Search Climate Insights Directory

The document outlines the establishment of a working group to implement the 'Initiative for Conducting a National Climate Assessment in Support of Adaptation and Mitigation: Training and Capacity Building in Latin America and the Caribbean'. Supported by the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), AmeriGEO, and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), the initiative aims to strengthen climate risk assessments for local and regional decision-making. Current progress includes the formation of a working group with members from eight countries and the administration of a knowledge-level questionnaire with a 71% response rate. The next phase involves defining the program's scope and creating a work plan and timeline.

The GCF's private sector strategy aims to mobilize institutional finance and private capital for climate adaptation and mitigation in developing countries through a four-pronged approach: promoting conducive investment environments, accelerating innovation, de-risking market-creating investments, and strengthening domestic financial institutions. The report reviews the PSF's performance, noting a co-financing ratio of 3.25:1 and a heavy initial reliance on concessional loans. To meet its updated Strategic Plan targets, the GCF proposes expanding its use of equity and guarantees, improving the accreditation process via a project-specific assessment approach, and implementing a private sector outreach plan.

The report assesses the GCF's network of 113 accredited entities (AEs), evaluating their capacity to deliver on the Fund's strategic priorities. While the network is diverse and expanding—particularly in private sector and direct access entities—significant gaps remain in the ability of direct access entities (DAEs) to manage high environmental and social (E&S) risk projects and large-scale adaptation programming. The analysis highlights a low AE-to-project ratio, which may disincentivize institutional capacity building, and notes that GCF's internal processing capacity is currently insufficient to meet the growing volume of new and re-accreditation applications.

The report provides an update on the 'Initiative for conducting a national climate assessment in support of adaptation and mitigation: Training and capacity building in Latin America and the Caribbean', a project supported by USGCRP, AmeriGEO, and the IAI to strengthen climate risk assessments for local and regional decision-making.

This report provides an update on the 'Initiative for conducting a national climate assessment in support of adaptation and mitigation: Training and capacity development in Latin America and the Caribbean,' established by Decision XXIX/9 of the Conference of the Parties of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI).

The document examines the 'digital divide' facing approximately 38 developing countries in the WTO e-commerce JSI, highlighting gaps in infrastructure and information asymmetry. It argues that current cooperation provisions are too focused on regulatory alignment and recommends a hybrid Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) model—combining elements of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and GATS—to provide enforceable capacity building and flexible implementation periods.

The document highlights a significant digital divide and information asymmetry that hinder developing countries and LDCs from effectively participating in and benefiting from the WTO's Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) on e-commerce. It argues that current cooperation efforts are too focused on regulatory alignment and lack targeted technical assistance. The report proposes a hybrid model of Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) and a comprehensive support framework—including negotiation facilitation and multi-stakeholder consultations—to ensure that e-commerce rules serve as inclusive development tools.

The report assesses the current state of energy transition in Latin America and the Caribbean, identifying gaps in energy efficiency, electrification, and the adoption of low-carbon technologies like hydrogen and CCUS. It highlights the region's strong baseline in renewable electricity, primarily from hydropower, while emphasizing the need for more aggressive long-term targets and climate adaptation strategies to protect energy infrastructure from extreme weather.

The report details the Green Climate Fund's pipeline, which consists of 433 total projects with a combined value of $75,379M (including co-financing). The pipeline is divided into funding proposals and concept notes, with significant allocations across Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean, focusing on adaptation, mitigation, and cross-cutting themes.

The document analyzes the landscape of non-state and subnational climate action in Latin America and the Caribbean, highlighting the role of cities, companies, and international cooperative initiatives in mitigating deforestation in the Amazon.

The proposal seeks USD 301,717 over 12 months to help the Banco de Desarrollo de Ecuador B.P. (BDE) overcome fiduciary and technical gaps required for GCF accreditation. Implemented by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the project focuses on updating environmental and social risk management systems, developing gender and indigenous peoples policies, and establishing a coordination mechanism to align BDE's activities with Ecuador's National Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Climate Financing Strategy (EFIC). It also includes regional knowledge sharing with other development banks in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The document reports that improvements in forest governance are too slow to measurably reduce deforestation, noting that illegal deforestation increased from 49% to 69% between 2014 and 2020. While some progress has been made in establishing environmental frameworks and demand-side regulations, systemic challenges such as corruption, weak rule of law, and a failure to legally recognize IPLC land rights persist. The report highlights that weak forest governance causes over USD 17 billion in annual economic losses and calls for accelerated action to address legal weaknesses and enhance the participation of women and IPLCs in decision-making.

The policy brief argues that most recovery packages in Latin America and the Caribbean are 'inertial' and environmentally negative, prioritizing short-term economic growth over long-term climate sustainability. It highlights a significant gap between national climate commitments (NDCs) and actual recovery spending, noting a trend toward fossil fuel subsidies and increased deforestation. The document recommends integrating social justice, gender equity, and systemic resilience into recovery plans, while urging governments to adopt green taxonomies and align financial incentives with the 1.5°C goal.

The COP27 Resilience Hub served as a physical and virtual space to accelerate ambition and investment in climate resilience, representing over 1,500 non-state actors. The report identifies five cross-cutting messages, emphasizing that scaling adaptation is a prerequisite for containing Loss and Damage and that locally-led adaptation (LLA) requires radical collaboration. The document details thematic analysis across nine areas—including finance, food, water, and health—and highlights the role of Regional Resilience Hubs in amplifying under-represented voices from Africa, South Asia, Asia Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The report synthesizes findings from a 2021 scoping workshop involving over 150 experts to identify barriers and opportunities for integrating climate, environment, and health (CEH) data and policy in Latin America and the Caribbean. Key obstacles include a lack of standardized, real-time data and a disconnect between academic research and policy application. The document advocates for a transdisciplinary 'community of practice' and identifies researchers, academics, and civil society as core partners for future collaborative research actions.

The report synthesizes findings from an August 2021 scoping workshop involving over 150 experts from 35 countries. It identifies critical data gaps, institutional silos, and a lack of transdisciplinary research as primary obstacles to integrating climate and environmental data into public health decision-making in Latin America and the Caribbean. The document advocates for the creation of a 'community of practice' to bridge the gap between academic research and policy implementation, emphasizing the need for open-data platforms, citizen science, and the inclusion of indigenous and local communities.

This report section analyzes the increasing vulnerability of the urban poor to extreme heat across 54 high-impact countries in 2022, highlighting a rise in the population at high risk due to lack of access to cooling.

This report section analyzes the middle-income population at risk due to a lack of access to sustainable cooling in 2022, focusing on high-impact countries. It details a global decline in this demographic, driven largely by the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and provides regional and country-specific breakdowns of population shifts.

This report section analyzes the growth of the rural poor population lacking access to cooling across 54 high-impact countries in 2022, highlighting the role of the COVID-19 pandemic in increasing extreme poverty despite improvements in electricity access.

Chilling Prospects 2022 identifies that 3.66 billion people face high or medium risk from cooling access challenges, with 1.2 billion rural and urban poor at high risk. The report highlights critical gaps in food cold chains, health services, and human safety, while forecasting that achieving SDG 7.1 and SDG 1.1 could reduce the high-risk population by 36% by 2030. It advocates for a transition to sustainable, energy-efficient cooling and the implementation of National Cooling Action Plans (NCAPs) to mitigate climate impacts and protect vulnerable populations.