4. USAID-Climate-Strategy-2022-2030.pdf

Climate Strategy 2022-2030

COVER PHOTO CREDITS:

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Photo: Olti Përmeti, USAID

USAID Climate Strategy 2022-2030

Contact: climatestrategy@usaid.gov

COVER PHOTOS: Alex Sacharow/Mercy Corps Mongolia, Balaram Mahalder/WorldFish Bangladesh, Catholic Relief Services for USAID, el Lopez for USAID, Istockphoto, Herve Irankunda/CNFA/USAID Feed the Future, JulianDani Spath/Catholic Relief Services, Jervis Sundays/

Kenya Red Cross Society, John Wambugu/Africa Lead, Karin Bridger for USAID, Mark Navales/AFP, Moniruzzaman Sazal, Tinne Van Loon for USAID, USAID Green Annamites, USAID Energy, USAID/Guinea, USAID Municipal Energy Reform Project.

APRIL 2022

mailto:climatestrategy%40usaid.gov?subject= i USAID CLIMATE STRATEGY

CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

INRODUCTION

OUR TARGETS FOR ACHIEVEMENT: 2022-2030

USAID’S CLIMATE STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 1: TARGETED DIRECT ACTION: ACCELERATE AND

SCALE TARGETED CLIMATE ACTIONS

INTERMEDIATE RESULT 1.1: CATALYZE URGENT MITIGATION (EMISSIONS

REDUCTIONS AND SEQUESTRATION) FROM ENERGY, LAND USE, AND OTHER

KEY SOURCES

INTERMEDIATE RESULT 1.2: STRENGTHEN CLIMATE RESILIENCE OF PEOPLE

VULNERABLE TO CLIMATE IMPACTS (ADAPTATION)

INTERMEDIATE RESULT 1.3: INCREASE THE FLOW OF AND EQUITABLE ACCESS

TO FINANCE TO SUPPORT ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION

INTERMEDIATE RESULT 1.4: PARTNER WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND

LOCAL COMMUNITIES TO LEAD CLIMATE ACTION

INTERMEDIATE RESULT 1.5: ENABLE AND EMPOWER WOMEN AND YOUTH

AND OTHER MARGINALIZED AND/OR UNDERREPRESENTED GROUPS TO LEAD

CLIMATE ACTION

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 2: SYSTEMS CHANGE: CATALYZE TRANSFORMATIVE SHIFTS

TO NET-ZERO AND CLIMATE-RESILIENT PATHWAYS

INTERMEDIATE RESULT 2.1: ADVANCE TRANSFORMATION OF KEY SYSTEMS AND

ESSENTIAL SERVICES TO REDUCE EMISSIONS AND ENHANCE CLIMATE RESILIENCE

INTERMEDIATE RESULT 2.2: SUPPORT A TRANSITION TO CLIMATE-RESILIENT,

NET-ZERO ECONOMIES AND FINANCIAL SYSTEMS

INTERMEDIATE RESULT 2.3: STRENGTHEN RESPONSIVE, TRANSPARENT

GOVERNANCE AND CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT FOR EFFECTIVE CLIMATE ACTION

INTERMEDIATE RESULT 2.4: STRENGTHEN THE COORDINATION OF

HUMANITARIAN, DEVELOPMENT, AND PEACEBUILDING ASSISTANCE TO

ADDRESS CLIMATE IMPACTS

SPECIAL OBJECTIVE: DOING OUR PART

ROADMAP TO IMPLEMENTATION

ANNEX I: SUMMARY OF USAID’S COMMITMENTS TO IMPLEMENTATION

ANNEX II: GENERAL ASSUMPTIONS FOR ALL TARGETS

ANNEX III: KEY CLIMATE CONSIDERATIONS

ANNEX IV: GLOSSARY

1 USAID CLIMATE STRATEGY

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Climate change is a global crisis. As temperatures and sea levels rise, people around the world are increasingly seeing heat waves, droughts, foods, cyclones, and wildfres upend their lives. The efects of climate change are not equal – they disproportionately impact the poorest and most marginalized communities we work to support every day. Climate change afects virtually everything that USAID does and threatens the development progress we have supported over more than 60 years.

Climate change increases water and food scarcity, displacement, and the need for humanitarian assistance, as well as contributes to confict and disrupts economic stability. Yet at the same time, our response presents an opportunity to improve livelihoods. Decarbonizing economies means less air pollution that negatively afects health. Building climate-resilient infrastructure means people are safer when disaster strikes and reduces the need for costly repairs after every storm. Investing in green jobs presents an opportunity to make workforces more equitable and inclusive.

This decade will be decisive for the future of our planet, and USAID is poised to galvanize the lasting changes necessary to combat climate change. USAID’s convening power, global presence, longstanding partnerships, and breadth of technical expertise position us to make a real diference in this critical global fght. We also recognize that those of us who are responsible for much of the damage caused by the climate crisis have an obligation to those least responsible for causing it.

