Global Climate Change Program: Latin America and the Caribbean
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A home in Veracruz, Mexico, obtains solar power as a result of a decade long
collaboration on energy projects between USAID and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia
National Laboratory. |
Addressing the causes and effects of climate
change has been a key focus of USAID's
development assistance for over a decade.
USAID has funded environmental programs that
have reduced greenhouse gas emissions while
promoting energy efficiency,forest protection,
biodiversity conservation, and other development
goals. This “multiple benefits” approach to climate
change helps developing and transition countries
achieve economic development without sacrificing
environmental protection. To help countries address
domestic and international climate change priorities,
USAID’s Global Climate Change Program is
active in more than 40 countries and, since 2001,
has dedicated over a billion U.S. dollars to promote:
The Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region
boasts abundant water tremendous biological
diversity, and approximately half of the tropical
forests in the world. However, population growth,
deforestation, urban expansion, and pollution threaten
the region’s environment and raise the potential for
conflict. USAID’s environment programs in the LAC
region seek to mitigate these challenges, creating the
potential for long-term economic benefit from the
use of the region’s natural resources. USAID’s Global
Climate Change Program is active bilaterally in
countries such as Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico,
Paraguay, and Peru, as well as throughout the Central
American region.
Clean Energy Technology
New technologies and practices offer the prospect
for continued economic growth with reduced
greenhouse gas emissions. Recognizing that increased
productivity and efficiency are critical to economic
growth, USAID supports the commercialization,
dissemination, and widespread adoption of
environmentally sound technologies. Attracting
private investment is essential to popularizing
such technologies.
In Brazil, USAID is working with local partners to
demonstrate that renewable energy technologies
(solar, biomass, wind, and small-scale hydropower
plants) are technically and economically viable.
Programs include solar energy technologies for drying
fruit, pollen, and marine algae; solar-powered water
pumps for irrigating small organic family farms; and
replicable renewable energy-based projects to provide
access to energy services to isolated communities in
the Amazon.
In Mexico, USAID is working to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions through the promotion of cleaner
production and renewable energy. Support for off-grid
renewable energy programs for small scale applications
in four states - Veracruz, Guerrero, Oaxaca and
Chiapas - have improved local economic conditions
and increased capacity in responding to climate related
challenges. USAID/Mexico is also providing technical
assistance to the Mexican Ministry of Environment to
reduce methane emissions and increase energy
supply through a series of demonstration activities
in the areas of landfills, agricultural waste, and in the
oil and gas sectors.
Sustainable Land Use and Forestry
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Marking trees during a forest management
plan at La Chonta forest concession in Bolivia. |
Promoting biodiversity conservation, improved
forest management, and sustainable agriculture,
USAID programs help mitigate climate change by
absorbing and storing carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere. They also help reduce the vulnerability
of ecosystems to climate change. Reduced-impact
logging of forests minimizes loss of vegetative
cover, for instance, which helps stabilize the soil
and control erosion during rain and wind storms.
Reduced tillage and contour planting by farmers
increase soil organic carbon and therefore enhance
soil fertility, which helps increase food security in
developing countries.
Through the Bolivian Forest Project, USAID seeks
to improve business practices for forestry exports
and broaden the benefits by including more
community forest operations. As a result of
investments catalyzed by USAID, nine million of
the country’s 32 million hectares of designated
forest production lands are under sustainable
management plans. Bolivia is now also the global
leader in certified natural tropical forest management.
Certification provides market recognition of
sustainable forest management and therefore a
potential incentive to producers through linkages
to a growing “green” market.
Adaptation to Climate Change
USAID supports activities to help developing
countries lessen their vulnerability and adapt to
climate variability and change. These activities are
intended to build more resilience into economic
sectors that may be affected by climatic stresses,
including agriculture, water, and key livelihood
sectors in coastal areas. USAID is working
throughout the LAC region to prepare for climate
related disasters such as forest fires from drought,
and flooding from hurricanes and stronger than
normal rains. In Guatemala, USAID strengthened
the competitiveness and management of
community forest concessions and prevented forest
fires in the Mayan Biosphere Reserve in Peten. In
Mexico, USAID helped to design and propose pilot
activities in Guanajuato and Oaxaca for integrated
local water management by water user associations
under a Sustainable Aquifers Initiative, which brings
together energy efficiency, water conservation,
agricultural technologies, and local management
initiatives. Finally, in Honduras, efforts to prepare
for future climate variability include a USAID
project in La Ceiba to improve urban planning to
increase resilience to coastal and riverine flooding.
Climate Science for Decision Making
USAID is also involved in U.S. and international
climate change research to ensure that science
produces information needed for global development
challenges and that scientific findings guide
development planning. Informed policy decisions
are essential to sustainable natural resource management
and economic development, key priorities of USAID.
In the Central America region, USAID is collaborating
with NASA and Central American organizations to
strengthen regional capacity to analyze and utilize
remotely sensed information to interpret land cover
and land use change data, model climate change
impacts, and assess vulnerability and potential adaptive
responses to climate change. The results will be used in
the countries’ national communications submitted to the
U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Predictive and descriptive tools will help local governments
and communities maintain economic growth
when confronted by events such as fires, floods, red
tides, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes.
Download the
Global Climate Change Program: Latin America and the Caribbean, April 2007 (PDF 302K)
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