Foreign Aid

Climate change has been in the news a lot lately. The United Nations held a Climate Change Summit, which was attended by more than 100 heads of state. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of New York for a "People's Climate March," the biggest such event ever.

But there was a third very important climate-related development that received much less attention than it warranted: President Barack Obama issued a new executive order that may prove to be a turning point for efforts to advance climate preparedness around the world and for U.S. foreign aid planning.

The order is entitled "Climate-Resilient International Development." Climate...