Thursday 11 December 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
CLIMATE CHANGE: Latin
America Could Show the
Way
By Ramesh Jaura
POZNAN (IPS) - The
World Bank has urged the
international community
to look to Latin
America, the world's
most bio-diverse region,
for innovative solutions
to avert a climate
crisis.
Of the world's ten most
bio-diverse countries,
five are in the Latin
American region: Brazil,
Colombia, Ecuador,
Mexico, and Peru. These
are also five of the 15
countries whose fauna is
most threatened with
extinction.
Harshly criticised by
148 organisations from
around the world for
being a climate
polluter, the World Bank
released its flagship
report on Latin America
and the Caribbean
Wednesday at the United
Nations (UN) conference
on climate change in the
Polish city of Poznan.
The Latin American
region is in a position
to lead middle income
countries in reducing
emissions from
deforestation, breaking
the impasse on
hydropower development,
improving energy
efficiency, and
transforming urban
transport, says the
World Bank report.
The study explores how
the region is exposed to
climate change and what
it can do to avert its
effects, both
unilaterally and with
the incentives of a
global climate agreement
to be negotiated next
year in Copenhagen by
the United Nations (UN).
"The approach championed
by Latin America will
not only help tackle
climate change but help
create millions of new
jobs in the low carbon
economy," says Katherine
Sierra, World Bank
vice-president for
sustainable development,
in a statement
circulated by the World
Bank.
"Lessons from the region
will be invaluable for
our global efforts to
finance climate change
action in developing
countries with new
instruments like the 6.1
billion dollar Climate
Investment Funds," she
adds.
The Climate Investment
Funds (CIFs) launched by
the World Bank are,
however, considered by
some to be detrimental
to the climate talks
under the umbrella of
the UN.
In a joint statement
Dec. 9, leading
non-governmental
organisations (NGOs)
said the CIFs "compete
for funding with already
established UN
adaptation and
technology funds,
promote dirty industries
like coal as clean
energy, and force
developing countries to
pay for the
industrialised world's
pollution by providing
loans for them to adapt
to the climate crisis
they did not create."
Rather than treating the
provision of climate
financing as binding
obligations by
industrialised countries
to developing countries
under the United Nations
Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC),
the CIFs are designed
within a fundamentally
unequal aid framework of
donor and recipient, the
NGOs said.
"This is particularly
odious given the large
historical ecological
debt owed by
industrialised countries
to developing
countries," they said.
"Though the CIFs have
been described as new
sources of funding by
the World Bank, G8
governments have made
clear that they are
considered as part of
official development
assistance (ODA), and
thus are not new and
additional."
In another statement
forwarded by the World
Bank to IPS, Laura Tuck,
the director for
sustainable development
in Latin America and the
Caribbean acknowledges
that "increased
investments in green
technologies are not
going to be an easy
sell."
However, she underlines
that "there is growing
support from businesses,
government and civil
society for the idea
that the crisis itself
provides an opportunity
to create incentives for
a low carbon development
path."
Titled 'Low Carbon, High
Growth: Latin American
Responses to Climate
Change', the World Bank
report says: "The region
is suffering the impact
of climate change;
however, it is not a
main source of emissions
that are driving global
warming, thanks to its
clean energy matrix and
its innovative policies
to promote low carbon
growth."
"Latin America produces
only about six percent
of global energy-related
greenhouse gas
emissions, or 12 percent
of emissions from all
sources, including
deforestation and
agriculture," says the
report, written by World
Bank economists Augusto
de la Torre, Pablo
Fajnzylber and John
Nash.
The report points to new
technologies and
approaches the region
has piloted to reduce
emissions:
- Mexico's 2007 national
strategy on climate
change adopts long-term,
non-binding targets. In
the energy sector, the
strategy identifies a
total mitigation
potential of 107 million
tonnes of greenhouse
gasses by 2014, a 21
percent reduction from
business as usual over
the next six years.
- Brazil is moving
towards energy
independence through the
expansion of alternative
energy sources such as
hydroelectricity,
ethanol and biodiesel.
Its sugar-based ethanol
production is
financially and
environmentally
sustainable without
diverting land from food
crops.
- Public and
environmentally friendly
public transport
policies demonstrated by
Curitiba (Brazil) and
expanded in Bogota
(Colombia) are now under
way in dozens of cities
in the region.
- Costa Rica has
received worldwide
recognition for its
efforts to place a
financial value on
preserving ecosystems,
through several
initiatives on "payments
for ecosystems
services."
- Argentina is moving
forward with renewable
energy in rural areas,
which provides
affordable and reliable
electricity to
communities and has an
impact on productivity
and jobs.
Despite these
innovations, Latin
America has been moving
to a higher carbon
growth path. Based on
current trends, from
2005-2030 the projected
growth of per capita CO2
energy emissions in the
region is 33 percent
(above the world average
of 24 percent), the
report says.
"If the region moves
'ahead of the pack' it
could take advantage of
international
cost-sharing mechanisms
for deploying low-carbon
technologies and build
new comparative
advantages," says Pablo
Fajnzylber.
The report emphasises
that good adaptation to
climate change is an
indispensable part of
good development
policies and that action
is needed from all
countries.
"Latin America has
demonstrated a
consistent commitment to
fight climate change
beyond political cycles.
Now is the time when the
region can act as a
leader within developing
nations in articulating
constructive global
solutions. If
governments make the
right short-term
decisions, it could mean
significant progress
towards a more
sustainable market
economy," says co-author
John Nash.
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