Sostenibilidad

Disasters triggered by natural hazards and climate change can affect vulnerable groups, with those impacted exhibiting lower levels of resilience against them. Every disaster hitting Latin America and the Caribbean is a reminder that women and people with disabilities are disproportionately affected by disasters on multiple dimensions, from a lower life expectancy and a greater probability of facing unemployment to a higher likelihood of having a workplace accident along with experiencing lower consumption levels post-disaster.

Can the COVID-19 pandemic help us prepare to respond to climate-related crises? Yes, it does. Crises often offer lessons for the future. While COVID-19 had enormous negative repercussions in many ways, it also left us good learnings, in this case, lessons that will be useful to prepare us to respond to shocks caused by climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released thesynthesis report of its sixth assessment report, which provides an overview of the state of knowledge on climate change. What are more than 200 scientists saying about the risks of climate change? They are warning yet again about the critical challenges associated with rising temperatures.

It’s 2023 and we would have thought that we would be anywhere near the Avatar mindset by now. The movie is not real life, we know, but it’s an environmental message. We are not here to discuss James Cameron's script but to raise awareness of the importance of protecting nature and addressing climate change.

The celebration of World Water Day on March 22 provides a good opportunity to reflect on the needs of users, the importance of water resources for the maintenance of ecological functions and the value of having digital tools such as HydroBID to assess and establish measures to ensure a sustainable management of the resource.

There is no doubt about the importance of the Amazon region as a natural asset to the local communities and to the world. It provides more than 40% of Latin America's fresh water, regulates air quality, stores carbon emissions, and controls nutrient and hydrological cycles for the South American continent.

Undertaking an ongoing and transparent process to engage all the stakeholders of a development project is a key element for making informed decisions and to achieve good governance. Part of this work relies on mapping the parties involved with a particular project, and defining an appropriate and inclusive format that promotes the active and ongoing participation of these stakeholders.

Forests, mangroves, rivers, marine species, jaguars, flamingos, hummingbirds, and many species inhabit our region. From Chilean Antarctica to Baja California, Latin America and the Caribbean are home to the most extraordinary diversity of species and ecosystems on the planet.

We are in a global and systemic transformation. Global temperatures have already risen by 1.1 degree, and we are seeing intensified droughts and wildfires in the southern cone and more frequent and violent hurricanes in the Caribbean and Central America. At the same time, we are living in the sustainability revolution with impact and scale like the industrial revolution. Global investments in renewables are growing exponentially, with wind and solar now generating more than nuclear.

Climate change has a negative impact on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), putting its population at risk and causing imbalances and disasters in its ecosystems. It also generates economic and social inequalities that suffer and impact the most vulnerable to a greater extent. However, the region has the opportunity to transition to carbon-free and climate-resilient economies.