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.
This 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.
UN 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.
The Escazú Agreement was signed by 12 countries during the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Four 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.
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.
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.
Threats against environmental defenders are rising in Latin America and the Caribbean. An agreement being negotiated this week could protect the region's activists.
Tourists want to see the most pristine environments—and 95 percent of them would pay fees to keep them that way.
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.
Seaside 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.
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.
The 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.
New 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.
Most 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.
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
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
In 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.
Despite difficult negotiations in Lima, discussions signaled the positive outlook among development banks for expanding climate finance in Latin America and the Caribbean.
With increasing low-carbon investments, pledges to the Green Climate Fund, and ambitious renewable energy and efficiency targets demonstrate robust political and financial commitments, building momentum for a strong global response to climate change.