Climate change is a fact and we see its consequences everyday through heat and cold waves, droughts, an increase in the frequency and intensity of rains, rising sea levels, loss of biodiversity, among others, which directly impact the health of the population and particularly the most vulnerable.
Latin America has become a global hotspot of the pandemic. The social and economic pain it inflicts only adds to the impacts of the climate crisis. This hurricane season, for instance, is expected to hit the Americas with twice as many major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher than in typical years.
Without a doubt, the issue of how to get the pandemic under control and post-COVID-19 recovery plans is the world’s top priority. While it is necessary and urgent to address the pandemic, this should not distract us from another threat facing the planet: the climate crisis.
The pandemic forced COP26 to be postponed until November 2021 (a summit in which definitive consensus was expected to promote ambitious climate action). However, efforts to combat the climate emergency must not be slowed down.
Today we celebrate World Food Day! It's a date that should serve us to reflect not only on the positive aspects that make our region a wonderful place, but also on the challenges we face regarding food security. On one hand, Latin America and the Caribbean are a privileged region. The region boasts the largest reserves of drinking water in the world and has an enviable biodiversity with the greatest variety of species and ecosystems on the planet (IDB, 2019).
Bioeconomy is any economic activity based on the use of natural renewable biological resources, from both land and ocean, to obtain food, materials, and energy in a sustainable way without compromising their availability for future generations. Specifically, bioeconomy comprises those economic activities related to the invention, development, production, and use of biological products and processes.
Historically, civilization, our health and human well-being have gone hand in hand with forests and jungles. How could they now support society to recover in a more sustainable way after COVID-19?
Many environmental services and goods, essential for the lives of millions of people, are linked to forests and jungles. However, in the same way that they are related to our well-being, these ecosystems also pose serious problems if we do not take good care of them.
Due to the pandemic, Latin America and the Caribbean faces a crisis without precedent in its history. For a sustainable recovery to be possible—one that reduces the infrastructure gap and inequality while addressing the climate and ecological emergencies—we need to improve planning of infrastructure projects.
A healthy environment is critical to public health, ecosystem vitality, and the sustainability of societies. A majority of countries have endorsed this view and adopted environmental laws or included the right to a healthy environment in their constitutions. However, practice often lags behind the adoption of environmental laws, and to date, there have been very little data to help understand and address this gap.
For over seven months, we have seen COVID-19 create a severe global economic, social and health crisis. In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), the crisis has translated into a tragedy. It is claiming hundreds of thousands of lives and in some countries, citizens remain in confinement for periods of 150 days or more, devastating economies and bringing about a huge toll of economic, physical and psychological aftereffects.
This year the United Nations celebrates its 75th anniversary. By the next time a similar anniversary comes around it will be 2095. We cannot wait that long to see whether the world has successfully limited global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius and halted the collapse of biodiversity. We need strong action now.