That is why USAID has developed a new Climate Strategy that will guide our work through 2030 in a way that is truly different. Building on our previous 2012-2018 Climate Change and Development Strategy, which focused on specifc climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, this new Strategy takes an unprecedented “whole-of-Agency” approach that calls on all corners of USAID to play a part in our response. We will work on the ground with partner governments and local actors to set the global trajectory toward our vision of a resilient, prosperous, and equitable world with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

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Addressing the climate crisis requires a holistic approach to development. Every USAID sector and Mission has a role to play as we help transform global systems like agriculture, energy, governance, infrastructure, and health. This Strategy includes six ambitious high-level Targets that refect how a whole-of-Agency approach can dramatically increase USAID’s impact. We will update these 2030 Targets and supplement them with interim Targets throughout the Strategy’s lifetime as our budget and experience with delivery evolves.

• Mitigation: USAID will partner with countries to support activities that reduce, avoid, or sequester six billion metric tons1 of carbon dioxide equivalent.

• Natural and Managed Ecosystems: USAID will support the conservation, restoration, or management of 100 million hectares with a climate change mitigation beneft.

• Adaptation: USAID will enable the improved climate resilience of 500 million people.

• Finance: USAID will mobilize $150 billion in public and private fnance for climate.

• Country Support: USAID will align our development portfolios with countries’ climate change mitigation and adaptation commitments in at least 80 countries by 2024 and will support our partners to achieve systemic changes toward meeting those commitments in at least 40 countries.

• Critical Populations: USAID will support our partners to achieve systemic changes that increase meaningful participation and active leadership in climate action of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women, youth, and other marginalized and/or underrepresented groups in at least 40 partner countries.

Our Climate Strategy is guided by a single, overarching goal: to advance equitable and ambitious actions to confront the climate crisis. Our eforts to achieve this goal will be organized around two main Strategic Objectives.

1. Targeted Direct Action. This Objective recognizes the need to prioritize and confront the most urgent demands of the climate crisis in the here and now. USAID will carefully target climate change mitigation and adaptation eforts to the highest-priority communities and locations – those with the most urgent needs or most immediate opportunities – to maximize our impact.

2. Systems Change. This Objective acknowledges that fully addressing the climate crisis requires long-term, transformative changes that afect every aspect of society and will be neither easy nor quick. USAID will take a systems approach to these larger transformations – such as transforming food systems to be more resilient, less wasteful, and less environmentally destructive, or transitioning economic systems to be less carbon-intensive – in ways that are comprehensive, equitable, and locally led.

These Objectives are not mutually exclusive, but rather mutually reinforcing. We will aim to achieve both in parallel or, at times, sequentially.

Our Strategic Objectives are supported by a Special Objective to Do Our Part. We are working to transform our own workforce, operations, and policies to reduce carbon emissions substantially, adapt to the climate crisis, and further climate justice – and support and expect our implementing partners to do the same. This will include implementing sustainability improvements and strengthening our climate workforce through improved eforts on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.

Every USAID Bureau and Mission will play a part in helping the Agency meet these Objectives, be it through direct climate work or by integrating actions that help tackle the climate crisis into our other

3 USAID CLIMATE STRATEGY

development and humanitarian assistance work. This Strategy is built on several foundational principles, which will be incorporated into all planning and activities:

• Locally Led Development. Sustainable and equitable climate actions should be locally led, owned, and implemented and be tailored and context appropriate.

• Equity and Inclusion. USAID will center its actions in the context of the diverse communities in which we work and will engage local, marginalized, and underrepresented groups as agents of change.

• Private-Sector Engagement. USAID will partner with the private sector to expand the scale, impact, and sustainability of our programs.

• Nature-Based Solutions. USAID will elevate nature-based solutions as key tools to absorb carbon, reduce disaster risk, support livelihoods, and improve food and water security.

• Evidence, Technology, and Innovation. USAID will support the rigorous research, technology, and development needed to identify and deploy efective climate solutions, including those locally known and developed.

USAID will coordinate internally to organize and galvanize a whole-of-Agency response. We will also coordinate with other U.S. government Departments and Agencies to complement and reinforce their work as part of a whole-of-government efort to tackle the climate crisis. Finally, we will continue to coordinate externally with other donors, civil society, partner governments, and other stakeholders to align our support with their climate eforts and commitments where appropriate.

USAID will develop and regularly update robust guidance for tracking our progress as we implement this Strategy. The Strategy also includes requirements and recommendations for all USAID Operating Units to facilitate implementation. To reduce inefciencies and improve coherence across all programming, much of our implementation guidance will build on existing processes such as budget planning, workforce recruitment, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning that are routine features of the USAID Program Cycle. We will also have staf dedicated to the capacity-building, knowledge-management, and communications needs of a whole-of-Agency approach to climate change.

