Energy and Environment

The Global Need

FY13 Committee Approved Funding Senate: $1.15 billion FY12 Enacted: $1.25 billion

Healthy ecosystems are the foundation of prosperity, security, and health and provide the raw materials for much of the worlds economic activity. People living in poverty, especially in rural areas, feel the most immediate impacts when these systems are at risk, as they often draw their livelihoods directly from forests, fields, rivers, and oceans. Today the world is experiencing more frequent and severe storms, floods, droughts, and temperature changes, presenting serious risks to the livelihoods of millions of poor people and to the natural resources on which they depend. The resulting resource scarcity can lead to conflict, causing instability and disrupting trade and economic growth. Developing countries are estimated to bear 75 to 80 percent of the costs of climate-related damages, and even minimal temperature changes could result in reductions in GDP of 4 to 5 percent for Africa and South Asia. Most developing countries lack sufficient financial and technical capacities to manage increasing climate risk even as development increases their reliance on 1 natural resources.

Significance of Funding Levels

Funding levels approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee would significantly enhance a variety of energy and environment projects that generate vast economic and livelihood benefits. The Senate-passed allocation of $190 million for adaptation could generate returns between $275 million and $575 million for communities. Every $1 invested in adaptation programs generates between $1.45 to $3.03 for poor communities. Investing in community-based adaptation can result in an average increase in per capita incomes to $2.10 a day, while failure to invest can decrease incomes to below $1 a day. 2 The Senate-passed allocation of $200 million for biodiversity could improve natural resource management of about 70 million hectares of biologically significant areas. 3 Conserving just 25 percent of the worlds highest biodiversity areas would secure 56 percent of the value of ecosystem services on which 1.1 billion of the worlds poorest people rely. 4 The Senate-passed allocation of $113 million for sustainable landscapes could prevent over 11 million tons of carbon emissions, the equivalent of taking more than 2 million cars off U.S. roads. 5

Importance of Funding
Global demand for food, water, and energy is expected to double by 2050 as the global population grows from seven billion people to an estimated nine billion. This increase in demand makes the need for conservation and sustainable management of natural resourcesas well as increasing the capacity of the poor to adapt to climatic changesmore than good stewardship. In developing countries, where natural resources are often the very foundation of poor 6 households livelihoods, conservation and adaptation are basic investments in growth.

Impact of Funding Success is Possible

For three decades, USAID has helped boost ecological, economic, and environmental sustainability, with successful results, including: In 2010, helping at least 930,000 people increase their incomes through sustainable natural resource management and conservation activities; In 2011 and 2012, USAID worked with governments in Kenya, Liberia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Kosovo, Ethiopia and Timor-Leste to evaluate and recommend policy reforms in support of stronger land rights and management to give people more secure access to land. By 2016, USAID will have helped 20 partner countries develop and implement strategies for increasing their economic growth with lower emissions. 7
1 2

The World Bank. (2010). World Bank Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change. Page 15. As retrieved from http://bit.ly/iYyNnD. CARE. (2012). Policy Brief: Climate Change Why Community Based Adaptation Makes Economic Sense. Page 2. As retrieved from http://www.careclimatechange.org/files/adaptation/PolicyBrief_Why_CBA_Makes_Economic_Sense_July12.pdf. 3 U.S. Agency for International Development (2012). Biodiversity Conservation and Forestry Programs 2011 Report. http://1.usa.gov/UiaHbl 4 Turner, W. et al. 2012. Global Biodiversity Conservation and the Alleviation of Poverty. BioScience 62:1( 8592). 5 Assuming a conservative return on investment of 1 ton avoided emissions per $10 dollars. 6 World Wildlife Federation. (2012). International Conservation Budget. As retrieved from http://bit.ly/Smm56Q 7 USAID. (2012). Environment and Global Climate Change. As retrieved from http://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/environment-and-global-climate-change.

November 3, 2012