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How Latin America (Too) Holds the Key to Fighting the Climate Crisis

2021-10-12T00:08:52.716Z


Latin America, one of the regions that will be most affected by climate change, has a key to combat this crisis like no other region.


2500, the apocalyptic year caused by climate change 0:45

(CNN Spanish) -

The call of the scientific community to face the climate crisis could not be clearer: we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But it is not the only key to trying to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

There is another key, and Latin America has it.

The region "has a large part of the biodiversity that is at the moment the most important solution to the climate crisis," Serena Heckler, Unesco adviser on Earth and Ecological Sciences, told CNN en Español. "The most important solution we have is biodiversity, because it is biodiversity that is going to absorb the carbon dioxide that we are generating," he explained.

The best known example is the Amazon. The world's largest rainforest absorbs billions of tons of carbon dioxide a year, making it one of our great natural defenses against climate change. (Notably, however, its role as a carbon sink is under threat: a study published in the journal

Nature

claims that some areas already emit more CO2 than they store.)

It's not just about the Amazon.

The richness of the region transcends this tropical forest decimated by fires and deforestation, explains Heckler, and mentions other examples: mangroves, the Mesoamerican biological corridor, the pantanal, the Atlantic forest.

Terrestrial ecosystems and oceans are the "most powerful tool" we have as "engines to mitigate climate change," he explains.

And he assures that, from his work at Unesco, he visualizes that the countries of the region "are aware of the responsibility they have as guardians of the planet's biodiversity."

The Amazon is losing the battle against fires 5:10

It also recalls that several Latin American countries are considered "megadiverse", as the group of countries that has 70% of the diversity of species is called: Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Brazil.

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How are biodiversity and climate change connected?

Scientists and policy makers acknowledge that biodiversity loss and climate change are interconnected issues, but in fact these challenges have been addressed separately, experts from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change explain in a June report ( IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biological Diversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

"Climate change exacerbates risks to biodiversity (...), at the same time, natural and managed ecosystems and their biodiversity play a key role in greenhouse gas fluxes, as well as in supporting the climate adaptation ".

Significantly reducing the destruction and degradation of forests, wetlands, mangroves and other ecosystems "can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land and sea use change and maintain large carbon sinks if properly managed," says the report. .

To put it in numbers: reducing deforestation and forest degradation can help save between 0.4 and 5.8 Gt of CO2 per year, according to experts

.

5.8 Gt is, for example, more than what the United States and the European Union emitted in 2019 for power generation, according to data from the International Energy Agency.

And some ecosystems are even more productive in this regard: mangroves, for example, "can sequester four times more carbon than tropical forests per unit area," the report says.

Plan that unprotected mangroves in Brazil halted 0:46

The International Union for Conservation of Nature provides another clear example of how diversity benefits the fight against the climate crisis: the diversity of organisms that live in the soil affects the amount of carbon it can store.

"Improving soil biodiversity to store just 0.4% more organic carbon in agricultural soils annually would offset the projected increase in emissions from humanity around the world, and increase global production of corn, wheat and rice." , they explain.

According to this body, up to 37% of the need for mitigation against climate change can be addressed through nature-based solutions.

IPCC and IPBES experts, for their part, point out that these solutions can play an important role but "can only be effective with ambitious reductions of all greenhouse gases caused by man."

In other words, they need to go hand in hand with a cut in emissions caused by human activities

The effects of climate change in Latin America

Latin America is one of the regions where the impacts of climate change will be strongest, according to a recent report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The main threats depend on the region, which is why, according to Heckler, it is essential that in each area the risks are identified in order to work locally on the strategies to face them.

One in three tree species could become extinct 0:46

According to the latest IPCC report, these are the challenges that Latin America will have to face:

  • Temperature

    : According to WMO, 2020 was one of the three hottest years in Central America and the Caribbean, and the second hottest in the south.

    In the future, says the IPCC, throughout the region temperatures will continue to rise, and in South and Central America this increase is very likely to be higher than the world average.

  • Rainfall

    : in 2020 the Pantanal and southern Amazon recorded one of the worst droughts in 50 years.

    In the future, the average rainfall is forecast to change across the region, increasing or decreasing depending on the area.

  • Sea level: Sea

    level rise will likely continue throughout the region, where more than a quarter of the population lives in coastal areas, contributing to phenomena such as increased flooding and erosion.

  • Marine heat waves

    : expected to increase throughout the region.

  • Extreme Weather Events

    : Hurricanes Ida and Iota demonstrated in 2020 the destruction that cyclones strengthened by climate change can leave in their wake.

    In the Caribbean and southern Central America, tropical cyclones, severe storms, and sandstorms are forecast to become even more extreme.

  • Glaciers:

    WMO highlights the retreat of glaciers in the Chilean and Argentine Andes, which has accelerated since 2010. It is a threat that Heckler also points out.

Argentine Patagonia, under water emergency 3:13

A look at Mexico

In some parts of Mexico - where more than 20 million people already face permanent water shortages and an even greater number seasonal shortages - annual rainfall will decrease and in others it will increase, Heckler said.

The problem, he explained, is that "not always the parts of Mexico that need more precipitation are the ones that are going to see it."

Droughts and fire seasons will be longer.

In turn, cyclones will be stronger in the Caribbean area, also threatened especially by rising sea levels.

Who are most vulnerable?

This year, fires, floods and deadly heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere revealed that no corner of the planet is escaping the effects of climate change. However, this does not imply that there is no discrimination. "Climate change affects the entire population, but it is the world's poorest people and those in a vulnerable situation, especially women and girls, who bear the worst consequences of environmental, economic and social stress," he explains. the ONU.

When analyzing the region, the Unesco expert adds other groups such as indigenous peoples, migrants, displaced persons, and disabled people.

"Indigenous peoples are generally the poorest, those who tend to be least served by public services or with less economic security," he explains, and therefore have less resilience against certain threats of climate change, for example the extreme events.

A clear example is public services: if there is an interruption, for example in the water service, in many cases it is those who have no other alternatives to access.

Climate crisis: Latin America is considered vulnerable 1:06

Latin America's preparation for COP26

The 26th edition of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, known as COP26, will take place in November in Glasgow.

All eyes are on this summit of world leaders that will discuss the commitments necessary to avoid the "catastrophe" towards which the planet is headed.

Some POPs have been successful, such as the one in 2015, which resulted in more than 190 countries later signing the Paris Agreement to limit the rise in temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to the extent 1.5 degrees if possible (although if emissions continue on their current trajectory, everything indicates that this would not be achieved).

However, others have been "painfully unproductive," explains CNN journalist Ivana Kottasová.

In May, Latin America celebrated its climate week ahead of COP26 with more than 5,000 participants, which addressed the challenges posed by climate change for the region and resilient development strategies, among other topics.

Latin America has a regional ambassador for the Scottish summit, Fiona Clouder.

Despite restrictions, they warn of carbon emissions 0:54

Heckler, from UNESCO, emphasizes that Latin America is an important bloc in the face of the COP and that also "each country has an equivalent voice" at the summit.

And it calls for thinking about how the different areas of development are intertwined.

"If we don't have environmental resilience, we don't have health resilience, we don't have economic resilience. So if we don't act on one front, we won't be successful on the other."

For example, "if we don't have a healthy Amazon, we won't have a healthy climate or a healthy economy either."

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-10-12

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