U.S. International Climate Change Initiatives

Dr. Toral Patel-Weynand U.S. Department of State

UNFCCC Workshop on the Preparation of National Communications from non-Annex I Parties Manila, Philippines April 30, 2004

Bilateral Initiatives

      Some Examples: U.S. - Japan High Level Consultation U.S. - Australia Climate Action Partnership U.S. - New Zealand Climate Partnership U.S. - India Bilateral on Climate Change U.S. - Canada Climate Change Bilateral

Bi-lateral Climate Change Initiatives

  Under the Climate Change Partnerships discussed above and under our bilateral efforts globally, we have engaged in a number of initiatives that specifically focus on capacity building in a number of countries.

Examples are provided in the following slides.

Famine Early Warning (FEWS Net)

    Budget: $6 million (FY02) and $6 million (FY03) Partners: NOAA; NASA Start Date: 2000 Purpose: To provide decision-makers with the information to effectively respond to drought and food insecurity. FEWS NET analyzes remote sensing data and ground-based meteorological, crop, and range-land observations to track progress of rainy seasons in semi-arid regions of Africa to identify early indications of potential famine.

Drought Monitoring Center Nairobi (DMCN)

    Budget: $900k (FY02) and $651k (FY03) Partners: NOAA, WMO, IRI Start Date: July 2002 Purpose: To improve climate monitoring, prediction and applications, and early warning of climate related disasters in support of regional disaster preparedness and other sustainable development objectives in Greater Horn of Africa (GHA).

Drought Monitoring Center (DMCH) Harare, and Regional Remote Sensing Unit (RRSU)

    Budget: $450k (FY02) and $651k (FY03) Partners: NOAA, IRI, WMO, Southern African Development Community (SADC) Start Date: FY02 Purpose: To improve multi-sector, short- and long-term climate risk management and emergency response to climate variability throughout the Southern Africa region. The focus is to strengthen long-term regional capacity to understand, monitor, predict, plan for and respond to hydro-climatic impacts in sensitive sectors and provide timely operational climate information to better manage risks and potential climate shocks under current regional conditions of elevated disaster risk.

Climate Monitoring/Information Dissemination

    Budget: $950k (FY02) and $950k (FY03) Partners: NOAA Start Date: 1997 Purpose: To mitigate drought, flood and severe storm disasters through geographically targeted climate-forecasting applications in combination with other climate and sector-specific information such as observations and historical perspectives.

African Center for Meteorological Applications & Development (ACMAD)

    Budget: $300k (FY03) Partners: NOAA, University of Oklahoma Start Date: June 1999 Purpose: Support for ACMAD, which coordinates and manages RANET, a program that broadcasts weather-related data via radio and internet to farmers.

Climate Forecast Applications for Disaster Mitigation in Asia

    Budget: $700k in FY03 Partners: Relevant government agencies, NGOs, academicians, emergency response and management entities, community groups Start Date: October 2001 with up to a five year duration Purpose: To mitigate hydro-meteorological disaster through climate forecast applications in vulnerable countries in Asia.

Extreme Climate Events in Asia

    Budget: $240,000 (FY02) Partners: NOAA Start Date: 1998 and will end in March 2003 Purpose: To improve the understanding of the impacts of extreme climate events in selected Asian countries and to reduce the disaster impacts of such events through application of climate forecast information.

Climate Forecasting and Applications for Bangladesh

    Budget: $458k (FY02) and $308k (FY03) Partners: NOAA/OGP, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (Bangkok), International Research Group for Climate Prediction (IRI), European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts.

Start Date: 9/26/00 Purpose: To develop a comprehensive flood forecasting technology for Bangladesh, then to utilize the forecasts for relevant applications.

Development of a Flood Early Warning System in Vietnam

    Budget: $ 280k (FY02) and $250k (FY03) Partners: UNDP Start Date: 6/00 Purpose: to develop a flood early-warning system in seven flood-prone provinces of central Vietnam.

Development of a Coastal Storm Early-Warning System in Vietnam

    Budget: $ 480k (FY02) and $500k (FY03) Partners: UNDP Start Date: 5/01 Purpose: to implement a radio-and pager based storm early-warning system for fishing boats at sea in all 25 coastal provinces in Vietnam.

Trans-Boundary River Forum

    Budget: $100k (FY02) and $100k (FY03) Partners: International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, NOAA and USGS

Start Date:

Purpose: To support a regional forum to share forecasting and flood-related information. This forum brings together decision-makers and technical personnel from countries in South Asia to share information related to flood disasters in the region, and broader trans-boundary water issues.

Community-Based Disaster Preparedness in South Asia

    Budget: $500k (FY03)

Partners:

Start Date: October 2002 Purpose: To offer funding for flood-related community preparedness programs in flood prone districts in South Asia.

Development of Flood-Forecasting in the Mekong River Basin

    Budget: $75k (FY02) and $75k (FY03) Partners: NOAA , USGS

Start Date:

Purpose: To provide technical assistance to enhance flood prediction and dissemination capacity.

Idaho Water Resources Research Institute (IWRRI) Guatemala Flood Mitigation

    Budget: $100K in FY02 Partners: USGS and US Army Corps of Engineers Start Date: March 2001 - September 2002 Purpose: To develop long term management strategies by developing hydrologic models of the Villalobos River and Watershed to minimize impacts of future extreme flood events. Development of the models uses hydrologic, climatic, and landscape data of the region from 1988 to 1998 (pre-Hurricane Mitch) to evaluate alternative management scenarios.

Bolivia Flood Mitigation

    Budget: $170k (FY02) Partners: CARE Bolivia Start Date: TBD Purpose: To mitigate future flood damage in the La Paz River basin. The project focuses on activities in Rio Abajo, a tributary to Rio La Paz where torrential rains in February, 2002 generated a series of mortal consequences in the capital city and the communities located in the La Paz River basin.

Hydro-met Hazard Mitigation

    Budget: $117,500 (FY02) Partners: NOAA, USGS Start Date: ongoing Purpose: This program specific events.

provides technical assistance for flood early warning, preparedness, response, and mitigation in Asia. It provides technical assistance to partners (like the Mekong River Commission) in developing monitoring and modeling systems taking advantage of satellite data, GIS, and hydrologic modeling, as well as short term assistance related to

Improving Capacity in GHG Inventories in Central America

    Budget: Partners: USEPA, USAID, All Central American Inventory Teams Start Date: 2003 Purpose: To build sustainable national inventory systems in each country and to increase the quality of GHG inventory data inputs, especially in LUCF, agricultural soils, landfill methane and enteric fermentation.

Adaptation to Climate Change in Hermosillo, Mexico

    Budget: $200k Partners: USEPA, INE, UNAM, Colegio de Sonora, local stakeholders Start Date: 2000 Purposes: 1) Identify and evaluate adaptations to potential impacts on water resources; 2) Identify, analyze and prioritize adaptation options; and 3) Develop and apply a process for examining adaptation that could be applied elsewhere in Mexico.