By Peri Rosenstein and Nicole Jenkins
Methane emissions are a potent greenhouse gas, warming the climate more than 80 times faster than carbon dioxide on a 20-year timescale. Rapidly and significantly reducing methane is the most effective way to reduce the rate of warming, especially over the next few decades.
The sun beats hot past colonial facades and newly minted hotels in Old Havana, onto the children playing soccer across Paseo del Prado. High tides splash over the tidal wall and the taxi driver notes, over the noise of the street, that dark storm clouds line the horizon and are threatening heavy rains. Like other coastal and island regions, communities in Cuba are experiencing the disproportionate effects of climate change.
Since 2016, Environmental Defense Fund, the Antonio Núñez Jiménez Foundation for Nature and Humankind and the Caribbean Agroecology Institute have partnered with local communities and organizations from Cuba as a part of the Research Initiative for the Sustainable Development of Cuba (RISDoC). RISDoC is a coalition of academics, civil society associations and representatives from international agencies who have come together to exchange innovative strategies and share lessons learned to prepare for climate impacts and spur sustainable economic growth. In addition to bringing together a range of Cuban community members, government officials and researchers, RISDoC connects experts from other regions with Cuba. This includes partners in Puerto Rico and Louisiana, regions that are experiencing more frequent and severe storms due to climate change and are working to build resilience.
Thanks to this important initiative, RISDoC participants are building a more resilient future in Cuba. Check out a few of their key priorities:
Photo credit: Noel López
As discussions at COP28 wrestle with climate impacts on global food and water security, we hear from a Hopi farmer on his thriving practice of dry farming and his hopes for shared learning in Dubai.
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The arid climate of the Hopi reservation in northeastern Arizona receives a mere 8.5 inches of annual rainfall. For perspective, the yearly United States average is 30 inches. Despite this severe aridity, for over 3,000 years, the Hopi people have stewarded an extraordinary agricultural tradition centered on dry farming.
Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson is an Indigenous Resiliency Specialist at the University of Arizona and a leading practitioner of Hopi dry farming — a form of agriculture that eschews irrigation in regions with limited water moisture. As a 250th-generation Hopi dry farmer, his ongoing traditional practices are a testament to the power of cultural values and the potential of climate-adaptive farming. These ongoing Hopi farming practices defy modern notions of crop needs and vulnerability in areas with limited irrigation and water supply.
Water has finally reached the highest levels of global climate negotiations. The path to a sustainable freshwater future, however, lies with ground-level users. At COP 28, EDF is elevating their voices, their needs and the approaches they find most useful.
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While greenhouse gases drive climate change, many of its impacts are inherently liquid. Whether through drought, flood, sea-level rise, or contamination, water increasingly forms the turbulent core of the climate crisis.
Over the past year, this basic reality was finally acknowledged at the global planning table. Thanks to a strong push from its Egyptian hosts, last year’s edition of the main UN climate conference, COP 27, made water a central theme. The cover decision — the summation of the conference’s key agreements — featured water and food for the first time. The decision acknowledged the central role of water in countering climate impacts and called for water-related targets in national climate planning.
This blog is co-authored by Yiwei Gan.
One of the largest rivers in the world struggles to reach the ocean. Spread across a huge slice of a continent, its basin supports millions. Yet the weight of its work to irrigate and power booming farms and cities in an increasingly arid zone is straining the river to a breaking point. For many working in the western water space, this describes the Colorado. A river whose over-work and over-allocation, despite its fundamental role in sustaining life for half a continent, seems in many ways singular.
This blog is co-authored by Rachel O’Connor, Manager, Climate Resilient Water Systems.
As Arizona’s water crisis worsens due to extreme drought and overuse, more attention than ever is being directed toward addressing this critical issue. At the federal level, an influx of funding has become available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. And at the state level, the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) has just begun accepting proposals for its first allocation of $200M for water conservation projects.
