Central American Countries Seek Aid To Fight Climate Change

The countries of the Central American Integration System (SICA) will present a "unified position" at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26) in order to raise more strongly their requests for international assistance.

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In its capacity as temporary president of the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD), Guatemala will propose that COP26 declare Central America as one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change.

Although the Central American nations only generate 0.35 percent of CO2 emissions, they have been severely affected by hurricanes, floods and other extreme weather events, Guatemala's Environment Minister Mario Rojas said and recalled that approximately 60 percent of the regional population lives in poverty.

The people most vulnerable to natural disasters reside precisely in rural areas, where ecological deterioration further aggravates the impacts of global climate change. In Central America, high levels of deforestation make extreme weather events more easily turn into disasters, which greatly affects the levels of poverty and malnutrition, said Piedad Martin, the regional director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Since the beginning of the 21st century, Guatemala has lost almost 25 percent of its forests and over 25 percent of its watersheds have been polluted. While up to 80,000 hectares of native forests are lost in Honduras every year, only 3 percent of Salvadorean forests are still intact.

In one of its geopolitical reports, the U.S. government placed Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua on a list of 11 countries with less capacity to adapt to the climate crisis. That list also includes Haiti, a Caribbean nation where thousands of people try to migrate to the United States, fleeing the ravages caused by earthquakes, hurricanes, and violence.

Currently, SICA comprises Belize, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. These countries will also demand urgent international financing mechanisms to combat the effects of climate change in their territories.