Search Climate Insights Directory

The document analyzes how human land use drives climate change and how climate change, in turn, degrades land. It highlights that while land currently acts as a net carbon sink, it could become a source of emissions. The brief emphasizes the role of agriculture and deforestation in land degradation and warns that current policy trajectories could significantly expand drylands and threaten global food security. It argues that sustainable land management, incorporating indigenous knowledge and gender-sensitive policies, is essential for limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C.

The document assesses the multifaceted threats climate change poses to global food security, highlighting that while some high-latitude regions may see productivity gains, the global South—especially sub-Saharan Africa—faces severe risks of yield losses and increased hunger. It argues for a systemic approach to adaptation, moving beyond autonomous adjustments to planned strategies. Key priorities include increasing public investment in agricultural research, adopting Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), expanding irrigation, and improving the resilience of food value chains. The authors emphasize that adaptation must be balanced with greenhouse gas mitigation and social equity, particularly regarding gender and youth in agriculture.

The document examines the intersection of climate change, security, and adaptation, arguing that climate impacts act as 'threat multipliers' that can destabilize states and international relations. It highlights risks such as transboundary water conflicts, food insecurity, Arctic geopolitical shifts, and mass migration. The authors warn against 'maladaptation'—adaptation efforts that inadvertently increase inequality or tension—and advocate for a 'preventive' approach. Key recommendations include creating multidimensional early warning systems, implementing risk-tolerant and 'nexus' financing for insecure regions, and ensuring adaptation strategies are timely, strategically targeted, and informed by political economy analysis to avoid exacerbating existing social and political frictions.

The paper examines the risks climate change poses to rural livelihoods in Asia, Africa, and Central America, noting that current adaptation efforts are insufficient. It advocates for a systemic transformation involving policy reform, digital agriculture, innovative finance, and the scaling of climate-resilient technologies. The authors propose five distinct pathways for adaptation—ranging from market integration and farming system shifts to exiting agriculture—tailored to different household types such as those 'stepping up', 'stepping out', 'hanging in', or those who are 'food insecure'.

The report examines the drivers and impacts of off-grid solar pump deployment in India, highlighting how low recurring costs can lead to groundwater over-extraction. It maps policies across the water-energy-food nexus, finding that while solar support is strong, groundwater management is relatively under-resourced and often lacks formal integration with energy and food policies.

The report analyzes Zimbabwe's trajectory to 2040, warning that the 'Current Path' of state-centric governance and economic instability will lead to persistent poverty and food insecurity. It contrasts this with the 'Great Zimbabwe' scenario, where pro-growth policies, transferable land titles, and expanded irrigation could significantly boost GDP and reduce undernourishment. Conversely, the 'Things Fall Apart' scenario predicts a decline into internal conflict and severe humanitarian deterioration if political accountability is not established. Key recommendations emphasize rehabilitating irrigation, improving democratic accountability, and partnering with the IMF to stabilize the economy.

The project aims to protect approximately 400,000 beneficiaries in the Mono-TOGO basin through a two-pronged approach: strengthening institutional and community capacity for Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and implementing ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) measures. Key activities include the development of a drought and flood risk early warning system, the installation of hydrological monitoring equipment, and the implementation of riverine stabilization and soil conservation measures across an estimated 40,000 hectares. The project requests USD 16 million in grant funding from the Green Climate Fund, with a total indicative cost of USD 46 million, to address technical and financial barriers in a region where agriculture is a primary economic driver but highly vulnerable to climate extremes.

The document examines the material risks climate change poses to global supply chains and the current state of private sector adaptation. It argues that while companies recognize climate risks, they often misdiagnose them by focusing on exposure rather than underlying vulnerability. Using the cotton industry as a detailed example, the paper proposes a resilience framework based on six capital assets—natural, human, social, physical, financial, and political—and provides recommendations for companies to commit to science-based resilience strategies and gender-transformative empowerment of women workers.

The Bioenergy Criteria provide a framework for certifying use-of-proceeds instruments, physical assets, and bioenergy companies. Certification requires meeting specific life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission thresholds that decline over time toward a 'close to zero' target by 2050. It also mandates that biomass feedstocks meet sustainability requirements, often verified through pre-accepted certification schemes, and that facilities implement comprehensive adaptation and resilience plans to manage physical climate risks.

