Climate change mitigation: A dire necessity for Latin America and the Caribbean

The huge Amazon basin has lost an average of 19,000 square kilometers (7,336 square miles) in the last 30 years, due to a combination of economic forces, deficient agricultural practices, diluted property rights and to the "savannization" of the Amazon basin, with disastrous consequences for water and carbon cycles. The World Bank supports the Brazilian initiative with a wide range of projects and financial assistance including a loan for sustainable environmental management worth US$ 1.3 billion.

Keeping in mind the growing problems associated with climate change in LAC, regional leaders will have to redouble their efforts to convince especially those of the world's developed economies that an effective international treaty to mitigate existing and future problems is a dire necessity.

There still remains a glimmer of hope that such a treaty can become a reality at the next UN climate conference in Mexico City in 2010.

Dr. Odeen Ishmael
embguy@cantv.net

• (The writer is Guyana's ambassador to Venezuela. The views expressed are solely those of the writer.)

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