Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have a geographically determined vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. Climate change projections show increasing mean temperatures rising by up to 4.5°C compared to the pre-industrial period by the end of the 21st century across the LAC region.
Climate change projections are coupled with observed trends in the direction of increased energy consumption, which has more than tripled over the past forty years. This is expected to continue to grow steadily over the coming decades, due to the region’s economic growth, rising middle classes and related changes in consumption. Immediate action to scale up the transfer and diffusion of climate-friendly technologies for purposes of both adaptation and mitigation is one possible avenue for managing the impacts, both current and expected, of climate change.
Since 2009, close to a hundred developing countries have joined the project, of which 22 are in Latin America and the Caribbean. Technical assistance, capacity-building and guidance are being provided by UNEP and UNEP DTU Partnership through their Regional Centres for the TNA project, which in Latin America and the Caribbean include Fundación Bariloche (Argentina), Libélula (Peru) and currently the University of the West Indies, located in Jamaica.