The presidents of the Alliance of the Pacific (L-R) Colombia’s Manuel Santos, Chile’s Michele Bachelet, Peru’s Ollanta Humala and Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico (image: Ministerio de Relaciones Extranjeros/ Cancillería del Perú)
“Every day we are becoming more vulnerable to climate change,” warns Monica Echegoyen of Mexico’s Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, who argues that this recognition is driving Latin America’s shift towards greener development paradigms.
Latin America’s negotiators have a special role at the UN’s climate talks because their countries are growing without causing the same levels of pollution created by developed countries, Echegoyen says. The UN’s 195 member countries will meet in Paris for two weeks later this year in an attempt to secure a global agreement, active from 2020, that will limit global temperature rises to 2°C.
