Latin America told to batten down hatches for climate change

London, 31 August: Latin America and the Caribbean will be beset with devastating hurricanes, floods and tropical storms that will dwarf Hurricane Katrina if climate change is allowed to continue unchecked, according to a report by a coalition of development and environment groups.

The report, Up in smoke? Latin America and the Caribbean, which was co-ordinated by the UK-based New Economics Foundation and International Institute for Environment and Development, says that the region's formerly predictable temperature and rainfall patterns are already changing, and the trend is set to worsen.

For example, Brazil was hit by its first ever hurricane in March 2004, leaving 33,000 people homeless. The 2004 hurricane season caused $7.6 billion of economic damage in the region, while the 2005 season caused $5.4 billion of damage, the report says.

But it also warns that the impact of these changes will be felt across the world, as a permanent shift to seasonal "El Niño" conditions could lead to "a long-term drying out and die-off of the Amazon rainforest". This could become a "feedback mechanism", leading to catastrophic and irreversible climate change.

Rich countries must cut their greenhouse gas emissions in line with their targets under the Kyoto Protocol, and agree new, more demanding targets which would lead to reductions of up to 80% by 2050, the report says.

Meanwhile, it calls for Latin American countries to tackle illegal logging and eventually halt deforestation, as well as applying the "climate test" to all policies and programmes to ensure they do not make the problem worse.

The report also calls for the private sector to "take on board that development in the region needs to meet sustainability criteria".

In the foreword to the report, former Colombian environment minister Juan Mayr said: "It is the right time to re-think the development model for Latin America and the Caribbean. It's also the right time to re-think the model of international aid. Without question, it's about an ethical commitment that can be put off no longer."

The report also slams the media for virtually ignoring the hurricanes that have wreaked destruction in Latin America in recent years, concluding that the only reason they did not garner as much attention as Hurricane Katrina is that they did not affect the US.