As unprecedented meteorological occurrences continue to be documented in the region and around the globe, climate change, the accused culprit, has emerged as one of the leading topics on the international fronts.
Right next door in Guatemala last week, the Ministers of the Environment of Central America (Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama – Honduras did not attend) along with their counterpart from the Dominican Republic, met to put a price tag on the ecological debt they contend should be paid to the region by the industrialized world.
US$105 billion for the past five years is the preliminary figure the countries came up with, but that is only scratching the surface, Belize Chief Environmental Officer, Martin Alegria explained.
Alegria was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, and served as policy advisor and minister’s aide at the Central American Summit on Climate Change, which concluded Friday.
According to Alegria, Nicaragua, Salvador and Guatemala (which has been suffering from a major drought that is being blamed on climate change) were clamoring at the summit, insisting that the ministers should put a dollar figure on the costs of climate change.
Representatives from the region pointed to the latest Hurricane Ida and swift transition from tropical depression to hurricane, as well as freak tornadoes, mudslides, and floods, as substantiation that climate change is already having dire impacts on the region.
The Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) are currently undertaking a comprehensive study, similarly looking at the cost of climate change but covering 15 sectors, the Chief Environmental Officer added.
While at the Guatemala summit, Belize was not prepared with numbers to include in the tabulation, since a costing exercise was not planned in advance, he added.
The US$105 billion was reached after assessing only four sectors, including agriculture and water, Alegria explained. A complete assessment could take another year.
The ministers of Central America—which Alegria said accounts for less than 1% of green house gas emissions driving climate change—chose to put out the preliminary figure to drive the point home about the dire costs of climate change being caused by industrialization, Alegria told us.
By fixing a running tab for the ecological debt, the region’s ministers want to send a clear message that will be echoed at the upcoming United Nations climate change conference scheduled to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, next month, from December 7 – 18, 2009.
The US$105 billion estimate includes impacts on terrestrial sectors, but does not yet factor in marine biodiversity and the effects of climate change on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, of which Belize forms an integral part, explained Alegria.
He added that the United States won’t agree to finance climate change efforts unless India and China, said to be two of the leading culprits, also agree to co-finance.