Sostenibilidad

Countries such as Chile and Jamaica are encouraging the deployment of electric cars, even while they produce electricity from fossil fuels.

Jane and Arturo enjoyed a tasty lobster and a pina colada while soaking their feet in the turquoise waters of Hispaniola Island, relaxing after a sightseeing trip where they spotted migratory birds and dived alongside manatees within green and thick mangroves. Little did they know that, throughout its life, that lobster had passed several phases of its growth in these amphibious forests resistant to salinity, which grow in estuaries and shallow waters.

In the past few years, ‘Nature-based Solutions’ has emerged as a new umbrella term for measures “inspired and supported by nature”. Nature-based Solutions may include a range of urban, coastal and land-based approaches, such as coral reef restoration, afforestation, watershed creation, green roofs and facades and more. These types of ecological approaches that utilize the natural world, can help policymakers tackle many societal issues, such as climate change.

Latin America and the Caribbean is a region with a huge social, cultural, political, and economic diversity that has made major strides in poverty reduction. Relevant quantitative data shows that at least 70 million people pulled out of extreme poverty and moved up the social ladder, swelling the ranks of the middle class to more than one-third of the region’s population.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) launched a warning call, emphasizing the benefits of keeping the temperature rise below 1.5 degrees, as to date our planet is living the consequences of an increase of temperature between 0.8 ° C and 1.2 ° C on average. The countries that signed the Paris Agreement and committed to taking climate action should look for new ways to address the problem and should do it quickly.

The increase in recent years of intensive hazardous events in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), such as the devastating Hurricanes in 2017 (Harvey, Irma, Maria, Nate, and others), the intensive earthquake in Ecuador in April 2016, the Argentina Floods in 2013 and many other events, have caused many fatalities, injuries, disruptions of infrastructure and people’s livelihood, as well as vast economic losses.

On June 27th, 2018, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDBG), in collaboration with Bolsas y Mercados Argentinos (BYMA) and Fundación Vida Silvestre (FVS), hosted the second Roundtable of the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Sustainable Infrastructure Financing Network.

For urban populations, mangroves are usually unwelcoming places, full of insects, reptiles and mud. However, after half a century of ecological research, we now know that mangrove forests offer great value through a variety of environmental services such as nurseries for fish, crustaceans and mollusks, supplying food and medicinal plants, protecting against natural disasters and stabilizing coastlines. They also provide construction materials, can be sites of cultural and religious significance for indigenous populations as well as recreational and touristic places.

Climate change will have broad implications on how financial institutions identify, assess, and manage a range of risks and opportunities. Whether in the form of the physical impacts of climate change or transition risks due to the policies and market shifts to stabilize and reduce greenhouse gas emissions– many financial institutions are gradually recognizing the importance of understanding and addressing climate risks in their existing portfolio and operations, as well as in pipeline and future investments.