USAID Progress Toward COP26 Announcements
Climate Change
Fact Sheet –
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced multiple initiatives to combat the climate crisis at COP26 in Glasgow. You can find below a summary of the progress we’ve made over the last year implementing these initiatives.
Overall, USAID has set the groundwork to achieve its commitments from COP26 and the goals outlined in our Climate Strategy by 2030. USAID has launched new initiatives, built public and private partnerships, and expanded and accelerated climate action and integration across the entire agency. In the last year, USAID contributed significantly to broader U.S. government initiatives and priorities, including PREPARE and the Plan to Conserve Global Forests, while bolstering USAID programs to enhance climate equity, Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plan support to developing countries, climate finance, methane abatement, and a just energy transition.
Presidential Announcements and Initiatives
President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE)
The President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE) is a whole-of-government initiative to support developing countries and communities in vulnerable situations around the world, in their efforts to adapt to, and manage the impacts of climate change. As part of PREPARE, USAID also committed to improve the climate resilience of half-a-billion people by 2030.
President Biden underscored the U.S. government’s commitment to PREPARE on September 16, 2022 when the White House released the PREPARE Action Plan detailing 60 actions that USAID with 18 other U.S. Government departments and agencies will take to accelerate international adaptation efforts. USAID is currently working in over 30 partner countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis to support them in adapting to and managing climate’s impacts, while protecting critical development gains. You can see key actions that USAID has announced it will take as part of the PREPARE Action Plan.
Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate)
Climate change is exacerbating the global food crisis. The U.S., through the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate, is encouraging governments and the private sector to increase their investments in research and development in climate smart food systems to directly address the impacts of climate change as well as ways to mitigate emissions in food systems.
AIM for Climate launched at COP 26 with 33 partner countries and 49 partner organizations. In the last year, nine countries and 162 organizations have joined. Besides encouraging partner countries to join this important collaborative and to commit to investing in their own R&D budgets, USAID has encouraged private sector and NGO actors to work on “Innovation Sprints.” Innovation Sprints are commitments by AIM for Climate partners to increase investments in climate-smart R&D or ‘deployment’ of innovations. USAID has supported sprints that are empowering smallholder farmers, and plans to announce an additional two Innovation Sprint partnerships at COP27 as well as highlight impacts of USAID’s investments in climate smart food systems.
Plan to Conserve Global Forests: Critical Carbon Sinks
The Plan to Conserve Global Forests: Critical Carbon Sinks is the first ever whole-of-government plan to protect the Amazon rainforest and other critical ecosystems worldwide that sequester large quantities of greenhouse gases. In alignment with President Biden’s plan and as part of the new USAID Climate Strategy, USAID announced new targets to (1) support the protection, restoration, or management of 100 million hectares of critical landscapes—an area more than twice the size of California—by 2030, and (2) reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 6 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030.
USAID is delivering on forest conservation with a more than $250 million annual portfolio (including sustainable landscapes and biodiversity funds) across more than 50 countries. Over the last year, USAID has announced a number of new partnerships and initiatives to conserve, manage, and restore key ecosystems. These include Amazonia Connect, an effort to reduce commodity-driven deforestation in the world’s most important carbon sink; the new phase of the Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment, the U.S. government’s main effort to conserve the Congo Basin; and an initiative in Papua New Guinea to reduce deforestation and emissions in the world’s third largest rainforest.
Global Methane Pledge
The Global Methane Pledge is an ambitious initiative to reduce global methane emissions by 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030. USAID’s Climate Strategy outlines how USAID will support partner countries to measure and reduce methane emissions among other short-lived climate pollutants.
USAID is addressing methane emission mitigation as a co-benefit to our development programming in the key sectors of waste, agriculture, and energy. USAID’s approach to reducing future methane emissions in agriculture is grounded in improving livestock and rice productivity, including the Livestock and Nutrition project in Bangladesh and the Kenya Crops and Dairy Market Systems project. A recent study found that dairy productivity interventions supported by USAID in Kenya helped reduce methane emission intensity by nearly 29 percent. Through the Clean Cities, Blue Ocean (CCBO) mechanism, USAID’s global flagship program for combatting ocean plastic pollution and municipal solid waste, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, the Maldives, Peru, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam are making headway in methane reduction. USAID is planning to provide technical advisory services to help partner countries such as Nigeria to develop action plans to reduce methane emissions from their oil and gas sectors.
Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Tenure Pledge
At COP 26, USAID with other 22 donors committed to a collective pledge of $1.7 billion of financing from 2021 to 2025, to support the advancement of Indigenous Peoples’ (IP) and local communities’ (LC) forest tenure rights, and greater recognition and rewards for their role as guardians of forests and nature.
USAID has an extensive portfolio of activities working across programs to advance IP and LC land tenure rights in the context of biodiversity conservation and sustainable community forest management. USAID works in nearly 30 countries to promote the self-determined development objectives of Indigenous communities. An update on progress toward the Pledge will be published during COP27.
Additional USAID Announcements and Initiatives
Global Action for Climate Equity
USAID will support structural changes that improve participation and leadership for Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women, and youth in all their diversity in climate action in at least 40 partner countries by 2030.
In the last year, USAID has cultivated partnerships with networks and institutions committed to advancing climate equity, as well as worked to integrate climate considerations in inclusive development work across the agency and vice versa. Major developments include:
USAID is dedicating more than $21 million to gender-responsive climate action from the Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund, surpassing its $14 million COP26 commitment.
