Climate: Possible position paper series
Mercy Corps has worked with local communities for over four decades to meet complex challenges with comprehensive, innovative solutions. From proactive and rapid emergency response to restorative agricultural practices and renewable energy sources, our programming helps people cope with the immediate impacts of climate-related events, adapt to changing conditions, and make a more resilient future possible.
We launched the Climate: Possible campaign because we know what climate resilience looks like and we understand what it takes to get there.
Mercy Corps’ Climate: Possible postition paper series articulates proven and high-potential solutions to climate challenges, drawing on Mercy Corps’ extensive experience, evidence, and insights gathered from operating in the most fragile, climate-vulnerable contexts.
Position papers
The power of renewable energy to advance climate adaptation and resilience
Reliable and affordable clean energy sources are critical for households, communities, and businesses to adapt to a changing environment and cope with compounding stresses on their livelihoods, infrastructure, and social cohesion. While progress towards global climate adaptation goals remains insufficient, integrating renewable energy offers a transformative path forward. However, achieving this potential requires more than technological innovation; it demands establishing an enabling environment where regulatory systems, funding mechanisms, and supportive policies converge to facilitate the widespread adoption of renewable energy solutions. Renewable energy is essential to bolster resilient food systems and enhance disaster preparedness. Drawing on practical examples and evidence-based insights, we highlight how to scale renewable energy as a core component of climate adaptation strategies.
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How livestock in Africa’s drylands can advance climate adaptation and mitigation goals
While the intensive industrial livestock production systems in Western countries are inherently unsustainable, the extensive pastoralist systems in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel offer a pathway to reducing greenhouse gas emissions while enhancing the resilience of the populations and the landscape. These pastoralist systems, when well-managed, lead to lower full life cycle emissions and are the most efficient use of the fragile arid- and semi-arid rangelands that dominate this region. Through investments in animal health, improved governance of rangelands, enhanced access to risk management information and services, and investments in enhancing the carbon sink capacity of rangelands, livestock systems in the drylands can provide both adaptation and mitigation benefits as the climate changes.
