WWF climate work in Latin America

Latin America is already vulnerable to climate risks, including hurricanes and the effects of El Niño. Climate change will worsen this situation, with changes in temperatures and rainfall, and an increasing frequency and severity of El Niño, storms and hurricanes.

The region is vulnerable to climate change.

• Food security will be affected, risking livelihoods and economies.
  
  
• Water security: Shrinking glaciers will result in less water for cities like Mexico City and Quito.
  
  
• People living in shantytowns are particularly vulnerable to catastrophic flooding.
  
  
• Economy: In 1999, Hurricane Mitch caused losses in Nicaragua and Honduras equalling their combined GDPs.
  

The region’s contribution to climate problems – and solutions:

• Carbon dioxide (CO₂) footprint. About half of Latin America’s CO₂ emissions are from industrial production and energy generation. Deforestation, land-use change and agriculture are the other key sources of the region’s climate damaging emissions. The region is responsible for 4.3% of global industrial CO₂ emissions but 48.3% of global land use change emissions.
  
  
• Emissions per country. Slightly more than 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions in LAC come from 4 countries - Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina.
  
  
• Growth of energy demand. Latin America has one of the highest predicted increases in energy demand in the world – current plans depend significantly on fossil fuels.
  
  
• Energy efficiency potential. There is great potential for achieving savings both at the supply and end-use sides: refurbishment of existing large hydro power stations and cutting the average consumption of appliances by 40-50% over the next 20 years.
  
  
• Renewable energy potential. Considerable potential for biomass energy, small hydro power, and wind power; major reforestation programmes could further reduce the region’s climate impact. Brazil is set to be a big exporter of biofuels, mainly bioethanol from sugar cane.
  

Key areas of WWF’s work in Latin America

WWF’s work on climate and energy began in 2004 in Argentina. A regional coordinator is now in place and work has also started in Brazil. Mexico and some other countries are planning their involvement. Several special programmes are working on climate change impacts.

Some examples are:

• Coral Reef. The Meso-American Reef ecoregion (Mexico, Belize, Honduras) is preparing a defence strategy for the reef national parks to withstand the impacts of climate change better.
  
  
• Marine turtles (hawksbills). This project will carry out fieldwork assessing impacts of climate change on key nesting sites in the LAC region.
  
  
• Amazon. Climate models predict an increase of 2–3°C by the year 2050 and a decrease in precipitation in the Amazon, leading to widespread drying. WWF’s ‘Amazon and climate change’ project aims at better assessing future climate impacts, with the design of a pilot adaptation strategy which could be replicated for other areas.
  
  
• Power sector work. As a follow-up to the launch of national power sector visions in November 2005, WWF Brazil and WWF partner NGOs in Argentina are focusing their national climate and energy campaigns on energy efficiency standards.