A USAID-supported program that helps countries on the front lines of climate change prepare for and manage the impacts of extreme weather events has gone dark following the Trump administration’s stop-work order and 90-day freeze on U.S. foreign aid.
The program, called SERVIR, uses NASA satellite data to help countries predict and manage disasters, water shortages, flooding, and other weather-related threats. It also helps governments understand the primary stressors they are likely to face due to climate change — whether agricultural or related to their sewage systems — and then shape their budgets accordingly.
Experts said that the loss of this program will not only lead to tens of thousands of deaths from extreme weather events across the world, it will also put pressure on the United States as more individuals in climate-vulnerable countries flee their destroyed homes and seek refuge in the U.S.
About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
