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1,700 results
Faces of Restoration Silvany Lima: Cultivating "Money Trees" in Brazil's Dry Forest
In the semiarid Caatinga region of Brazil, farmers are adopting agroforestry by integrating native trees, specifically the umbu (Spondias tuberosa), into livestock pastures. This transition is driven by severe climate impacts, including a 50% decline in rainfall in the Jacuípe Drainage Basin since 1962 and increasing desertification. The establishment of the Ser do Sertão cooperative and its Delícias do Jacuípe factory has created a commercial market for umbu pulp, providing farmers with supplemental income that can exceed dairy revenues during the harvest season. Beyond economic gains, these practices help retain soil moisture and provide animal feed during droughts, offering a scalable model for restoring degraded landscapes and ensuring the livelihoods of subsistence farmers.
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Document type: Case study
Powering Development in Climate Vulnerable Areas: The Role of Decentralized Solar Solutions in India
The report argues that decentralized solar solutions in India's climate-vulnerable regions must move beyond traditional, siloed implementation models to incorporate climate-risk data, context-specific design, and innovative financing to ensure resilience against extreme weather events.
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Document type: Report
Mainstreaming Climate Adaptation Planning and Action into Health Systems in Fiji, Ghana, and Benin
The document analyzes how Fiji, Ghana, and Benin are mainstreaming climate adaptation into their health systems through policy development, pilot projects, and political leadership. It identifies key barriers such as limited funding and poor data access, while recommending 'no-regrets' actions like staff training and the establishment of cross-sectoral collaboration mechanisms to build resilience against climate-related health risks and other shocks.
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Document type: Research paper
Building a Climate Resilient Future for Costa Rica’s Coffee Farming Communities
The document examines the vulnerability of coffee cultivation in the Coto Brus region of Costa Rica, where up to 50% of suitable land may be lost by 2050. It identifies a gap between the awareness of sustainable practices and their implementation, particularly among resource-limited smallholders. The report argues that current short-term incremental adjustments are insufficient and advocates for 'transformative adaptation,' which includes diversifying incomes, replanting with resilient varieties, and potentially shifting livelihoods for farmers in areas where coffee is no longer viable.
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Document type: Case study
Nature-Based Solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa for Climate and Water Resilience
The document outlines a methodology for tracking nature-based solutions (NBS) investments in sub-Saharan Africa by scanning multilateral development bank portfolios. Between 2012 and 2021, the World Bank and African Development Bank led 85 NBS-related projects with combined total budgets of $12.1 billion, of which $4.5 billion was specifically for NBS components. The research identifies Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as the countries with the highest project counts and notes that NBS are being used to address urban flooding, coastal flooding, and water security while providing co-benefits for biodiversity and carbon sequestration.
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Document type: Report
Improving School Infrastructure for Healthier Students and Communities
Public school infrastructure in the United States suffers from decades of underinvestment, leading to poor indoor air quality and health issues like asthma, which disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color. While recent funding and tax credits have provided some relief, the document urges Congress and governors to further prioritize clean energy, energy efficiency, electric school buses, and green school grounds to modernize facilities and create community resilience hubs.
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Document type: Briefing
Did the Global COVID-19 Recovery Address Climate Adaptation and Resilience? An Analysis of Sixty-Seven Countries
The research analyzes the integration of climate adaptation and resilience within COVID-19 recovery measures across sixty-seven countries, highlighting a gap in recovery efforts for the most vulnerable nations.
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Document type: Research paper
Unlocking Private Climate Investment
The paper analyzes the roles of OPIC and Ex-Im Bank in climate finance, noting that together they intermediated 37% (over $2 billion) of total US assistance to developing countries for climate activities between 2010 and 2012. It argues that tailoring financial instruments—such as loans, guarantees, and insurance—to specific sectoral risks can unlock private finance. The authors highlight a complementary relationship where OPIC often acts as a first-mover for high-risk projects, while Ex-Im Bank provides inexpensive concessional debt for more established players. Recommendations include increasing instrument flexibility, addressing institutional barriers like employee incentives and staffing, and improving coordination between public financial institutions to streamline due diligence and co-financing.
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Document type: Research paper
Our Journey with the City: Deciphering WRI India Ross Center’s Influence in Bengaluru
The document assesses WRI India Ross Center's role as a change agent in Bengaluru since 2010, focusing on its transition from mobility to broader urban development, energy, water, and climate resilience. It identifies a data-led approach and sustained physical presence as key success factors, while noting that governance complexities and short funding timeframes present significant challenges.
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Document type: Research paper
The role of faith-based organizations in tackling food loss and waste in Rwanda: A preliminary study
The study finds that while faith-based organizations (FBOs) in Rwanda are deeply integrated into the food system—managing 75% of schools and 30% of health facilities—most lack formal food loss and waste (FLW) reduction programs. Key barriers include limited resources, knowledge, and skills. The paper argues that FBOs can be powerful agents of change for food security and climate resilience if supported through targeted capacity building, funding, and policy integration.
