The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in a report presented at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28), recommended increasing resources for adaptation measures, which account for eight percent of the total globally, compared to 89 percent for mitigation.
The document addresses the financing and policy needs required in the region to transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy, as well as current regional emissions trends.
This issue highlights the importance of financing in sectors such as agriculture, livestock and forestry, which account for 58 percent of greenhouse gas emissions at the regional level.
“Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. “ECLAC has spent years analyzing its impacts in Latin America and the Caribbean and has found that the costs of inaction exceed those of action and that global warming will worsen the negative effects of extreme weather events,” said its executive director José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs
According to the study, meeting climate commitments by 2030 also requires investments of 3.7 to 4.9 percent of regional gross domestic product per year, which requires increasing the mobilization of national and international resources by seven to ten times.
It also refers, among other things, to the necessary investments for the energy transition, the electrification of public transport, mitigation measures to avoid deforestation, the protection of biological diversity, early warning systems and poverty prevention.
Salazar-Xirinachs explained that increasing climate finance could bring other benefits, including economic and social, while increased investment in climate mitigation and adaptation measures would provide an important boost to growth, job creation and social development.
On the contrary, if no action is taken, climate change can lead to losses that could reach 10 percent in labor productivity due to heat stress in some countries, which would have a direct impact on the region’s growth potential, he added.
jha/crc