Economy

Latin America, with most to lose from climate change, puts on brave face at COP26

24/7 Wall St. Staff

Published: October 28, 2021 11:06 am

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

In advance of the UN’s vital climate summit starting this weekend, Callaway Climate Insights is running previews from our top columnists all this week.

(About the author: Michael Molinski is an economist, content strategist and author. He has worked for Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo, and previously as a foreign correspondent and editor for Bloomberg News and MarketWatch. He is the author of Investing in Latin America: Best Stocks, Best Funds (Bloomberg Press, 1999), and Small Business in Paradise (Nolo, 2007). Currently, he is a senior economist at Trendline Economics.)

MEXICO CITY (Callaway Climate Insights) — If there is one single region of the world that has the most to lose from climate change and from the decisions made at COP26, it is Latin America.

Latin America does not have the resources to spend on climate change, and therefore it depends on developed countries to clean up the mess that they’ve made of the world. And that includes tapping loans and grants made by developed countries in an effort to prevent Latin America from falling behind on climate change initiatives.

And yet, “COP26 could be the perfect opportunity for the international climate finance architecture to support (Latin America) and champion a just transition to net-zero,” says Leonardo Beltram, former deputy secretary for planning and energy transition in Mexico. . . .

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