the capacity of national and regional decision-makers to use forecasts, models, and early warning systems to reduce risk in key economic sectors.
USAID is also working with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature on a five-year program designed to increase input from women and girls into climate change adaptation and mitigation decision-making processes.