Together with our partners and allies around the world, we can and we must do all we can to advance equitable and ambitious actions to confront the climate crisis. Our future depends on it.

4 USAID CLIMATE STRATEGY

INTRODUCTION

Climate change is a planetary crisis that is leaving no corner of the world untouched. It afects the frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme weather events, alters precipitation patterns, disrupts ecological systems, and causes temperatures and sea levels to rise.2 These changes undermine the resilience of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, increasing the stress on already-scarce resources.

It is now well understood that the impacts of climate change reach far beyond the environmental sector – afecting poverty, economic growth, peace and stability, displacement, fragility, and local, national, and regional security. Climate change negatively afects life-long physical and mental health, mortality, food security, and access to essential services, such as health care; water, sanitation and hygiene; and education.3,4,5

These impacts, in turn, exacerbate economic, socio-cultural, and environmental inequities, increasing the vulnerability of marginalized and underrepresented groups to hunger, malnutrition, and violence – including gender-based violence and child abuse, dispossession, and disempowerment.

Globally and at home, the United States contends with disruption to food and water supplies as well as more frequent and severe disasters. In short, failure to address climate change aggressively will have dire consequences for us all.

The climate crisis is occurring concurrently with other global crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, worsening food and water insecurity, accelerated loss of biodiversity, and increasing violence and confict. These compounding crises make addressing the climate crisis more difcult, as they amplify negative impacts and impede access to places and people facing multiple stressors. These compounding challenges result in impacts that vary as a function of difering capacities, power dynamics, and resources available to address them. This requires developing local, contextualized responses. Yet, if these concurrent and compounding crises are considered in concert, we may be able to leverage the political will and resources available to achieve the transformative changes necessary and envisioned in this Strategy.6

Marginalized and underrepresented populations may include, but are not limited to, poor and ultra-poor households, women and girls, persons with disabilities, LGBTQI+ people, displaced persons, migrants, Indigenous Peoples and communities, children in adversity and their families, youth, older persons, religious minorities, ethnic and racial groups, people in lower castes, persons with unmet mental health needs, people of diverse economic class and political opinions, and more.

These groups often sufer from discrimination in the application of laws and policy and/or access to resources, services, and social protection, and may be subject to persecution, harassment, and/or violence. These groups are also more vulnerable to climate shocks and stresses, and have fewer assets and means within their reach to adapt and withstand the efects of climate change. Through application of the principle on equity and inclusion, USAID will demonstrate our commitment to paying special attention to how we engage, support, and empower marginalized and underrepresented groups.

Addressing climate change is a top priority for USAID as part of the U.S. government’s renewed and strengthened commitments to building climate resilience and helping limit global warming to

1.5 degrees Celsius7 as called for under the Paris Agreement.8 Tackling climate change is also a top priority because achieving our development and humanitarian mission is dependent on efectively and urgently addressing the climate crisis. However, this will not be easy: Staying within the 1.5°C target will require all countries to work together to achieve net-zero global carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, and achieve a 45 percent reduction in emissions relative to 2010 levels by 2030.9 It will also require addressing the worsening impacts of climate change in an equitable and inclusive manner to avoid unintended adverse impacts. The U.S. government is stepping up to support global eforts to address this critical challenge. Within this larger efort, USAID plays a leading international role by working on the ground with partner governments and local actors to strengthen mitigation and adaptation.

USAID has a longstanding commitment to support our partners to respond to the threat of climate change and seize on the opportunities to defne resilient, low-emissions pathways that meet development objectives. These include mitigation actions such as the use of renewable energy and natural climate solutions, climate change adaptation, and systems transformation. USAID’s work on climate change mitigation aims to ensure that global emissions are sufciently reduced such that a robust range of adaptation options remain possible. Globally, there are great opportunities for adaptation and mitigation to achieve complementary objectives across sectors including agriculture, energy, natural resource management, and more.

Responding to the climate crisis represents an economic, technological, ecological, and sociopolitical opportunity for countries to transition into societies with greater equality, well-being, and sustained prosperity for all. Bold and inclusive action on climate can lead to trillions of dollars in economic gain by unlocking new investment opportunities and supporting job growth and economic development.10 USAID will emphasize climate actions that support our partner’s climate priorities, leverage other priorities and strategies to provide broader development benefts (food and water security, health, peace, and education), and ensure a just transition to an economy based on clean energy and a sustainable use of natural resources. At the same time, our broader development and humanitarian eforts, especially those that strengthen the social and

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USAID CLIMATE STRATEGY 5

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6 USAID CLIMATE STRATEGY

a ooo

USAID’s Strengths

Global Presence

Strong on-the-ground presence globally enables

USAID to amplify and build on local priorities in creating sustainable climate actions that are locally-led and locally valued.

Longevity

Long and consistent history of working with partner countries, organizations, the private sector, and communities situates USAID as a trusted and infuential partner.

Breadth of Expertise

In-depth sectoral technical expertise combined with contextual understanding of local economic, political, cultural and institutional landscapes situates USAID well to address complex challenges.

