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by and - Disasters like Hurricane Dorian are especially devastating on small island nations like those of the Caribbean. To adapt to climate change, the region (with international help) should invest in resilience as well as response.
Caribbean
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At the 74th United Nations General Assembly, five countries — Bolivia, Jamaica, Uruguay, Saint Kitts and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines — ratified the Escazú Agreement, an historic treaty that guarantees environmental rights in the region, provides special protections for environmental human rights defenders and ensures people can play a part in the decision-making necessary to address climate change.
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by Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, Lauren Sidner and Jack McClamrock - September 2019This paper analyzes the three sovereign parametric disaster risk insurance pools serving developing countries: CCRIF SPC, the African Risk Capacity, and the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company. It provides detailed recommendations for each of the pools and their stakeholders and broader recommendations to improve the availability of disaster risk finance for developing countries.
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by Andrés Flores, Beth Elliott and Chantal Davis - August 20, 2019UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for "bold action and much greater ambition" in fighting climate change. Latin American and Caribbean nations can heed the call by strengthening their national climate plans by 2020 and setting net-zero emissions targets for 2050.
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The Escazú Agreement was signed by 12 countries during the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly.
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by Carole Excell - September 27, 2018Four environmental defenders are murdered every week in Latin America and the Caribbean. A new regional agreement aims to protect them and provide all citizens with environmental rights.
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Un nuevo acuerdo marca un momento histórico para la justicia ambiental en América Latina y el Caribe
Luego de un proceso de negociación de seis años, 24 países adoptaron el Acuerdo Regional sobre el Acceso a la Información, la Participación Pública y el Acceso a la Justicia en Asuntos Ambientales en América Latina y el Caribe, conocido como LAC P10. Este acuerdo es el primero legalmente vinculante de América Latina y el Caribe sobre los derechos ambientales, diseñado para proteger a los defensores del medio ambiente, mejorar el acceso a la información ambiental y ampliar la participación pública en la toma de decisiones ambientales, entre otros.
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After a six-year negotiation process, 24 countries have adopted the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, known as LAC P10.The agreement is Latin America and the Caribbean’s first ever legally binding agreement on environmental rights, designed to protect environmental defenders, improve access to environmental information, extend public participation in environmental decision-making processes, and more.
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by Carole Excell and Alejandra Rodriguez - February 26, 2018Threats against environmental defenders are rising in Latin America and the Caribbean. An agreement being negotiated this week could protect the region's activists.
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by Richard Waite and Lauretta Burke - December 19, 2017Tourists want to see the most pristine environments—and 95 percent of them would pay fees to keep them that way.
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World Resources Institute (WRI) announced a landmark $2.1 billion of private investment earmarked to restore degraded lands in Latin America and the Caribbean through Initiative 20x20.
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by Arivudai Nambi Appadurai - September 05, 2017Seaside communities from South Asia to the Caribbean have suffered terribly from flooding. Arivudai Nambi Appadurai, India Adaptation Strategy Head for the Climate Resilience Practice and WRI India, distills how they can adapt, with a focus on the dynamics of environmental justice and sustainable development.
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Degraded lands—lands that have lost some degree of their natural productivity through human activity—account for over 20 percent of forest and agricultural lands in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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by Walter Vergara, Luciana Gallardo Lomeli, Ana R. Rios, Paul Isbell, Steven Prager and Ronnie De Camino - October 2016The Economic Case for Landscape Restoration in Latin America finds that achieving Initiative 20x20’s goal of restoring 20 million hectares of land in Latin America and the Caribbean could yield net benefits of at least $23 billion over 50 years, an amount equivalent to about 10% of the value of food exports from the region.
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by Luciana Gallardo Lomeli and James Anderson - October 28, 2016New WRI research shows that bringing life back to degraded lands in Latin America and the Caribbean would yield $23 billion in net benefits over 50 years.
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by Erin Gray - June 20, 2016Most of the Caribbean's sewage spews into the sea untreated, bringing with it pollutants like nutrients, fecal matter, oil and more. Part of the reason is that Caribbean governments lack data on how wastewater pollution affects ecosystems and human health, or what realistic solutions exist.
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Today, countries, states, and financial and civil society institutions have announced new restoration pledges for Latin American and Caribbean through Initiative 20x20, a country-led effort to bring degraded and deforested land into restoration by 2020
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Los nuevos compromisos construyen a la Iniciativa 20x20, lanzada en COP 20 en Lima para restaurar bosques y mejorar la productividad agrícola de la tierra degradada en América Latina y el Caribe
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by Walter Vergara, Luciana Gallardo Lomeli, Maria Franco Chuaire, Sarah Weber and René Zamora Cristales - December 05, 2015In just one year, Initiative 20x20 has secured commitments to restore 27.7 million hectares of land by 2020—an area the size of the United Kingdom —with private impact investors earmarking $730 million to support restoration projects in the region.