Which Latin American countries are best prepared to tackle climate change?
Cutting global greenhouse gas emissions is essential for managing climate change risks in every corner of the world. However, even if we can limit global warming to 2°C, the climate will still change, affecting both businesses and communities across Latin America.
The 2°C target for global warming is often misunderstood. There is a tendency to think of it as a scientific boundary that perfectly delineates between “safe” and “dangerous” levels of climate change. It is not.
Instead, it is a line drawn by politicians in 2010 in a pragmatic attempt to strike a balance that avoids the more severe climatic changes associated with greater levels of warming, while recognizing that keeping global warming to much below 2°C would be politically challenging.
But make no mistake, global warming of 2°C will still seriously impact businesses and communities. Some scientists – most notably NASA’s James Hansen – warn that even 2°C of warming could be disastrous, creating “feedbacks” that lock in much higher levels of warming.
A number of the world’s most vulnerable countries highlighted this point at the UN climate change conference in Paris in December 2015. As a result, the Paris Agreement included a more ambitious target of limiting warming to ‘well-below 2°C’ with a stretch goal of 1.5°C
See the full article here
