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Latin American scientists can play a greater role in promoting robust climate policies

 

By Guy Edwards, Victoria Elmore* and Jin Hyung Lee**

 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) is underway and is due to be completed by 2013/14. There are 84 Latin American and Caribbean contributing authors out of a total 833.

As we approach the publication date, these scientists have a vital role to play in promoting the importance of climate science in Latin America and persuading governments to create robust and ambitious national and international climate policies.  In turn, regional governments should continue increasing levels of funding and scientific cooperation on climate science given the significant role it can play in developing policies on climate.

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May 9, 2012 | More on International Climate Negotiations, The Science of Climate Change | Argentina, Brazil, CDKN, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, ECLAC, Guatemala, IPCC, Mexico, UK, UNFCCC, USA | Comment

Poles Apart – The international reporting of climate change scepticism (2011)

 

Poles Apart is a wide-ranging comparative study on the prevalence of climate scepticism in the media around the world. It focuses on newspapers in Brazil, China, France, India, the UK, and the USA, but includes an overview of research on the media of other countries. A wealth of new data is drawn from around 3,000 recent articles on climate change from two newspapers in each of the six countries. It concludes that climate scepticism is largely an Anglo-Saxon phenomenon, found most frequently in the US and British newspapers, and explores the reasons why this is so. The study also examines whether climate sceptics are more likely to appear in right leaning than left-leaning newspapers, and in which parts of a newspaper their voices are most heard.

 

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November 16, 2011 | More on International Climate Negotiations, Reading List, The Science of Climate Change | Brazil, China, France, India, Media, UK, USA | Comment

George Canning would be mighty chuffed…or would he?

 

The 19th century British Foreign Secretary, George Canning, is renowned as a great liberal statesman who “called the New World into existence”. The current British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has also called for British governments to stop underestimating Latin America and to improve relations with this dynamic and vibrant region. However, as Laurence Allan and I argue in The World Today, British foreign policy towards Latin America needs a drastic makeover, not least if our common goals on climate change and UN reform can bear results.

Perhaps Hague’s reflections on past engagement do signal a new stage in British policy. But high level ministerial visits to the region will mean nothing unless the government tries harder to clarify its real intentions and to fix inconsistencies between what it would aspire to do in Latin America, what is actually conceivable, and what it is really doing. In this multi-polar era of interdependence and international realignment, a policy based on the mouldy memoirs of a 19th century empire is inadequate. The coalition government should look beyond this narrow focus if its newfound interest in Latin American is to gain credibility and achieve success on pressing global issues, in tune with British national interests beyond the parameters of Treasury thinking.

February 25, 2011 | More on Energy, International Climate Negotiations, Trade & Commerce | Brazil, Mexico, UK | Comment

UK Foreign Office: Latin America at the heart of a Copenhagen agreement‏

 

The UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, told Latin American journalists from Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, that a politically binding deal on climate change will only be struck with the agreement of leading South American countries.

‘You are countries that are growing, countries that embody some of the big issues of low carbon economic development of technology transfer and the big issue that is sometimes forgotten but should never be forgotten – deforestation that contributes 18% of total global emissions.’

‘There won’t be a deal unless countries like Argentina, Mexico and Brazil are clear that responsibility is being taken by advanced industrialised societies,’ he said. Mr Miliband said they needed to see that advanced countries such as the UK had clear and binding commitments.

‘But that there also needs to be appropriate weight for all countries to make their contributions. The richest should do the most but everyone should do something – and that’s a good social justice principle’.

‘With 20 days to go I think it is important that the Latin American voice is heard but it is also important that there is a dialogue between European countries and Latin American countries.’

Mr Miliband said the UK believed that there was still room to strike a climate change deal that was ‘effective, fair and ambitious’, which he said were the three aims of the British Government.

‘Ambitious: not because every last dot and comma of a treaty is resolved in the next 20 days but ambitious because there is a serious political agreement that then be turned into a treaty following Copenhagen,’ he said.

Mr Miliband said that a fair agreement would involve rich countries doing the most and emerging economies being helped to develop. A deal must be effective in terms of ensuring that money flows from rich to poor countries to help them mitigate and adapt to climate change, he said.

