Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change
The melting of glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau and adjoining mountain ranges is among the greatest environmental security threats in Asia. To address this issue in a systematic way, USAID completed a report that, among other things, reviewed the science behind the issue and developed recommendations and a strategic framework for a response. (Photo: Dan Miller)
ASIA BUREAU CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRAMS
Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam
CONTACT INFORMATION
Mary Melnyk
Bureau Environment Officer
Tel: (202) 712-4906
Email: mmelnyk@usaid.gov
Overview
Climate change is a growing threat in Asia, where rising economies are driving rapid increases in energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. Energy demand in Asia is expected to increase by nearly 50 percent over the next 15 years, increasing emissions, raising air pollution levels, and causing an estimated 530,000 premature deaths per year. USAID is helping to scale up investment in clean energy and is working with communities to help them prepare for and adapt to climate change.
Programs
Supporting Clean Energy
In China, USAID supports public-private partnerships to catalyze broad adoption of clean energy technologies and practices. For example, USAID is teaming up with corporations like GE, Wal-Mart, and Honeywell to spearhead energy innovation in industries. In the Philippines, USAID is providing electricity through the installation of solar and micro hydroelectric facilities in off-grid villages in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). As a result, 80,000 people, representing over 45 percent of the total energized communities in the ARMM, now use clean energy. In South Asia, USAID encourages clean energy development and regional energy trade through efforts like the South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy.
Reducing Emissions through Sustainable Landscapes
USAID supports activities across the region to reduce deforestation to avoid emissions while actively conserving remaining stands of natural forests. These activities target countries that are large-scale emitters from deforestation, such as Indonesia; those with large existing stands of forests, such as Cambodia; and those with the potential to increase sequestration of carbon through reforestation, such as Bangladesh and the Philippines. In Indonesia, to provide profitable alternatives to forest clearance, USAID has formed the Public-Private Partnership for Low Emissions Development, which will put in place three or more project prototypes that can be scaled nationally and can demonstrate the co-benefits of reducing emissions, saving forests, and raising incomes. To date, partners have doubled USAID's initial investment of $10 million.
Promoting Climate Change Adaptation
In Asia, over half of the population of 4 billion lives near coasts and will be the first to experience rising sea levels resulting from climate change. Asia's farmers will be affected by potentially stronger cyclones, changes in monsoon patterns, and either too much or too little water. An example of USAID's investment in coastal adaptation is Bangladesh, where USAID will launch a new effort to conserve the Sundarbans—the largest mangrove forest in the world and Bangladesh's first line of defense against sea level rise. These activities will mitigate disaster effects and provide poor communities with income from sustainable forest and fishery resources, helping them cope with disaster-related vulnerabilities. USAID also helps small island developing states, such as the Maldives and islands in the South Pacific, to adapt to sea level rise.
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A new USAID-funded study, "Tsunami Displacement: Lessons for Climate Change Adaptation Programming," has examined the displacement caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and has looked at how relevant lessons can be applied to climate-related disasters. The contents of the study are listed below in separate PDF files: 
