Intercambio Climático | A unique initiative which aims to generate answers from Latin America on the global problem of climate change.

El Salvador stresses adaptation to keep its head above water

By Adam Kotin

When devastating floods hit El Salvador in October 2011, 40% of the country’s crops were wiped out. Agricultural Minister José Guillermo López Suárez was forced to import the nation’s signature kidney beans all the way from China.

But sadly, this wasn’t a new experience for the fast-developing Central American nation. At a COP17 panel presentation, El Salvadoran Minister of the Environment, Herman Rosa Chávez, discussed the slew of extreme weather events his country has endured over the last several years.

For El Salvador, severe climate-related losses have almost become an annual rite.

December 8, 2011 | More on Adaptation, Climate Finance, International Climate Negotiations | COP17, El Salvador | Comment

Brazil denies that the Forest Code will affect climate targets

Flávia Moraes

At a press conference, Andre Correa Lago, the ambassador and principal negotiator for Brazil at the COP17, claimed that the new Forest Code would not affect goals for reducing deforestation.

December 6, 2011 | More on Amazon, International Climate Negotiations | Brazil, COP17, Deforestation, Forest Code | Comment

Latin American civil society builds bridges at the COP17 in Durban

Guy Edwards and Mónica López Baltodano

Today, at the COP17, a group of Latin American platforms, networks and fora organized by the Building Bridges initiative met with delegations from Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama to discuss the primary issues under negotiation including the longevity of the Kyoto Protocol, designing the Green Climate Fund and adaptation.

December 3, 2011 | More on Civil Society, International Climate Negotiations | Bolivia, COP17, Panama, Peru | Comment

Brazil: Protect Your Forests

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This article was originally published in ECO from the international climate change negotiations in Durban, South Africa

As the world tries to find ways to reduce global emissions, Brazil is on the verge of igniting a real carbon bomb. A bill to change the country’s Forest Law is about to be approved, resulting in the increase of deforestation by reducing protected areas, removing the obligations for the restoration of cleared areas, and pardoning loggers. The proposed bill will be sent to President Dilma Roussef for final consideration in coming weeks.

December 1, 2011 | More on Amazon, Public Climate Change Policies | Brazil, COP17 | Comment

Innovative Finance: Time for a “Hail Mary” for the Climate

Timmons Roberts

So it’s come down to this, a “Hail Mary pass for the climate.”

At the end of an American football game, the losing team, down by three or four scores with virtually no possibility of winning, often resorts to a “Hail Mary Pass,” in which they line up a few guys to protect the quarterback, send everyone else down into the opposing team’s end zone, and then heave the ball up in the hopes one of their teammates will catch it.

November 30, 2011 | More on Climate Finance, International Climate Negotiations | COP17 | Comment

Renegades Keep Climate Finance Tracking a Wild West

Timmons Roberts

For a stretch of U.S. history back in the 1800s, two forces struggled to impose their social order on the expanses of the nation’s vast Western frontier. On the one side were citizen “settlers” and their officials, trying to impose national laws from the East to make the place safe for building a society where joint problems like safety, land ownership, and building basic infrastructure got dealt with in a consensual and predictable way. On the other side were bands of renegades or “outlaws,” who furtively sought the treasures of the land through their ability to terrorize the settlers and other bands of outlaws.

November 28, 2011 | More on Climate Finance, International Climate Negotiations | COP17 | Comment

Brazilian Newspapers Give Little Space to Climate Skeptics

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By Carlos Henrique Fioravanti*

A study by Oxford University about media coverage of climate change in six countries indicates that newspapers from Brazil, France, India and China have given less space to climate skeptics than the American and British press.

November 25, 2011 | More on The Science of Climate Change | Brazil, Media | Comment

Caribbean Paves the Way for Insurance-Based Climate Adaptation

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By Adam Kotin*

In its influential Third Assessment Report (2001), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) jumpstarted action on climate change adaptation by stating that a certain level of climate change was inevitable, and that the world should get to work preparing for it.

Last year in Cancun, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took the next logical step—it officially acknowledged that climate change will cause devastating losses despite the very best adaptation measures, and that the Convention has a role to play in mitigating that damage.

The Loss and Damage work programme, hammered out under last year’s Cancun Agreements, seeks to identify the risks and needs of vulnerable countries to determine appropriate action the Convention can take in the future. Various countries and NGOs are advising the work programme on what the scope of action might be, with an emphasis on increased risk assessment, data access, and public-private cooperation.

Amidst all this, the Caribbean has emerged as a ‘model’ region in which insurance-based climate risk management is already on the ground and evolving.

November 22, 2011 | More on Adaptation, Natural Disasters | Caribbean, Hurricanes, Insurance | Comment

Domestic politics frustrate U.S. – Latin American cooperation on climate change

Guy Edwards

By Guy Edwards and Kelly Rogers*

As U.S. influence in Latin America continues its downward trajectory, the complex domestic situation in Washington D.C. risks jeopardizing greater cooperation on climate change. Although the vote in the House of Representatives to end the U.S.’s annual $48.5 million contribution to the Organization of American States (OAS) is unlikely to pass Congress, the vote was indicative of reactionary thinking on Latin America and the complex domestic political and economic environment.

November 7, 2011 | More on International Climate Negotiations, Regional Organisations | USA, USA-Latin America | Comment

Report from Panama: slow and steady wins the race?

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By Tim Ash-Vie

This article was originally published here by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network.

Meetings of the UNFCCC earlier this year in Bangkok and Bonn were mainly characterised by fundamental differences among countries about what should even be on the agenda. The latest meeting in Panama, from 1-8 October, offered more than that. At last, parties began to articulate the shape of a possible outcome at Durban: an outcome that would show meaningful progress towards a well-supported international agreement beyond 2012.

October 19, 2011 | More on Climate Finance, International Climate Negotiations | COP17 | Comment

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