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Document type: Research paper
Ethiopia’s Path to Net Zero and Climate-Resilient Development: Policies, Costs, and Co-benefits
The analysis finds that pursuing a net zero emissions pathway by 2050 in Ethiopia would increase the average real annual GDP growth rate by 1.4 percent relative to a business-as-usual scenario. While the NZE pathway requires an additional US$66.98 billion in cumulative investment costs by 2050, it is projected to generate $111 billion in cumulative co-benefits through increased real GDP and avoid $89 billion in costs, primarily in energy. Social co-benefits include an average of 672,000 additional green jobs and significant increases in disposable incomes (10.5 percent by 2030 and 53.1 percent by 2050). The benefit-cost ratio for investments in mitigation and adaptation is estimated to rise from 1.04 in 2030 to 2.99 by 2050.
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Document type: Research paper
Designed for the Future?
The World Resources Institute (WRI) evaluated a sample of World Bank projects approved from January 2012 to June 2013 to determine if they incorporated sustainable development and governance principles. The analysis found significant gaps in climate risk and emissions assessments, though most projects conducted environmental and social assessments. While many projects targeted vulnerable populations, only half demonstrated specific benefits for them. Additionally, less than half of the projects were strategically aligned with long-term sustainable development plans.
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Document type: Report
Elements and Ideas for the 2015 Paris Agreement
The ACT 2015 consortium argues that economic growth and climate action are now mutually reinforcing goals rather than conflicting choices. The document emphasizes that international cooperation via the UNFCCC negotiations for the Paris Agreement is essential to avoid devastating climate impacts that disproportionately affect poor and vulnerable populations.
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Document type: Report
Powering Agrifood Systems: Review of Enabling Policies in Kenya, Uganda, and India
The study examines the extent to which agrifood policies in Kenya, Uganda, and India incorporate electricity needs for mechanization, water access, and postharvest processing. It argues that integrating electricity infrastructure can increase crop cultivation and income while reducing food loss. To improve policy effectiveness, the paper recommends establishing time-bound mandates, interministerial coordination, financial incentives, and public-private partnerships to align agrifood systems with sustainability and climate resilience goals.
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Document type: Research paper
Guide for Responsible Corporate Engagement in Climate Policy
The document outlines a framework for responsible corporate engagement in climate policy, emphasizing the need for businesses to align their government affairs and lobbying activities with their corporate responsibility commitments. It identifies five core elements of responsible engagement—legitimacy, opportunity, accountability, consistency, and transparency—and proposes three practical actions: identifying influences, aligning words with actions, and reporting on policy positions.
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Document type: Guide
Future of the Funds: Exploring the Architecture of Multilateral Climate Finance
The report argues that the proliferation of multilateral climate funds has led to overlapping roles and inefficiencies. It proposes a two-stage reform process: short-term specialization of fund mandates to improve the division of labor, and long-term consolidation or closure of certain funds to streamline the climate finance architecture. The analysis is based on literature reviews and interviews with over 50 stakeholders, focusing on five UNFCCC-linked funds and the Climate Investment Funds.
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Document type: Report
Paying the Premium
The document argues that well-designed disaster risk management strategies, including insurance, are essential adaptation investments to protect developing countries from the increasing economic damages of climate-related disasters. Insurance is presented as a tool to transfer risk, provide immediate liquidity, and build resilience by allowing markets to share the costs of adaptation.
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Document type: Research paper
Locally Led Climate Adaptation: What Is Needed to Accelerate Action and Support?
The paper analyzes over 70 evaluation materials and 374 projects to assess the prevalence and effectiveness of locally led climate adaptation. It finds that while many projects involve local actors, very few grant them actual decision-making power over finance and design. The authors identify key enablers of success, such as flexible funding and investment in local institutional capacity, while highlighting barriers like low funder accountability and insufficient direct funding to the local level. The document argues for a shift from treating local actors as beneficiaries to treating them as agents of change through devolved finance and iterative program design.
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Document type: Research paper
The Two Degree Initiative Listening Sessions: Conference Proceedings
The proceedings detail stakeholder perspectives from over 1,000 participants across 60 countries to guide the Two Degree Initiative. Key recommendations include reforming research-development pathways, adopting interdisciplinary food-land-water systems approaches, improving data communication for policymakers, unlocking public and private finance through partnerships, aligning regional actions with global frameworks, leveraging digital technologies for small-scale producers, and prioritizing transformative approaches for the most vulnerable populations.
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Document type: Report
Costa Rica: Reef Life after Bleaching
The document examines coral reef recovery in Costa Rica's Caño Island Biological Reserve and Cocos Island National Park after severe bleaching events. Despite predictions of slow recovery, both protected areas show positive signs of recolonization, with Cocos Island seeing live coral cover increase from 3% in the 1980s to 23% in 2002. The authors suggest that designating reefs as protected no-take zones reduces localized human threats and enhances resilience to climate change.
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Document type: Case study