Report of the 60th meeting of the IAI Executive Council

The 60th meeting of the IAI Executive Council addressed the critical financial impact of the United States' withdrawal from the institute, which could lead to a two-thirds decrease in operational resources. The Council decided to form an ad hoc advisory committee to develop restructuring recommendations and scheduled an Extraordinary Conference of the Parties for March 9, 2026. Despite these challenges, the Directorate reported progress in diversifying funding through agreements with development banks like CAF and FONPLATA, and advancing research on climate-induced migration, the climate-environment-health nexus, and forest-related projects.

• The United States government announced its withdrawal from the IAI on 7 January 2026, as part of a broader move to exit 35 non-UN organizations and 31 UN agencies.
• The loss of voluntary contributions from the U.S. is expected to cause a severe budget shortfall, potentially reducing available operational resources by two-thirds, although essential core operations could be maintained with one-third of the current budget.
• To address the financial crisis, the Executive Council established an ad hoc advisory committee to recommend institutional restructuring and scheduled an Extraordinary Meeting of the Conference of the Parties for 9 March 2026.
• The IAI is diversifying its funding through cooperation agreements with the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), focusing on biodiversity indicators, and FONPLATA, focusing on water security in the La Plata Basin region.
• Current research initiatives include projects on climate-induced migration and immobility in Brazil, a program on the climate-environment-health nexus featuring twelve seed projects, and eight forest-related seed projects.
• The Science Diplomacy Center has launched a multilingual curriculum and conducted in-person workshops in Brazil and El Salvador, training approximately sixty government decision-makers.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (2026). Report of the 60th meeting of the IAI Executive Council. http://iai.int/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/EC-60-final-report_en.pdf

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. Report of the 60th meeting of the IAI Executive Council. 2026. http://iai.int/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/EC-60-final-report_en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=Report of the 60th meeting of the IAI Executive Council |date=25 March 2026 |url=http://iai.int/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/EC-60-final-report_en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearch2026report, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{Report of the 60th meeting of the IAI Executive Council}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, year = {2026}, month = mar, url = {http://iai.int/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/EC-60-final-report_en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }