Under these premises, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) on Tuesday sponsored an analysis of the region’s projections ahead of climate and biodiversity crisis.

Called the Report on Economics and Development (RED), the report was discussed at the 180-meter high IE University skyscraper, with introductory remarks by Sergio Diaz Granados, CAF’s executive president, and Gonzalo Saenz de Miera, head of the Spanish Green Growth Group.

The New World region is in a state of great environmental, social and economic vulnerability ahead of increasing climate change. The effects of global warming are being felt in many areas.

Latin America and the Caribbean produces only 11% of greenhouse emissions, mostly from land use, but suffers from increasingly frequent heat waves, unpredictable rainfall and increasing aridity.

If drastic measures are not taken to reduce the rise in temperatures, by the year 2100, soil aridity will double in this area, with a too negative impact on food production, said Pablo Brassiolo, RED´s co-editor and chief economist of CAF’s Socioeconomic Research Department.

The text states that the most frequent extreme weather events in Latin America and the Caribbean are floods and tropical cyclones.

Plus, 60% of Latin American cities had faced heat waves between 2011 and 2020, and 28% of these were extreme.

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