Deficit on implementation of public policies about climate change in Latin America, as well as the marginality of these subjects into politician’s agenda, were some of the aspects that the Environment Minister of Peru, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, highlighted during his participation in the regional forum organized by the Latin American Climate Platform (PCL) the past October the 01st and 02nd.

According to Pulgar-Vidal, besides the necessity of strengthen the environmental institution in the entire region, there must be taken into account that public policies are an “art of coherence and consensus seeking” which is not easy to achieve and many times it needs to take small steps, that in the long term can be significant.

Meanwhile, Yolanda Kakabadse, ex Environment Minister of Ecuador and Regional Director of CDKN, claimed that “if policies of climate change are not regional and intersectoral, or if they are not negotiated with the different social actors, they will not have the necessary impact to face properly climate change”.

During the forum, the regional report “The status and quality of public policies of climate change and development in Latin America” was discussed, emphasizing in agricultural and forestall sectors. The report analyses and compares the results of national reports of 10 countries from the region.

The event gathered more than 40 high level officials and experts of Latin America and was organized by the Latin American Climate Platform (PCL) and the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), with the support of Latin American Future Foundation (FFLA).

Additional facts

• One of the findings of the report states that the weak articulation between climate and macroeconomic policies, as well with other sectors, affects and diminishes substantially their impact over climate change adaptation and mitigation, especially because development policies often go in the opposite way to climate ones.
• Several national reports indicate the weakness, or the lack, of the appropriate territory planning, which affects the achievement of policy climate objectives.
• The tension and contradictions between forestall protection policies and agricultural promotional policies are one of the critical situations common to several countries in the region.
• Political elites from most of the Latin America countries does not have yet pragmatic and well defined positions about the main subjects of climate agenda.