Latin America, without a common strategy at COP26

Hurricanes that devastate entire islands in the Caribbean or increasingly extreme droughts: Latin America is one of the regions most vulnerable to the climate crisis, but it faces its role at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow without a common strategy and with asymmetric commitments (United Kingdom).

Perhaps the only fair claim centers on demanding, once again, that rich countries directly finance the fight against climate change and that they disburse the US $ 100 billion annually to countries with less income that they agreed to contribute to the Paris Agreement.

Brazil and Mexico, the largest Latin American emitters of polluting gases, will be protagonists of the region, in a decisive conference to reverse the unstoppable global thermal rise and maintain it at 1.5 degrees by the year 2100, as recommended by scientists.

Different strategies

“The governments of Latin America want very different things. Historically there is no common position”Says Chilean Maisa Rojas, one of the authors of the latest report by the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Climate Change (IPCC).

The divergence can be seen in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) that each country presents to COP26, a list of commitments to reduce emissions and ensure that the temperature does not rise more than 0.5 degrees between now and 2100.

At this COP26, “not all Latin American countries have registered their NDCs and Brazil and Mexico have not improved their commitments since the Paris Agreement in 2015″ Regrets Rojas.

According to a report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Suriname have the most ambitious commitments. These guidelines are vital as a route against the climate crisis and to monitor what each country does.

Colombia, for example, the second most biodiverse country in the world, promotes reducing 51% of its greenhouse emissions by 2030, achieving 0% of deforestation also for that year and carbon neutrality – that is, the balance between the carbon emissions it generates and those it captures from the atmosphere – by 2050.

Eyes on Mexico and Brazil

Mexico and Brazil, the only countries in the region that have not expanded their commitments in these six years since the Paris Agreement, are precisely those that emit the most carbon dioxide (CO2) in all of Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the World Atlas Carbon.

Reaching the climate goal happens yes or yes by changing the conventional energy model based on fossil fuels, defend all the experts consulted by Efe, which collides with the controversial proposal for constitutional reform of the energy sector in Mexico, which relegates wind and solar energy .

While Brazil, which will arrive in Glasgow without its president, Jair Bolsonaro, despite being committed to conserving the Amazon, cannot give up road construction and mining in the world’s largest rainforest, the Brazilian vice president said this week. , Hamilton Mourao.

These tensions are repeated in other Latin American countries.

The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, maintains that extractive development projects can be carried out for the benefit of local populations without endangering the environment. But are these programs compatible with the climate fight?

“No they are not“Rojas answers sharply. “To believe that this can be compatible with our development and that we still want to develop and that we have other objectives is not to understand the problem,” he adds.

The debt of rich countries with Latin America

Joseluis Samaniego, director of the sustainable development and human settlements division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), emphasizes that the energy transition and sustainable change stimulate the economy.

For example, betting on renewable energy means that “Not only is every megawatt per dollar invested cheaper, but you create more jobs” he says.

But to promote these projects, investment is needed. Money that has to come from the richest countries responsible for the majority of emissions, as promised in the Paris Agreement.

The economist also points out that in the “accounting exercises led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) credits are being counted as if they were direct transfers for investment, but they are not”.

“It is as if you hit yourself and a third party offered you a loan to go to the hospital. It is not correct to count the increase in credit lines as a financial transfer”, He warns.

The demand for more funding has brought together politicians from different political spectra in recent weeks, such as the presidents of Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and the Dominican Republic.

For the Caribbean Community (Caricom), very vulnerable to the climate crisis, it becomes “urgent“The call to”world solidarity“To provide”additional dedicated funds per year to help the Caribbean proactively respond to losses and damage already occurring”.

Bolivia goes one step further and its vice president, David Choquehuanca, asks that they be eliminated “unilateral sanctions against third countries”Such as Venezuela or Cuba, a country that in turn criticizes world expenditures for the arms race, instead of directing them to protecting the environment.

Latin America, which generates 8.3% of global carbon emissions “has a great opportunity to push developed countries to materialize their commitments”, Concludes Samaniego.