In 2024, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded 393 natural hazard-related disasters. These events caused 16,753 fatalities and affected 167.2 million people. Economic losses totaled US$241.95 billion. The year 2024 was marked by extreme temperature events in Asia that caused thousands of deaths, severe droughts in Africa affecting over 25 …
In recent years, various factors have diverted the world off the path to eradicating hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition by 2030, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this trend. Latin America and the Caribbean is no exception. This edition of the Regional Overview of Food Security and …
This report, the first in a series of three, focuses on the policy landscape needed to enable a transition to net zero emissions, identifying key policies at a sectoral and national level to support investments towards decarbonisation in Argentina, Brazil, and Peru. It also provides a brief description of the …
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the Global Map of Salt-Affected Soils, a key tool for halting salinization and boosting productivity. The map estimates that there are more than 833 million hectares of salt-affected soils around the globe (8.7% of the planet). Most of them can be found in …
This systematization report seeks to briefly document and summarize the implementation of the 2020 Action Plan of the Climate Change and Resilience Issue-Based Coalition, identifying lessons learned and contributing to informing the 2021 Action Plan. This document is organized into four sections. The first section describes the coalition's Framework of …
This report highlights why governments should reinvest underperforming public agricultural subsidies in land restoration. Evidence from Africa, Asia and Latin America shows that subsidies for low-carbon agricultural techniques like agroforestry and silvopasture can improve food security and rural incomes, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting vulnerable ecosystems. By investing …
Climate change and extreme weather are threatening human health and safety, food, water and energy security and the environment in Latin America and the Caribbean. The impacts span the entire region, including Andean peaks, mighty river basins and low-lying islands, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization …
Science–policy interactions are exchanges among key stakeholders looking to reconcile value systems and interests to ultimately, influence decision-making processes through knowledge exchange and generation. These interactions are the way in which climate science tries to reach policy to create feasible solutions, with properly addressed objectives and processes for implementation and …
Studies of livelihoods and food systems since the start of the global pandemic in 2020 have shown a consistent pattern: the primary risks to food and livelihood security are at the household level. Covid-19 is having a major impact on households’ production and access to quality, nutritious food, due to …
There is increasing recognition that climate-related and environmental risks are a source of financial risks. Using publicly available data, this paper attempts a preliminary estimation of the physical and transition risks for the banking sector in a sample of economies in Latin America and the Caribbean. The results show that …
New research reveals how traffickers are robbing the world’s most wildlife-rich region of its natural wealth. Mexico, Brazil and Colombia see the highest number of wildlife trafficking instances in aviation according to the data, often to supply countries less commonly associated with illegal wildlife trade, including the Netherlands, Germany and …
The Accomplishment Report provides an overview of the main achievements of the project “Addressing Water Security: Climate Impacts and Adaptation Responses in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean”, implemented from 2014 to 2020 by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) with the support from the Flanders Fund-in-Trust (FUST) for the …
Energy storage can bring many benefits to electricity systems, including enhanced grid reliability, efficiency, and flexibility. It will also be a key enabler of mass decarbonization and climate change mitigation, facilitating the expansion of variable renewable energy sources such as wind and solar while ensuring grid security. However, energy storage …
There is growing interest, especially in Latin America, in implementing and expanding voluntary green freight programs that include eco-driving as a key component. The term eco-driving refers to a wide range of driving techniques and practices that improve the fuel economy of vehicles, and eco-driving programs achieve reductions in carbon …
The Latin American and Caribbean region is highly vulnerable to climate change. Historically, the region has adopted an “adaptation first” posture. The regions early adoption and implementation of the Paris Agreements Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) framework also led to some ambitious decarbonization plans, as well as to considerable advances in …
A new WWF report has revealed how and why our planet has lost an area the size of California to deforestation in just over a decade. This shocking loss, totalling 43 million hectares in the tropics and sub-tropics alone, demonstrates the need for urgent action to halt deforestation and restore …
This working paper examines the existing literature on locally led adaptation, looking at efforts that have optimized finance through direct and consistent collaboration with local actors and identifying initiatives that embody locally led principles rather than traditional stakeholder consultation or participation. In line with the Global Commission on Adaptation’s Year …
This report shows that the transformation needed to meet the Paris Agreement goals and reach net zero emissions by mid-century can be largely driven by the coupled decarbonization of the power and the transport sectors. A joint transition in both areas would not only contribute to drastically reduce emissions but …
Measuring progress compiles data and information about the environmental aspects of each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their status in Latin America and the Caribbean. The publication is based on the regional performance assessed through the 88 SDG indicators that have a direct relation with environmental issues, …
Agriculture and food systems in Latin America and the Caribbean Region (LAC) are rightfully recognized as among the most successful on the planet: they have fed a fast-growing population, facilitated economic development, enabled urbanization, generated substantial exports, and helped drive down global hunger and poverty. Yet despite these significant contributions, …
In most countries, land inequality is growing. Worse, new measures and analysis published in this synthesis report show that land inequality is significantly higher than previously reported. This trend directly threatens the livelihoods of an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide involved in smallholder agriculture.
