News

Recent News

What to Expect From the COP26 Meeting

This story was originally written by Sarah Fecht and published on the State of the Planet blog. Tackling human-caused climate change and its impacts requires a monumental effort and global cooperation. That’s why representatives from all over the world have gathered at COP meetings nearly every year since 1995. Last year’s meeting was cancelled due to […]

A young boy walks behind two oxen plowing a field in preparation for rain in Ethiopia.

In New Project, Millions of Farmers Will Help to Improve Insurance Against Climate Disasters

This story was originally written by Kristin French and published on the State of the Planet blog. Megafires, extreme weather, locust swarms, pandemics: These are just some of the many natural disasters that have devastated farmers in recent years, destroying livelihoods and leaving hunger in their wake. Between 2008 and 2018, disasters cost the agricultural […]

A basket of groundnuts in Madagascar

Index Insurance for Madagascar’s Groundnut Farmers

by Yohana Tesfamariam Tekeste and Souha Ouni Designing financial tools and processes that help farmers bounce back from droughts and other extreme weather events is a crucial part of their strategy to adapt to longer-term climate change. The Financial Instruments Sector Team (FISTeam) of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society has been an […]

agricultural landscape in Vietnam

Building Sustainable Climate Solutions for Food Security – ACToday Project

On September 24, during Climate Week NYC, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and Columbia World Projects hosted an event to showcase the successes of its Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow (ACToday) project, which is working to reduce climate threats to food systems in Bangladesh, Colombia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Senegal and Vietnam. […]

A flooded street in Germany with a rescue boat pulled up to a window to evacuate people from a building.

When Record-Breaking Is the Norm: Mitigating the Impacts of Extreme Rainfall Events in a Changing Climate

This story was originally written by Kai Kornhuber, Mona Hemmati, and Andrew Kruczkiewicz and published on the State of the Planet blog, as part of Climate Week NYC coverage. Learn more about Climate Week, read other stories, and check out upcoming events. Torrential rainfall quickly transformed New York City’s streets and expressways into rivers and lakes on Wednesday night […]

Insurance Tools for Climate Adaptation: Q&A with Rahel Diro

The world’s 570 million smallholder farmers are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of current and future climate variability and climate change. They need support and science-based strategies to make their communities resilient to these impacts and enable them to have sustainable livelihoods no matter what the climate might bring. One adaptation strategy being […]

Warfare, Not Climate, Is Driving Resurgent Hunger in Africa, Says Study

After Years of Progress on Food Security, Some Nations See Sharp Reversals This story was originally written by Kevin Krajick and published on the State of the Planet blog. For years, it seemed the world was making progress eliminating hunger. Then, starting in 2014, the trend slid back slowly and reversed in many nations; now, some […]

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 […]

Browse Archive