MacArthur awards $2M for climate research

• Tweet

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- The World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature received a $2 million grant for climate change strategies.

The grant is to be used to develop a new Ecosystems and Livelihoods Adaptation Network to "serve as a resource for conservation groups, governments, international agencies and others working to make vulnerable ecosystems more resilient, and help human communities adapt sensibly to changing climate," the MacArthur Foundation said Tuesday in a news release.

The union said the network will initially focus on the developing world, where climate impacts are generally more acute and response capacity is more limited.

"The scale and urgency of climate change demands global cooperation and innovation to help animal and human populations adapt to our changing planet," Jonathan Fanton, president of the MacArthur Foundation, said in a statement. "Mitigation is a necessary but insufficient response. We can no longer afford to dismiss adaptation as 'giving in' or worry that it will reduce incentives for addressing the root causes of climate changes."