The United States will commit to significantly improving developing countries' access to data, tools and training to help them adapt to climate change, the US president told the Climate Summit in New York last week (23 September). Barack Obama pledged to immediately release higher resolution topographical data for Africa, to scale up a training programme to boost meteorologists’ ability to monitor and predict climate change, and to create a public-private partnership to put climate-relevant information and tools in the hands of developing world policymakers.
The United States will commit to significantly improving developing countries' access to data, tools and training to help them adapt to climate change, the US president told the Climate Summit in New York last week (23 September).
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Barack Obama pledged to immediately release higher resolution topographical data for Africa, to scale up a training programme to boost meteorologists’ ability to monitor and predict climate change, and to create a public-private partnership to put climate-relevant information and tools in the hands of developing world policymakers.
Addressing the UN Climate Summit attended by more than 120 heads of state last week (23 September), the president also announced an executive order that obliges US government agencies, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID), to systematically consider climate change in all their development activities.
The whole package marks a "truly transformational shift" in how the United States approaches development, says Kit Batten, USAID's global climate change coordinator. "These commitments send a strong signal that the use of scientific information to guide our development decisions is critical to ensure we are increasing climate change resilience worldwide," she tells SciDev.Net.
Three of Obama's announcements directly focus on developing countries.
US Capitol Building image via Shutterstock.
Read more at ENN Affiliate, SciDevNet.
