Latin America and the Caribbean generate less than 10 per cent of the globe’s greenhouse gas emissions yet disproportionately feel the impacts of a warming world—from floods to drought, extreme temperatures and wildfires, and rising sea levels.
While these extreme events continue, two major climate-related events are slated to occur within the Latin American region – the Conference of the Parties (COP) for both the Convention on Biodiversity (COP16) and Convention on Climate Change (COP30), in Cali, Colombia at the end of October this year and Belem, Brazil next November respectively.
At Climate Week in New York City, heads of countries from Latin America have come to the table to plead their cases for increased financing for climate change adaptation and sustainable development, particularly with the intersection of climate change and biodiversity loss.
Maisa Corradi, Minister of the Environment of Chile, who spoke at a panel at one of the hundreds of events that comprised New York City Climate Week, explained, “We should not think that this [technology and the green transition] is the only solution and the only way to address this interrelated crisis. Climate change and loss of biodiversity reinforce themselves but can also be the solution. You can restore ecosystems, and by that, helping you to adapt to climate change and create resilience as an example.”
However, funding solutions is challenging. Mafalda Duarte, the executive director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the world’s largest dedicated fund to help developing countries respond to climate change, said, “The climate finance flows to the region are really not commensurate with the urgency, with the needs, and many of the countries are actually being left behind.” Duarte also added that the GCF has committed nearly US $3.7 billion to 58 projects, to date.
However, according to Duarte, even with a shortfall in funding, the Latin American region has led the world from climate to energy to biodiversity protection.
She added, “It is worth noting that 16 of the region’s 33 countries have pledged to achieve net zero emissions before mid-century. Latin America already sources 65 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources, with Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Argentina boasting some of the world’s best wind and solar resources.”
As the road to COP16 and COP30 nears, Brazil, which has seen significant deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest in recent years, has launched a new funding facility for countries with tropical rainforests like Trinidad and Tobago.
According to Brazil’s National Secretary for Climate Change Ana Toni, “Brazil has launched something called TFFF, Tropical Forest Forever Facility, which is a facility that rewards people that maintain standing forests.” She added that the intent is to include all of Latin America “because we need to find mechanisms to reward people and Indigenous communities that are keeping the forest standing.”
This facility aims to raise US $250 billion, which would come from governments and the private sector and go into an independently managed fund that could be drawn upon by tropical countries that meet thresholds for limiting deforestation. Countries would see a reduction in funding availability if their deforestation rate increased. In the 2025 Budget presentation, Minster of Finance Colm Imbert announced, “Significant investment is projected towards forest regeneration to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and flooding,” when speaking about agricultural investment for the 2024/2025 fiscal year.
The TFFF was first announced at last year’s climate COP in Dubai. The proposal, conceptually similar to past initiatives, emerges amid a growing interest in nature-based solutions for addressing climate change and other environmental challenges.
Coverage of New York City Climate Week was supported by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network’s Reporting Fellowship.