By Karly Kelso
Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) in Berlin, January 20, 2023 (BMEL/Photothek)
Food systems transformation is increasingly getting traction globally, making the case that we can’t meet our Paris climate agreements without food at and on the table. That was certainly true at the recently held Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) in Berlin, known as the largest informal gathering of Agriculture Ministers.
This year’s theme, “Food Systems Transformation: A Worldwide Response to Multiple Crises,” focused on conversations about how global food security may be achieved in the face of multiple crises, including Russia’s war against Ukraine. Despite the heavy topic, a sense of energy and ambition among the attendees was evident as this event marked the first GFFA held in person since 2020, when the COVID pandemic forced global lockdowns.
The conference has historically focused on agriculture production policies, but this year was different. Conversations took a more holistic view of food systems, and our EDF team was among the voices calling for attention towards freshwater management and blue foods. Both are central to food systems but are often left out of these dialogues despite their significant contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals and global food and nutrition security. At GFFA, our team highlighted how EDF is advancing international recognition of these two critical aspects of food systems.
Our team demonstrated the innovative tool, OpenET, that provides access to satellite data on water consumption on agricultural lands across 17 states in the American west. This tool supports climate-friendly food systems by enabling producers to better manage the dwindling water supplies. We highlighted the Aquatic Blue Food Coalition at the Innovation Forum and joined the expert panel: Solving the Great Food Puzzle: 20 levers to scale national level action, where we spoke about how we are catalyzing the inclusion of blue foods into national level actions for food transformation.
While we have a long way to go, this meeting signals the growing efforts to move towards adopting a food systems approach to global food and nutrition insecurity. The final communique from the Ministers’ meeting reflects this commitment and sets the following ambitious goals:
As we close out the first food conference of 2023, I’m hopeful as these global dialogues are increasingly focused on the importance of holistic approaches to food and nutrition that promote sustainable, inclusive, efficient, and resilient food systems transformation. On the Climate Resilient Food Systems team at EDF, we will be looking to carry these themes forward throughout 2023, including at the UN Water Conference, 2023 Stocktaking Moment, UNFCCC COP28, and more. But most importantly, we will look forward to working with and supporting partners and communities on the ground who are transforming food systems to create a vital earth for everyone.
Karly Kelso is director of Climate Resilient Food Systems at EDF.
Natural infrastructure can provide protective barriers to reduce flood risk while also offering community green space and supporting green jobs. Louisiana GOHSEP, CC BY SA 2.0.
Authors: Vincent Gauthier (EDF), Tee Thomas (Quantified Ventures)
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will invest more than $44 billion in the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, or SRFs, presenting a tremendous opportunity to finance natural infrastructure solutions that can improve water quality and protect communities against flooding. While natural infrastructure can be a cost-effective way to improve water quality and reduce flood risk, these projects have historically been difficult to finance through SRFs due to a lack of consistent repayment streams.
EDF and Quantified Ventures recently published a report that identified five replicable repayment streams that communities and conservation groups can use to access SRF financing for natural infrastructure such as wetlands, floodplain restoration, and riparian buffers. These repayment streams include stormwater utility fees, source water protection fees, and environmental markets.
Every October, the global community comes together to celebrate the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization as World Food Day. Taking stock, it is plain to see just how far we still have to go to achieve the FAO’s founding mission to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security for the planet.
The obstacles to achieving this goal are many and complex: the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the ongoing challenges of conflict, water shortages, flooding, and rising food costs are just a few. However, they all share one thing in common: they are exacerbated by the existential threat of climate change.
With less than a month to go before the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in Egypt, world leaders must consider the importance of addressing food insecurity as a part of solving the climate crisis.
The Verde River, one of the last free-flowing rivers in the Southwest, remains unprotected after another year of in action to address rural groundwater pumping in Arizona.
After months of negotiations, the Arizona Legislature passed a major water spending plan last month with funding for new conservation efforts to address deteriorating water supplies. However, for the fourth year in a row, state leaders failed to pass legislation to address unlimited groundwater pumping, missing an opportunity to enable a water secure future for 1.5 million rural residents and the state as a whole.