Convening Power

A trusted and respected position enables USAID to catalyze climate action at scale through institutional partnerships with host governments, civil society, multilateral organizations, the private sector, academia, and others.

economic empowerment of marginalized and underrepresented groups, are reducing vulnerability more generally, and thus increasing people’s abilities to adapt to the climate crisis.

This Strategy, spanning from 2022 to 2030, represents an efort to align USAID’s programs and investments with the signifcant challenges confronting us. The Agency will draw on our strengths as an international development agency, which include our global presence, longevity in many of our partner countries, breadth of technical and development expertise, and convening power (see USAID’s Strengths graphic above). USAID will weave rights-based, gender-responsive, and socially inclusive approaches carefully throughout our eforts to ensure the ambitious climate actions of USAID and our partners achieve sustainable impacts. Throughout implementation of this Strategy, USAID will consult and partner with those most vulnerable to climate change, including people living below the poverty line, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, women, youth, and other marginalized and/or underrepresented populations, to co-create solutions, avoid unintended harm, and maximize local benefts. Underpinning our eforts will be the use of climate data and knowledge, including traditional and local knowledge, as it promotes data- and knowledge-driven programming and decision-making and strengthens the capacity of communities to adapt to climate impacts.

This Strategy will also support wider international development and humanitarian eforts, especially achievement of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While climate action is included as one of the 17 SDGs, as noted throughout this Strategy, climate impacts will afect and undermine global eforts to achieve virtually all of these goals. To achieve success, USAID will collaborate internally as well as across the U.S. government and expand our relationships with other donors and international partners; local, national and regional governments and organizations; and the communities and individuals most afected by climate change. All of our eforts will be informed and guided by the plans, strategies and priorities of our partners.

7 USAID CLIMATE STRATEGY

I OUR TARGETS FOR

ACHIEVEMENT: 2022-2030

This Strategy sets six Targets that we aim to achieve by 2030:

• USAID will partner with countries to support activities that reduce, avoid, or sequester six billion metric tons11 of carbon dioxide equivalent.

• USAID will support the conservation, restoration, or management of 100 million hectares with a climate change mitigation beneft.

• USAID will enable the improved climate resilience of 500 million people.

• USAID will mobilize $150 billion in public and private fnance for climate.

• USAID will align our development portfolios with countries’ climate change mitigation and adaptation commitments in at least 80 countries by 2024 and will support our partners to achieve systemic changes toward meeting those commitments in at least 40 countries.

• USAID will support our partners to achieve systemic changes that increase meaningful participation and active leadership in climate action of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women, youth, and other marginalized and/or underrepresented groups in at least 40 partner countries.

Targets cover the period 2022–2030. They are in line with Fiscal Year 2023 requested funding levels and other assumptions around improved performance and reporting.

CLIMATE STRATEGY

TARGETS 2022-2030

Mitigation:

CO2e reduced 6

Billion metric tons

Natural & Managed Ecosystems:

Hectares conserved, restored, or managed

Million hectares

Adaptation:

People supported to be climate resilient

Million people

Finance:

Public and private funds mobilized

Billion dollars

Country Support:

NDCs/NAPs supported 80

Countries supported

Critical Populations:

Increase equitable engagement partnerships strengthened

Country

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Building on lessons learned from our previous Climate Change and Development Strategy, an analysis of our past program evaluations and lessons learned, more than 40 listening sessions with partners and stakeholders from around the world, and a number of analyses, including a gender analysis (see box on page 23), this Strategy transitions USAID toward a much more holistic and whole-of-Agency approach.

This transition requires decreasing emphasis on some approaches while continuing or increasing the emphasis on interventions that can achieve the necessary scale and impact we seek, taking into account the contexts in which we work.

The exact interventions USAID undertakes will depend on the local context and partner priorities, and prioritization will occur at the regional, national, and local levels in consultation with our partners.

The dual climate change priorities of mitigation (reducing and sequestering emissions) and adaptation (reducing climate vulnerability and improving resilience to climate impacts) cut across the Strategic Objectives and are embedded throughout the Strategic Framework. Under the frst Strategic Objective, USAID addresses adaptation and mitigation through separate but mutually reinforcing eforts to ensure that the most urgent needs of each priority are met.

Under the second Strategic Objective, USAID will prioritize eforts to catalyze the transformation of systems over the long-term in ways that address both adaptation and mitigation needs together.

Under both of these objectives, USAID will support actions that avert and minimize loss and damage to the extent possible.

