Latin America Must Invest Up To 4.9% Of GDP Annually To Meet Climate Goals

• According to a report from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Latin America and the Caribbean need to rapidly boost spending to up to 4.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) annually by 2030 to meet their climate targets.
• The ECLAC report presented at Dubai's COP28 summit said the region must spend between 3.7% to 4.9% of GDP annually, up from just 0.5% in 2020, amounting to total investments of $2.1Tn to $2.8Tn by 2030.
• This implies the "availability of substantial but not unattainable amounts - and the time to act is now," ECLAC Executive Secretary Jose Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs said.
• Climate mitigation - mostly projects around transportation as well as energy, infrastructure, and deforestation - would take up the lion's share of spending, ECLAC said, while a remaining third would need to go toward adaptation methods. These include early warning systems, combating poverty, protecting coasts, and sanitizing water.
• Climate change - excluding the impacts of extreme phenomena - could strip 10% off labour productivity in some countries, it added, cutting potential for economic growth.
• The study pointed to extreme weather already plaguing parts of the region and devastating some agricultural sectors, such as core farmlands across Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina.

(Source: Reuters)