• Type
    Journal Article
  • Published in
  • Year
    2017
  • Author(s)
    Reyer, Christopher P.O. and Adams, Sophie and Albrecht, Torsten and Baarsch, Florent and Boit, Alice and Canales Trujillo, Nella and Cartsburg, Matti and Coumou, Dim and Eden, Alexander and Fernandes, Erick and Langerwisch, Fanny and Marcus, Rachel and Mengel, Matthias and Mira-Salama, Daniel and Perette, Mahé and Pereznieto, Paola and Rammig, Anja and Reinhardt, Julia and Robinson, Alexander and Rocha, Marcia and Sakschewski, Boris and Schaeffer, Michiel and Schleussner, Carl-Friedrich and Serdeczny, Olivia and Thonicke, Kirsten
  • Tags
    Energy Global Heat Island Paper Uncertainty Water
  • Language
    English
  • URL
  • Citation
    APA BibTeX RIS
  • Search
    Google Scholar Google
  • ID
    1015765
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Climate change impacts in Latin America and the Caribbean and their implications for development

This paper synthesizes what is known about the physical and biophysical impacts of climate change and their consequences for societies and development under different levels of global warming in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Projections show increasing mean temperatures by up to 4.5 °C compared to pre-industrial by the end of this century across LAC. Associated physical impacts include altered precipitation regimes, a strong increase in heat extremes, higher risks of droughts and increasing aridity. Moreover, the mean intensity of tropical cyclones, as well as the frequency of the most intense storms, is projected to increase while sea levels are expected to rise by ~0.2–1.1 mm depending on warming level and region. Tropical glacier volume is found to decrease substantially, with almost complete deglaciation under high warming levels. The much larger glaciers in the southern Andes are less sensitive to warming and shrink on slower timescales. Runoff is projected to be reduced in Central America, the southern Amazon basin and southernmost South America, while river discharge may increase in the western Amazon basin and in the Andes in the wet season. However, in many regions, there is uncertainty in the direction of these changes as a result of uncertain precipitation projections and differences in hydrological models. Climate change will also reduce agricultural yields, livestock and fisheries, although there may be opportunities such as increasing rice yield in several LAC countries or higher fish catch potential in the southernmost South American waters. Species range shifts threaten terrestrial biodiversity, and there is a substantial risk of Amazon rainforest degradation with continuing warming. Coral reefs are at increasing risk of annual bleaching events from 2040 to 2050 onwards irrespective of the climate scenario. These physical and biophysical climate change impacts challenge human livelihoods through, e.g., decreasing income from fisheries, agriculture or tourism. Furthermore, there is evidence that human health, coastal infrastructures and energy systems are also negatively affected. This paper concludes that LAC will be severely affected by climate change, even under lower levels of warming, due to the potential for impacts to occur simultaneously and compound one another.

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