November 17, 2009 | More on International Climate Negotiations | COP15, UK | Comment

Prince Charles visits Latin America to discuss climate change

 

As Latin American countries gear up to celebrate their bicentenary anniversaries of independence from colonial rule, an unexpected member of a European royal family arrives to discuss climate change.

No, King Juan Carlos I is not pitching up for round two with Hugo Chavez, but rather the UK’s Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall are arriving today in Chile, before moving on to Brazil and lastly Ecuador.

At the request of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which considers climate change a strategic priority, the trip will focus on the environment and climate change.

Picture: AFP/GETTY

Throw in discussions on UK-Chilean military ties, Brazilian deforestation and youth entrepreneurship and a bicentenary jaunt to the Galapagos to celebrate the birth of Charles Darwin, the visit is set to be a schmooze-athon of grandiose proportions.

Anyone with an interest in Anglo-Latin American relations should be delighted that Prince Charles is visiting this rarely discussed part of the world. Beefed up by His Royal Highness’ impressive and often maverick take on the environment and urban planning, this trip has the potential to have some very positive outcomes.

However, there are two niggling ironies that will make the Latin American response afterwards intriguing, especially given the patriotic zeal cascading through the continent.

Firstly the historical precedent: during the period of Latin America’s independence, Great Britain was the most influential foreign power in the region. This influence rested primarily in trade as Great Britain led the industrial revolution.

This period is also where anthropogenic CO2 emissions began to warm the planet. Emerging and developing regions such as Latin America feel aggrieved that they are being asked to potentially cap their emissions when they are historically not responsibly for global warming. It is Andean glaciers melting and Brazilian agricultural productivity under threat after all, not Cumbrian cheese making.

Secondly, a quick scan of UK trade and investment with Latin America show that a significant proportion goes into carbon intensive industries and the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, particularly hydrocarbons and mining.

UK Trade and Investment may promote opportunities in renewable energy, waste management, recycling technologies and carbon trading in Latin America, but low carbon trade between the two is still in its infancy.

Given that the UK government is vulnerable to accusations of being more of a climate criminal than a climate champion, it is clear why the Prince of Wales was asked to go in the first place and why he is the only high-ranking Brit with green enough credentials to attempt to pull it off.

March 9, 2009 | More on Amazon, Biodiversity | UK | Comment

DFID jumps ship as tides rise in Latin America

 

Over the next two years, the UK’s Department for International Development will be closing its regional offices in Bolivia and Nicaragua. These regional hubs provide the focal point for most of DFID’s work in Latin America. Yet as persistent levels of poverty and high inequality converge with the growing threats posed by climate change, DFID’s evacuation from Latin America could not have come at a worst time.

Although many countries in the region are now considered to be in the Middle Income category, poverty in Latin America remains stubbornly persistent. Out of a population of 550 million, roughly 49 million live on a dollar a day and over 14.7 million are chronically poor ensuring their suffering and often easily preventable deaths seldom go noticed.

The majority of Latin America’s poor now live in cities where the impact of climate change and lack of development fuse to create a hostile environment of food insecurity and water scarcity, exacerbated by rising sea levels and a greater frequency of hurricanes.

Development experts argue that unless strategies to tackle climate change can be mainstreamed into development processes; any chance of success will be severely undermined. This is why DFID’s untimely exit is misguided.

DFID projects in Latin America, such as those working with regional organisations on governance issues, have been very successful. But just as they have begun to yield results, they are being shut down.

At the same time, DFID has been expanding it work on climate change. A new DFID report outlines the prospect for providing £50 million for research on climate change and poverty in Latin America and Asia.

DFID should therefore, combine the development success stories in Latin America with its growing capacity on climate change by maintaining a strong presence in Latin America.

Without it, DFID will struggle to successfully channel its expertise on low carbon growth and adaptation to climate change into Latin American policy making and to civil society. It is in a better position to liaise between regional organisations than any of its UK NGO partners, and could better coordinate these NGOs with Latin American regional organisations.

As the effects of climate change disrupt the lives of Latin America’s poorest and most vulnerable, the need for experienced development practitioners in Latin America may actually be increasing. Prioritises elsewhere may appear to be of greater urgency, but DFID staff themselves would concede that the job in Latin America is far from over. With climate change becoming ever more critical, it might just be beginning.

October 28, 2008 | More on Regional Organisations | development, DFID, UK | Comment