USAID’S CLIMATE STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

As refected in the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report,12 the decade from 2020-2030 is critical for setting the global trajectory and ensuring future generations are not subjected to the most devastating efects of climate change. Under this new Strategy, USAID is motivated by a vision of a resilient, prosperous, and equitable world with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Working toward that vision, this Strategy will guide USAID’s whole-of-Agency eforts through 2030 to advance equitable and ambitious actions to confront the climate crisis. This goal will be achieved through two Strategic Objectives (SOs) that allow USAID to facilitate targeted direct action (SO 1) and systems change (SO 2) across all sectors. These two Strategic Objectives are mutually reinforcing; many programs and activities will contribute to both, in parallel or sequentially. USAID will also demonstrate our commitment to addressing the climate crisis by implementing a Special Objective (SpO) through which USAID will do our part by transforming our operations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially, adapt to the climate crisis, and improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility among our staf working on climate, and by supporting our partners to undertake similar eforts.

USAID cannot achieve any of its high-level Targets through actions under any single Strategic Objective or their underlying Intermediate Results (IRs). Instead, USAID will achieve each of our Targets through multiple actions taken under both Strategic Objectives and across multiple Intermediate Results.

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USAID’s Climate Strategic Framework

VISION: A resilient, prosperous, and equitable world with net-zero emissions GOAL: To advance equitable and ambitious actions to confront the climate crisis

SO 1. TARGETED DIRECT ACTION

Accelerate and scale targeted climate actions

SO 2. SYSTEMS CHANGE

Catalyze transformative shifts to net-zero and climate-resilient pathways

IR 1.1 Reduce Emissions Catalyze urgent mitigation (emissions reductions and sequestration) from energy, land use, and other key sources

IR 1.2 Build Resilience Strengthen resilience of populations vulnerable to climate impacts (adaptation)

IR 1.3 Mobilize Finance Increase the fow of and equitable access to fnance to support adaptation and mitigation

IR 1.4 Partner with IPLCs Partner with Indigenous Peoples and local communities to lead climate action

IR 1.5 Amplify Crucial Voices Enable and empower women and youth and other marginalized and/or under-represented groups to lead climate action

Embedded Principles

Locally Led Development

Equity and Inclusion

Private-Sector Engagement

Nature-Based Solutions

Evidence and Innovation

IR 2.1 Transform Key Systems Advance transformation of key systems and essential services to reduce emissions and enhance climate resilience

IR 2.2 Shift Market Signals Support a transition to resilient, net-zero economies and fnancial systems

IR 2.3 Improve Governance Strengthen responsive, transparent governance and citizen engagement for efective climate action

IR 2.4 Work Across Assistance Types Strengthen the coordination of humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding assistance to address climate impacts

SpO 3. DO OUR PART Strengthen the operations and approaches to programming to address climate change and further climate justice within USAID and our partner organizations

To achieve these Strategic Objectives, USAID will take a whole-of-Agency approach, engaging every Bureau, Operating Unit, and Mission throughout the Agency. Our success will require harnessing a combination of dedicated climate and other sectoral funding as we take a holistic approach to climate programming, integrating climate into all areas of our development and humanitarian assistance, including in confict-afected and fragile geographies, and expanding defnitions of success in all sectors to include climate objectives. This will involve not just targeted actions, but also the long-term work of infuencing the systems that shape economies and societies. Such a holistic approach does not mean that USAID will stop doing the broad range of development work that is core to our mandate; it means that we recognize that the climate crisis jeopardizes all our progress and objectives and that there are strategic opportunities to drive progress on climate within much of our work.

To avoid and limit potential negative impacts, all our climate eforts should incorporate principles of confict sensitivity, peacebuilding, social cohesion, and inclusive development. USAID will pursue climate actions responsibly to avoid exacerbating tensions, conficts, and inequalities. USAID will pay special attention to ensuring that programs do no harm and protect Indigenous Peoples and environmental and human rights defenders.

Throughout implementation of this Strategy, USAID will consider, partner with, and consult with those most vulnerable to climate change, including Indigenous People and local communities, women, children and their families, youth, and other marginalized and/or underrepresented groups, to avoid unintended harm and maximize local benefts.

To this end, USAID will continue to support the ethical and responsible use of data, knowledge, including traditional and local knowledge, digital technology, and analytics to achieve its goals.

Further, fve important principles will be embedded into all actions taken under this strategy: Locally Led Development; Equity and Inclusion; Private- Sector Engagement; Nature-Based Solutions;

and Evidence, Technology, and Innovation (see elaboration on page 12).

To an important extent, prioritization within our strategic areas of emphasis will be defned at a sectoral, regional, and national level given the diversity of contexts in which we work. Unlike much of the work that USAID does, working on climate is not only a sectoral activity, but something that touches on every sector in a multitude of ways.

Thus, how best to efect change will very much depend on a wide range of context-specifc factors.

The fundamental premise of this strategy is not that

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we will do all things in all geographies but rather that we have a framework for describing our goals and interventions and that we will support Missions and teams to shape how they can contribute most efectively to our goals. No two climate plans of action from a Mission or Bureau will be exactly the same.

