Argentine President Alberto Fernández (right) in the teleconference meeting of Latin American and Caribbean leaders with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry (left) and multilateral officials including UN Secretary General António Guterres. (Photo courtesy of Argentine Presidency)
Battered by economic fallout from Covid-19, Latin America and the Caribbean are in no shape to ratchet up greenhouse-gas-reduction efforts without financial help, several of the region’s leaders said in a Sept. 8 video conference. Meeting with U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and multilateral officials including UN Secretary General António Guterres, two presidents proposed a solution: a debt-for-climate swap. Alberto Fernández and Iván Duque—the presidents, respectively, of Argentina and Colombia—suggested that nations in the region could intensify climate-protection actions substantially in return for reductions in their foreign-debt obligations. In doing so, they cited the plight of their countries’ economies. The region’s economies are not expected to regain pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year, having suffered a 7% contraction in 2020 amid Covid-19. Even before the pandemic, the region had been struggling, with annual growth... [Log in to read more]
