2021

Archive: 2021

A Bangladesh man punts an empty boat across a river, with buildings of Dhaka in the background.

Populations Exposed to Flooding Growing Much Faster Than Thought – New Study

Originally adapted from a press release from Cloud to Street. A new study indicates that the number of people affected by floods is growing much faster than scientists previously had thought, due both to increased inundation and migration of people into flood-prone areas. Using direct satellite observations rather than standard model estimates, the authors showed […]

iKON: Playing to Adapt

Climate risk instruments are designed to help farmers adapt to climate variability and change. These instruments are usually driven by data from satellites and weather stations, but these data sets can be improved over time using community-sourced observation data. Currently, such farmer data collection is limited to small-scale focus groups. However, increasing constraints on direct […]

A figure, seen from only the shoulders down, in the background walks along the edge of a rice paddy. The rice grains are in focus in the foreground.

To Tackle Food Insecurity, Invest in Digital Climate Services for Agriculture 

This piece was originally authored by Tyler Ferdinand, Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio, and Katiuscia Fara and published by the World Resources Institute. New recommendations by the World Resources Institute, International Research Institute for Climate and Society, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, World Food Programme and the Global Center on Adaptation outline path to maximize impact of […]

Virtual Climate Services Training for Professionals in Bangladesh

In the pre-pandemic era, much of the work of expanding the capacity of government agencies, meteorological departments, and local partners to combat hunger by increasing climate knowledge carried out by the Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow (ACToday) Columbia World Project took place in-person. Staff from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society […]

A herd of white cattle with tall horns walk towards the camera. There is a walled village and two Senegalese herders in the distant background.

Beyond Food Security: ACToday Addressing Climate-Nutrition Linkages in Senegal

The Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow (ACToday) Columbia World Project is working with Senegal’s Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), home to the country’s largest master’s and doctoral training programs, to address one of the most under-researched topics in development: the links between climate and nutrition.  In March, ACToday-Senegal hosted an online event that […]

A photograph of several pink canvas bags of different types of grain on the ground at a market in Hosaena, Ethiopia.

Launching Ethiopia’s Future in Climate Services

The ACToday Columbia World Project has supported the government of Ethiopia in launching a national climate plan that will ensure the availability of the best climate information and use of that information to guide the country’s adaptation strategies for years to come. Ethiopia’s National Meteorological Agency (NMA) unveiled the new plan, which it developed in […]

May Climate Briefing: Neutral Conditions are Here

Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. In mid-May, the tropical Pacific sea-surface temperatures, while still slightly cool, are now within the range of ENSO-neutral. Atmospheric indicators are similarly consistent with the end of La Niña conditions. A new set of model runs predicts ENSO-neutral conditions are likely to persist through August-October 2021, […]

Farmers from southern Mali’s Sikasso region tend to their cowpea crop.

IRI a Key Partner in New World Bank-funded Climate Resilience Project

Columbia Climate School’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) is a major partner in a new $60 million climate resilience project for agriculture in Africa, funded by the World Bank and led by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

A woman in a red dress runs along a tightrope towards a man holding out an umbrella standing on a crumbling cliff. He has several umbrellas in a bucket by his feet and there are several people running in line behind the woman in the red dress.

We Must Incorporate Social Justice When Planning for Compound Disasters

Written by Jackie Klopp, Andrew Kruczkiewicz, and Joshua Fisher and originally published on the State of the Planet blog. As the world faces multiple, concurrent risks — a rapidly warming climate, megadroughts in the American West, new variants and new waves of COVID-19 infections in India, Brazil, and elsewhere — local communities, policy makers, frontline responders, and […]

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