This Strategy is built on several foundational principles, which will be incorporated into all planning and activities:

Locally Led Development Sustainable and equitable climate actions should be locally-led, owned, and implemented; adhere to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent; and be tailored and context-appropriate. USAID will defer decision-making authority and leadership to local actors to the greatest extent possible, including to governments at all levels, local private sector actors, universities, and Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Locally-led action focuses on respecting and protecting rights, enabling self-determined development, creating decent jobs, and ensuring that local knowledge and expertise drive USAID’s work.

Equity and Inclusion

Equitable and inclusive action is critical to sustaining bold climate ambition. USAID will center its actions in the context of the diverse communities in which USAID works, committing to empowering accessible and inclusive approaches through which local communities and the marginalized groups within them—in particular, Indigenous Peoples and those people and groups often excluded from decision and policy making, funding, and beneft sharing—are meaningfully engaged as climate change agents. USAID will also confront the entrenched power structures that create and maintain inequalities.

Private-Sector Engagement USAID must partner and engage with the private sector to address climate change and its impacts, create decent green jobs, and avoid generating adverse impacts. Serving as both a catalyst and a partner to private companies and investors will greatly expand the scale, impact, and sustainability of USAID’s programs. USAID will be alert through our on-the-ground presence to private sector engagements that will drive environmental and/or human rights abuses and will seek to engage those actors proactively to address the issues at hand wherever feasible.

Nature-Based Solutions Nature-based solutions are essential to limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius and adapting to climate change. Forests, peatlands, and other ecosystems absorb and store large amounts of carbon, reduce disaster risk, and support livelihoods, food and water security, and health. USAID will elevate the use of nature-based solutions to simultaneously reduce emissions and store carbon, adapt to the impacts of climate change, and conserve and restore ecosystems.

Evidence and Innovation USAID will work closely with scientists, academics, practitioners and entrepreneurs, drawing especially on local experts, to help unlock and promote innovative and proven, context-appropriate climate solutions. By leveraging local knowledge and practice, new research, data collection and analysis, as well as exploring and scaling promising technologies, USAID will develop and apply the evidence and innovations necessary to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.

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I STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 1: Targeted Direct Action: Accelerate and scale targeted climate actions

USAID will take, support, and facilitate targeted direct action to confront the most urgent demands of the climate crisis. Under Strategic Objective I, USAID will employ context-sensitive approaches to support climate change mitigation and adaptation eforts in critical geographies, mobilize increased fnance, and partner with Indigenous Peoples and local communities, women, youth, and other marginalized and/or underrepresented groups in locally led eforts to address the climate crisis.

Strategic Objective 1 will build on and support our partners’ climate plans, policies, and strategies and will seek to facilitate and motivate the transformative change sought under Strategic Objective 2.

INTERMEDIATE RESULT 1.1: Catalyze urgent mitigation (emissions reductions and sequestration) from energy, land use, and other key sources.

Avoiding the most catastrophic climate impacts will require climate change mitigation actions that drastically reduce new greenhouse gas emissions, including short-lived climate pollutants like methane, and remove greenhouse gases currently in the atmosphere. In emerging economies, energy consumption will grow by 70 percent by 2050,13 representing 73 percent of global energy emissions.14 In addition, in lower-income countries, a majority of emissions come from deforestation, agriculture, and other land use.15 Sound management of land and ecosystems is also the only currently available and afordable approach to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere at large scales globally,16 and tropical developing countries have disproportionately high mitigation potential from opportunities like forest conservation and restoration.17

Under this Intermediate Result, USAID will help partner countries reach near-term climate targets and avoid locking in longer-term emissions trajectories by working with partners to reduce emissions from energy, urban areas, transportation, industry, waste, food systems, and land use, including agriculture, deforestation, and degradation of critical ecosystems. In the energy sector, USAID will work with partner countries to achieve both economic development and ambitious climate objectives through emissions reductions across power, buildings, transport, and industry. USAID will work with countries to achieve ambitious emissions reductions and sequestration through natural climate solutions, which conserve, manage, and restore forests, mangroves, wetlands, agricultural lands, and other natural and managed systems. USAID will also support countries to dramatically reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (like methane and black carbon), one of the strongest levers for slowing near-term warming and toxic air pollution.18 Pursuing ambitious and equitable mitigation to advance a just transition will have many economic, health, ecological, and social benefts. Mitigation eforts will use an inclusive approach that empowers a broad range of stakeholders, including the labor movement and marginalized and underrepresented groups, to ensure shared and sustained outcomes, as well as to limit any negative impacts.

Nature-Based Solutions and Natural Climate Solutions Actions to conserve, manage, and restore ecosystems (including managed systems such as agricultural lands) that address societal challenges efectively and adaptively are called nature-based solutions when broadly referring to goals like climate adaptation and mitigation or food and water security, and are called natural climate solutions when specifcally referring to climate change mitigation.

https://pollution.18 https://restoration.17 https://emissions.14

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Actions under this Mitigation Intermediate Result include but are not limited to:

ENERGY PRODUCTION AND USE

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• Catalyzing the accelerated deployment of proven technologies, including renewable energy technologies and practices, and identifying opportunities to support mature and affordable mitigation technology transfer relevant to the context of USAID partner countries.

