Climate Change Adaptation and Population Dynamics in Latin America and the Caribbean - Perspectives from the Region
Latin America and the Caribbean face multiple risks from a changing climate, from sea level rise to glacial melt to extreme weather and disease. Recent population trends—particularly population growth and urbanization—will continue to be an important factor in influencing the region’s vulnerability and adaptive capacity. This policy brief shares highlights, key findings and lessons from a series of seminars on climate change adaptation organized by the Wilson Center and U.S. Agency for International Development missions across Latin America and the Caribbean. Adaptive capacity in the region is growing, and the process of consultation drew attention to projects that demonstrate innovative approaches in participatory planning, private sector engagement, payment for ecosystem services, urban planning, and mainstreaming climate change into broader development objectives. As the impacts of climate change become more severe, however, the need for effective climate change adaptation action and resources will grow. Creating shared learning networks through convening climate change practitioners and policymakers will be an important part of the strengthening the region’s capacity to adapt.
About the Author
Latin America Program
The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action. Read more
Brazil Institute
The Brazil Institute—the only country-specific policy institution focused on Brazil in Washington—works to foster understanding of Brazil’s complex reality and to support more consequential relations between Brazilian and US institutions in all sectors. The Brazil Institute plays this role by producing independent research and programs that bridge the gap between scholarship and policy, and by serving as a crossroads for leading policymakers, scholars and private sector representatives who are committed to addressing Brazil’s challenges and opportunities. Read more
Environmental Change and Security Program
The Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) explores the connections between environmental change, health, and population dynamics and their links to conflict, human insecurity, and foreign policy. Read more