Announced a new activity to increase youth’s leadership and participation in sustainable natural resource management and build food security in Mozambique.
USAID established the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility, which is supporting implementation of the Climate Strategy Special Objective to transform USAID’s workforce, operations, and policies to substantially reduce carbon emissions, adapt to the climate crisis, and further climate justice.
Supported development of the first-ever Climate Justice Pavilion at COP27, a global collaborative effort that will center the very voices of communities we want to empower in our Climate Strategy.
Published the Local Capacity Strengthening Policy which lays out seven principles to guide USAID humanitarian assistance and development programming for effective programming and equitable partnerships.
Global Climate Ambition Initiative and Comprehensive Action for Climate Change Initiative (CACCI)
The Global Climate Ambition Initiative, launched by the White House in April 2021, seeks to coordinate U.S. government support to partner countries to strengthen and implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) under the Paris Agreement, and advance towards net-zero and newer enhanced commitments. At COP26, USAID announced a target to align development and humanitarian assistance programs with NDCs, NAPs, and partner country climate policy priorities in at least 80 countries by 2030.
In 2022, embassies, USAID missions and other departments and agencies, such as the Department of Energy and U.S. Forest Service, established climate change working groups and coordinated analysis and assistance for climate action with partner governments and other donors through issue-based, climate working groups.
Also at COP26, USAID Administrator Power and African Union Commissioner Josefa Sacko launched the Comprehensive Africa Climate Change Initiative (CACCI)—a new partnership between USAID and the African Union Commission to support African countries in implementing their NDCs. In the last year, CACCI has expanded beyond Africa to become the Comprehensive Action for Climate Change Initiative. USAID Missions in twelve countries—Ghana, Zambia, Rwanda, Senegal,Tajikistan, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Colombia, Bangladesh, Nepal and Guyana—are already supporting partner countries to implement their NDCs and NAPs through CACCI.
Mobilizing $150 Billion in Climate Finance
USAID will mobilize $150 billion in public and private climate finance by 2030.
To address the funding gap in climate finance (across both mitigation and adaptation), since COP26 USAID has launched or joined a variety of efforts across the U.S. government and with private sector partners. These include:
Several initiatives under the “finance” pillar of the PREPARE Action Plan;
Awarding the Climate Finance and Development Accelerator (CFDA – previously known as GRIP), a fast response mechanism for USAID to partner with the private sector to invest in climate solutions by providing incentives and reducing risks for large-scale private investment
Eight new public-private partnerships leveraging over $50 million of private funding under the Health, Ecosystems and Agriculture for Resilient Thriving Societies (HEARTH) award series, including work to advance sustainable cocoa and coffee agroforestry systems, improved natural resources management and resilient community livelihoods
A new Climate Gender Equity Fund, which will leverage private sector funding to scale climate finance that advances gender-equitable climate action.
Just before COP27, USAID and online retailer Amazon, Inc., announced a new five-year partnership, with initial seed funding of $6 million for the Climate Gender Equity Fund. This new initiative will increase access to climate finance for women-led climate organizations, as well as businesses that advance gender-equitable climate solutions in least developed countries around the world. As part of its commitment to gender equality and climate change, Amazon is also announcing a new commitment to allocate $50 million from its Climate Pledge Fund to invest in women-founded and women-led climate tech companies. Amazon will collaborate with USAID and the Climate Gender Equity Fund to source new investment opportunities and broaden its pipeline of female applicants. USAID and Amazon will work together to secure at least $60 million in additional funding and invite others to join us in advancing this critical issue.
USAID Climate Strategy
At COP26, USAID released a draft of its Climate Strategy for public comment. From November 3–24, 2021, we received and addressed more than 2,800 comments.
USAID launched its new agency Climate Strategy in April 2022. The Strategy aims to guide our humanitarian and development work through 2030 in a way that is truly different: by calling on all corners of USAID to play a part in our whole-of-Agency response. The Strategy also outlines how USAID will transform our own workforce, operations, and policies to substantially reduce carbon emissions, adapt to the climate crisis, and further climate justice. In the six months since the Strategy launch, USAID has started several new initiatives to address the climate crisis. We will publish a more fulsome update on our progress in April 2023. The Agency will also produce and present a Progress Report to the Administrator, Congress, and the general public at a minimum of every three years to track progress toward the Targets.
Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet
On November 6, 2021, Administrator Samantha Power signed a memorandum of understanding with the Rockefeller Foundation forming the basis of a strategic partnership between USAID, Power Africa, and the newly launched Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP). The partnership, which has $1.5 billion in philanthropic funding, supports universal, clean energy generation and access for Sub-Saharan Africa by accelerating new distributed renewable energy and grid-based solutions.
In the intervening months since COP26, Power Africa has liaised with GEAPP leadership regularly to identify and implement new collaboration opportunities. Healthcare electrification was identified by GEAPP and Power Africa as an area of keen mutual interest. In July 2022, GEAPP joined Power Africa’s Healthcare Electrification and Telecommunications Alliance, a global development alliance that aims to electrify 10,000 health clinics. Power Africa’s partnership with GEAPP on healthcare electrification encourages future partnership toward the ambitious goals articulated in the MOU.