• Continuing to support integration of renewables into the electricity grid and reduce reliance on fossil fuels for power generation, and expand and strengthen electricity grids utilizing advanced smart-grid technologies.

• Facilitating expansion of local and central grid solutions using renewable energy to reach those without energy access and electrify households and cooking methods to avoid future emissions, reduce energy poverty and deforestation, and improve air quality and health.

• Incentivizing energy efficiency standards and practices to enable economic growth at lower cost and emissions intensity.

• Supporting countries to analyze, plan, and implement actions to reduce emissions from industry, buildings, and transport by switching to clean energy sources and introducing technologies, processes, and behaviors that reduce energy intensity.

• Launching new activities to reduce emissions and support decent work and growth in cities, such as supporting clean transport systems that allow safe, afordable access to markets and jobs and facilitate supply chains.

• Helping partner countries reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, such as methane (e.g., agriculture, waste, and fossil fuels), black carbon (e.g., high-emitting vehicles, residential energy, and biomass burning), and emissions of nitrous oxide (e.g., from agriculture, energy use, industrial processes, and waste management) to catalyze rapid emissions reductions and reduce health risks.

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Center Nature as a Climate Defense and a Solution Nature has been our frst line of defense against the climate crisis for decades, and it is also an essential part of the solution. Oceans and forests absorb large amounts of carbon emissions while also supporting livelihoods and human adaptation to climate change. This interdependence of climate and natural systems—and human dependence on both—means that neither the climate crisis nor environmental degradation can be tackled independently. Nature-based solutions provide a key means for USAID to simultaneously reduce emissions, strengthen climate resilience, and conserve our biosphere, while providing important humanitarian and development benefts and promoting equity and inclusion.

LAND USE, INCLUDING AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL CLIMATE SOLUTIONS

• Supporting the conservation, management, and greenhouse gas emissions, produce higher restoration of forests, mangroves, peatlands, quantities of food and agricultural products, and other high-carbon ecosystems to achieve support diverse livelihoods, and protect and climate change mitigation benefts. restore high-carbon and ecologically sensitive ecosystems. • Working with private-sector partners to align interventions and launch new partnerships • Collaborating with partner countries to reduce to reduce deforestation and increase native emissions from food and agriculture systems forest restoration in commodity supply chains. including through enhanced agricultural productivity, reduced food loss and waste,• Promoting through policy, agricultural and deployment of efcient, clean energy ininnovation, and stakeholder engagement agriculture value chains. sustainable, productive landscapes that sequester carbon in soils and trees, reduce

POLICY, PLANS, AND SOCIAL SAFEGUARDS

• Partnering with countries to identify and • Protecting and supporting environmental implement additional mitigation opportunities and human rights defenders who advocate that align with country priorities and advance to preserve critical carbon-sequestering and bolster their Nationally Determined ecosystems. This may be done by advancing Contributions under the Paris Agreement. their rights, intervening on their behalf with governments where appropriate, and supporting• Using political economy, economic, confict, digital security, collective defense strategies, andgender, and social inclusion analyses to rapid-response mechanisms.identify cost-effective, equitable mitigation approaches to support implementation.

INTERMEDIATE RESULT 1.2: Strengthen climate resilience of people vulnerable to climate impacts (adaptation). Climate impacts are pervasive and have disparate and disproportionate impacts across sectors, populations, and geographies. Extreme weather events and slow-onset climate impacts pose new risks, aggravate existing social, economic, and political challenges and inequities, and degrade ecosystems and natural resources. They also drive migration and increase the risk of confict.

Under this Intermediate Result, USAID will support and scale actions that build the climate resilience of people, places, ecosystems, and livelihoods that are vulnerable to the impacts of climate variability and change. Actions under this Intermediate Result will help people, communities and countries anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to current and future climate impacts while fostering human dignity and hope.

This work will strengthen adaptive capacity and harness the robust evidence that adaptation can save lives, reduce food and water insecurity, safeguard ecosystem services and livelihoods, and improve health, including mental health, education, and well-being outcomes.19,20 Adaptation eforts will use confict-sensitive and gender-responsive approaches, and will be co-developed with those most vulnerable to climate change, including poor households, Indigenous Peoples, women, youth, persons with disabilities, those afected by migration and displacement, and other marginalized and/or underrepresented groups.

These actions will directly support the implementation of countries’ national and local adaptation priorities as identifed through relevant plans and strategies, including Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans under the Paris Agreement.

Actions under this Adaptation Intermediate Result include but are not limited to:

EXPANDING ACCESS AND USE OF DATA, INFORMATION, AND KNOWLEDGE TO

STRENGTHEN CLIMATE RESILIENCE

• Facilitating capacity building of regional, national, and local partners to co-design and deliver demand-driven climate information services.

