The below is attributable to Spokesperson Rebecca Chalif:
Today, Administrator Samantha Power participated in key meetings and events at COP26 to highlight USAID’s commitment and new announcements as part of the United States’ whole of government approach to addressing the climate crisis.
Administrator Power attended the Implementing the Paris Agreement in Africa: African Union Commission and USAID Partnering for Climate Action event along with the African Union Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment, Josefa Sacko, to launch the Comprehensive Africa Climate Change Initiative (CACCI). CACCI is a new partnership between USAID and the African Union Commission to support African countries in reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Administrator Power then spoke at the event, Power-up: Factoring Resilience into Energy Infrastructure Transition alongside Mr Kamal Kishore, member of India’s National Disaster Management Authority and CDRI Executive Committee co-chair; James Larson, Australia’s Climate Coordinator; and Juan Carlos Jobet, Chile’s Minister of Energy. Her remarks focused on the importance of ensuring that clean and renewable energy infrastructure is built to be climate and disaster resilient. In particular, she highlighted the U.S.’s ongoing support for the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI).
The Administrator met with the Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, Yannick Glemarec. The two discussed ways to improve access to climate finance for developing countries, including how to increase private sector finance for adaptation and mitigation programs.
Later, she participated in a panel on Improving the Scale and Effectiveness of Adaptation Finance as part of a High-Level Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Finance. She spoke about the need to scale up financing for climate adaptation for climate-vulnerable countries, which currently receive only a small portion of overall climate finance, and the importance of increasing investment by the private sector. She also highlighted U.S. government efforts to strengthen climate resilience in partner countries, including through the recently announced President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE).
In the evening, she gave a keynote speech at the US Center event “Adapting to Thrive: U.S. Action on Global Climate Adaptation.” Her remarks outlined USAID’s ambitious plans to support more than half a billion people in developing countries to adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change through locally-led development by 2030 as part of PREPARE. She emphasized the disproportionate climate impacts faced by vulnerable developing countries and discussed concrete steps that the Agency is taking to ramp up efforts to improve resilience.
Later she met with leading investors to discuss ways to catalyze additional private capital for climate action in emerging markets. She co-chaired the discussion alongside Galvanize Climate Solutions co-founder, Tom Steyer, and Jason Bordoff, Co-Founding Dean of the Columbia Climate School.