Mexico launches a climate change adaptation fund for Latin America

Mexico has launched a climate change adaptation fund for Latin America, aiming to strengthen regional communities' resilience against disasters and extreme climate events. The fund, launched with representatives from the Latin American and Caribbean member states (Celac) and the Latin American development bank CAF, will carry out joint climate change mitigation and disaster response projects.

The fund also aims to attract financing from developed countries. Mexico has called for increased financing from wealthier countries to meet climate change adaptation requirements across the region.

As part of the 2015 Paris Agreement, rich countries committed to $100bn/yr to help developing countries adapt to climate change by 2020, but only $83bn was reached by that year. Mexico alone requires Ps1.7 trillion ($99.8bn) each year or 7pc of GDP to counter the effects of climate change and transition towards sustainable development.