• Scaling user-centric climate services for risk-informed planning, decision-making, and early action tailored to users’ expressed needs for near, medium, and long-term decision-making.

• Identifying and working within the unique local and community contexts to understand and reduce climate risks.

• Supporting the use, digitization, and archiving of historic and current environmental and climatic data to understand, forecast, and prepare for weather and climate impacts.

• Ensuring widespread availability of reliable and appropriate climate vulnerability data and information, including traditional knowledge, particularly for communities facing the greatest risks.

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Urban Climate Action: Climate action in cities cuts across all elements of the Strategy and will be critical for meeting immediate climate targets while investing in long-term systemic transformation. Cities house over 55 percent of the world’s population, are responsible for more than 70 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions 21 and generate 80 percent of global GDP.22 By 2050, almost 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities.23 The rapid growth rate of cities in low-and middle-income countries has led to the expansion of urban communities living in informal settlements who are marginalized, food insecure, and at risk to extreme weather. If these trends continue, cities will increasingly be where climate change and development intersect; creating opportunities for development programming to maximize synergies across traditional sectors for greatest impact. Urbanization trends, coupled with industry and infrastructure development and population growth, will contribute to increased demand for food, energy, water, sanitation, and transportation, which will place increasing pressure on land, forests, and water. USAID will expand our work in cities to address the climate crisis by reducing emissions and supporting adaptation, equity and inclusion through a just transition, and invest in sustainable land and water management.

INCREASING THE RESILIENCE OF KEY DEVELOPMENT SECTORS AND SERVICES

• Supporting climate-resilient food systems, • Working with partners to address health including the development and wide-spread impacts from climate change through adoption of diversifed climate resilient prevention and treatment, including agriculture, livestock, and fsheries across value surveillance and early warning of climate-chains. sensitive, vector-borne diseases, heat-health action plans, air quality management, behavioral, • Strengthening the quality and resilience of water clinical, and public health interventions and systems through improved water resources mental health services. management.

• Supporting climate-resilient education systems • Supporting comprehensive disaster risk and non-formal education settings to ensure reduction strategies, early warning learning continuity and the development of systems, and anticipatory action, including climate adaptation skill sets, with emphasis those accessible by women, girls, youth, on girls, women, and marginalized and disabled, displaced, and other marginalized and underrepresented populations. underrepresented groups.

• Strengthening local governance, gender-• Strengthening natural resource management equitable resource rights, and inclusive to manage and reduce climate risks and build approaches that increase the resilience of local capacity for resilience and resource sharing, populations most vulnerable to climate impacts. including through socio-ecological approaches.

• Promoting and strengthening climate resilient • Supporting the implementation of nature-livelihoods, services, and markets. based solutions, including the conservation, management, and restoration of forests, • Incentivizing and enhancing the capacity of mangroves, peatlands, and other critical private-sector actors to invest in and catalyze ecosystems, to deliver adaptation, mitigation, adaptation actions.

and other co-benefts.

https://cities.23

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• Supporting countries to increase resilience of key infrastructure sectors, including supply- and demand-side systems for energy, transportation, communications, and water services.

• Working with partners to address climate-related migration by working with communities and migrants to limit displacement and support safer and more productive migration, including in sending and receiving communities.

• Supporting sustainable, resilient, affordable housing, infrastructure, and services in urban areas, including in slums and informal settlements, that are vulnerable to fooding and other climate risks.

• Utilizing principles of environmental peacebuilding to advance equitable resource sharing and management that both mitigate conflict risk and increase climate resilience.

MAINSTREAMING ADAPTATION IN POLICY, PLANS, AND SOCIAL SAFEGUARDS AT ALL SCALES

• Working with local communities, governments, • Supporting climate-sensitive peacebuilding and regional institutions to strengthen their efforts in climate-afected, fragile contexts leadership, agency, and capacity to assess that advance equitable resource sharing and and manage climate risks. management.

• Catalyzing participation, inclusion and equity, • Leveraging principles of gender accountability, transparency, and local responsiveness and universal design ownership to advance adaptation priorities. and accessibility to ensure that adaptation interventions are designed for all members of • Supporting development, budgetary alignment, the community. and implementation of NAPs, adaptation components of National Determined • Identifying and addressing local barriers to Contributions, and adaptation objectives action by community members, including the across development and sectoral policies. increasingly common mental health effects of climate change that require attention and that • Expanding our eforts to build resilience by in turn reduce resilience and capacity to take holistically addressing risks, including climate action. risks, and aligning with the Agency’s

Resilience Policy. • Ensuring child-centered adaptation measures are in place to protect children from their unique vulnerability to climate change.

https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/USAIDResiliencePolicyGuidanceDocument.pdf

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INTERMEDIATE RESULT 1.3: Increase the flow of and equitable access to finance to support adaptation and mitigation.