In the last 50 years, every week a country in Latin America and the Caribbean has suffered the impact of a climate disaster on average, whether it be a flood, tropical storm, hurricane, drought, heat wave or fire. Accumulated, these disasters have impacted four out of every ten Latin Americans and Caribbeans, have caused almost 100,000 fatalities and have generated losses estimated at more than 360 billion dollars, equivalent to Colombia's current GDP, according to CAF analyzes. Climate change is also generating an increase in its frequency.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the Climate Summit (COP28) in Dubai is looking for solutions to prevent these extreme weather events from continuing to cause so much havoc and, above all, to prepare the population with better infrastructure and more efficient alarm systems. . But since the region is heterogeneous, strategies must be personalized. For example, hurricanes are frequent in the Caribbean (97% of the disasters in the subregion, impacting seven out of ten Caribbean people), floods and landslides in the Andean region (which explain more than 80% of the deaths), and droughts and forest fires in various areas of the region.
The Governments of Latin America and the Caribbean require plans with comprehensive approaches, committed allies and many more resources to move towards effective management in the prevention and mitigation of the risks of these disasters. Today there is consensus on the need for an integrated vision and action between risk reduction and adaptation to climate change. And this involves establishing early warning systems with greater use of technology; improve urban planning and invest in more and better resilient infrastructure; strengthen educational programs by preparing and raising awareness among communities, especially involving the most vulnerable, and maximizing coordination between all state agencies.
To materialize this vision, allies and resources are needed. Latin America has one of the cleanest energy matrices in the world and has enormous wealth in biodiversity, both key elements to mitigate climate change and innovate in adaptation. But this is not enough: it is necessary to mobilize financing and scale all the knowledge, experience and resources of development banks, global institutions and companies present throughout the region in key sectors such as banking and insurance (with traditional financial instruments or more innovative such as debt swaps and resilient bonds), telecommunications and technology (establishing early warning systems or allowing climate phenomena to be anticipated) to achieve adequate mitigation and prevention.
COP28 is paying more attention than usual to Latin America and the Caribbean. The region decided to present itself as a region of global solutions on key issues such as food security, the preservation of biodiversity, the energy transition or nature-based solutions and, little by little, this approach of raising its voice in large global forums It is bearing fruit.
One of the good news from the summit was CAF's announcement that it will invest 15 billion dollars until 2030 (approximately 2 billion a year) so that the countries of the region implement comprehensive strategies to address the increasingly frequent climate disasters. These types of commitments are essential so that, in a short time, cities and communities are less exposed and better prepared for climate change.
You need to take advantage of this momentum of global meetings such as COP28 to raise more financing and accelerate the region's green agenda. The attention on COP28 in Dubai is gradually transferring to COP30 to be held in Belém do Pará, Brazil, the place where the Amazonian summit of presidents was held. It is time to accelerate the pace and arrive from Latin America and the Caribbean with solutions that benefit everyone, both Latin Americans and Caribbeans so impacted by climate disasters, and global citizens. Only in this way will the attention achieved be maintained and it will be demonstrated that Latin America and the Caribbean is that region of global solutions.
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