The document argues that the natural environment is fundamental to economic resilience and that Nature-based Solutions (NbS) offer cost-effective, flexible alternatives or complements to engineered infrastructure for adapting to climate change. It details the dependencies of key economic sectors on ecosystem services and provides evidence that NbS can mitigate risks from coastal hazards, intense precipitation, drought, and heat while providing co-benefits such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation. The authors identify significant barriers to the adoption of NbS, including lack of awareness, limited finance, and technical capacity gaps, and recommend integrating nature into climate vulnerability assessments and procurement policies.

The report emphasizes that freshwater systems are the primary conduits for climate impacts and critical levers for adaptation. It highlights a severe decline in freshwater biodiversity, noting an 83% average drop in species populations between 1970 and 2014. The document argues that traditional 'grey' infrastructure often undermines natural resilience and proposes 'nature-based solutions'—such as wetland restoration and reforestation—to mitigate floods, secure food and energy supplies, and protect vulnerable communities. It specifically calls for a 'New Deal for Nature and People' and the 'Bankable Water Solutions' initiative to redirect finance toward sustainable, basin-scale water management.

The project targets four regional hubs in northern Mauritania—Aoujeft, Rachid, Tamchekett, and Nema—to address severe desertification and water scarcity. It aims to benefit 204,171 people through a combination of land rehabilitation, water infrastructure development, and the diversification of livelihoods. The initiative focuses on integrating climate change adaptation into local and national planning, utilizing ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) to stop the southward expansion of the Sahara and protect fertile lands in the Sahelian region.

The project aims to address the decline of coral reef fish and the climate-driven redistribution of tuna in the Pacific. It proposes a two-pronged approach: scaling up nearshore fish aggregating devices (FADs) to improve food security for coastal communities and establishing an early warning system (EWS) to help governments maintain industrial tuna revenues. The project targets eight countries and requests USD 116.5 million in grant funding from the Green Climate Fund.

The document critiques the EU's reliance on 'formalisation'—the use of legalisation and transparency measures—to govern natural resource sectors in sub-Saharan Africa. Using case studies from Sierra Leone's diamond sector and Liberia's forest sector, it argues that these technocratic reforms often fail to improve the lives of local citizens and can even entrench predatory practices. The author proposes adopting a UN-developed 'human security' approach, which prioritises the security of individuals over the security of the state and focuses on tangible, bottom-up results at the local level.

The project aims to build climate resilience in Ghana's agriculture sector by establishing a national framework for drought management, enhancing technical capacities for climate observation and modelling, and improving the delivery of decision-support services to vulnerable farming communities. It targets 2.7 million direct beneficiaries and seeks to address critical gaps in institutional coordination and technical forecasting.

The document outlines a USD 41.7 million programme designed to protect agriculture and fisheries in Fiji, Samoa, and the Solomon Islands from biosecurity threats exacerbated by climate change. It proposes three main outcomes: implementing climate-adapted farming systems, strengthening national and regional early warning systems, and enhancing the enabling environment through better data and policy coordination. The programme aims to benefit over 1.6 million people by reducing vulnerability to pests like the Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle and Taro Leaf Blight, which have historically caused severe economic losses in the region.

The study predicts that under the RCP 8.5 scenario (2041-2070), Mexico's national wheat production will decline by 12% due to climate change, with additional losses of 7% to 18% specifically caused by tropospheric ozone pollution, depending on cultivar sensitivity.

The IAI Executive Directorate reports on its capacity-building efforts, including the São Paulo School of Advanced Science and partnerships with the AAAS and OAS to integrate science and policy. It outlines ongoing initiatives like the STeP Fellowship and Seed Grant programs, while seeking CoP support for future implementation subject to external funding.

The document outlines a request for USD 642,600 from the Green Climate Fund's Project Preparation Facility to prepare a larger investment project (estimated at USD 83 million) focused on climate-smart agriculture in Colombia. The proposed project aims to reduce economic losses from extreme weather events and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by scaling up technologies such as agro-climatic forecasting, site-specific agriculture, and low-carbon farming practices. It targets seven priority crops: rice, maize, banana, sugarcane, coffee, potato, and forage. The preparation phase, led by CAF and executed by CIAT, involves feasibility studies, impact assessments, and the development of a Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) mechanism for carbon footprints.

The IAI Strategic Plan (2019–2044) establishes a 25-year roadmap to bridge the gap between science and policy in the Americas. It is organized into three themes: meeting the needs of member states regarding global environmental change, advancing science for regional sustainability, and ensuring the IAI's own organizational sustainability. The plan emphasizes transdisciplinary research, open data, and the inclusion of underrepresented groups to inform climate adaptation and mitigation policies.