— if the world does not act quickly, says Deputy Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund

IF nothing is done, the effects of climate change will create a scenario fraught with great challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean in the coming years. The region will experience constant drought, more intense rainfall and greater flooding; and one of the sectors that will be most hard hit will be agriculture.

Javier Manzanares, Deputy Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, sounded this warning in an interview with Mauro Zafalon, a journalist for the Brazilian daily newspaper, Folha de S.Paulo. The piece was published in the paper’s “Vaivén de las Commodities” column.

The Green Climate Fund is the world’s largest climate financing fund and was created under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In the interview, Manzanares indicated that climate inaction would be very costly for agriculture, triggering losses in productivity due to extreme drought and cold. Therefore, he stressed that unless there was a change in approach, the food production process would be affected.

Folha de S.Paulo reported that, in order to respond to climate change, the fund wants to increase its involvement in the Americas, making investments in the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and the search for greater climate resilience.

This week the Green Climate Fund and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) announced a $100 million initiative to reduce methane emissions in livestock production. The Fund has a $20 billion portfolio and last year it accredited IICA as one of the entities authorised to implement projects funded by this portfolio.

In the interview with the Brazilian daily, Manzanares also underscored the Latin American and Caribbean region’s potential, with its natural resources and biodiversity positioning it to become a global leader in conservation.

The official maintained that, “Green economies can play a central role and effective natural resource use and management provides one with significant geopolitical power. They are two sides of the same coin.”

The Green Climate Fund finances projects aimed at reducing gas emissions and increasing developing countries’ resilience to climate phenomena.

It has ongoing projects in approximately one hundred countries, spanning diverse fields, including agriculture, forestry, rational water use, soil use, industry and the generation of renewable energy.

IICA is the specialised agency for agriculture in the Inter-American system, with a mission to encourage, promote and support its 34 Member States in their efforts to achieve agricultural development and rural well-being through international technical co-operation of excellence. (IICA)