ECLAC Will Present Its Vision on Climate Change Challenges in the Region at the COP20 in Lima

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will present two reports and participate in numerous side events during the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 20), which will be held in Lima, Peru, until December 12.

In the Peruvian capital, the Commission will launch an update of its study The Economics of Climate Change in Latin America and the Caribbean, providing a broad overview of the main impacts that are expected as well as subregional and national figures. The Commission, along with Peru’s Government, will also put out a document estimating the economic costs of climate change in the country that is hosting this intergovernmental meeting.

ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena, will travel to Lima as part of the delegation of the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. She will be joined by numerous officials from ECLAC’s Sustainable Development and Human Settlements Division, as well as its International Trade and Integration Division, and from its Subregional Headquarters in Mexico.

On Friday, December 5, at 1 p.m. Lima time, the Head of ECLAC’s Climate Change Unit, Luis Miguel Galindo, will give a presentation at EUROCLIMA: Joint Regional Responses to Climate Change by the European Union and Latin America. This event will take place in the European pavilion found in the official COP20 venue (Brussels room). 

EUROCLIMA, which began in 2008, is a cooperation program between the European Union and Latin America focused on climate change, whose socioeconomic component is implemented by ECLAC.

Also on Friday, December 5, a gathering organized by several agencies of the United Nations, including ECLAC, will take place called Sustainable production and consumption systems and: Efficiency, reducing losses and drivers of change. Jimy Ferrer, Economic Affairs Officer at ECLAC’s Climate Change Unit, will participate in this event that will be held in the Machu Picchu room.

On Monday, December 8, at 1:15 p.m., in the Paracas room, representatives of ECLAC will participate in an event organized by Chile’s government and Climate Action Network-Latin America that will address the social impact of climate change in Chile and the region. ECLAC’s Director of the Sustainable Development and Human Settlements Division, Joseluis Samaniego, will speak there.

Meanwhile (in the Sipan room), Achieving food security and sustainable agriculture under a changing climate will be held. This meeting is organized by the Peruvian Government and a group of UN agencies, including ECLAC, and will be attended by Julie Lennox, Head of the Agricultural Development Unit at ECLAC’s Mexico subregional Headquarters.

On Wednesday, December 10, at 6 p.m. in the European pavilion, Latin America and Caribbean think tanks views on the road to Paris 2015 will be held. It is organized jointly with France’s Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI).

The event Trade and climate change: A new agenda will be held on Thursday, December 11, at 1:15 p.m. in the Maranga room, and CEPAL will unveil the results of a project on carbon footprints and food exports from Latin America. This gathering is organized by ECLAC, the Government of Honduras, and the International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), with French cooperation.

That same day, at 6:15 p.m., a gathering dedicated to the 10 years of the Ibero-American Network of Climate Change Offices (RIOCC) will take place in the Brussels room in the European pavilion.