This group of eleven essays is inserted in a context where the COVID-19 pandemic and the quasi paralysis of the world for almost two years, offer an space and opportunity to help relaunch a positive global and national agenda aimed at slowing down biodiversity loss and decisively confronting climate change on its different fronts of mitigation and adaptation. One of the first calls in this regard was made from Latin America under the slogan of a "new renaissance" for the planet when, in mid 2020, a group of personalities and institutions from the region launched the "Principles for a Sustainable Future for Latin America in Times of Pandemic and Global Crisis", outlining guidelines and principles for the decisive social, economic and environmental reconstruction of the planet. This is one of many declarations and statements pointing to the idea of "building back better" post COVID-19 and seeking to put countries and societies back on the path towards effective and measurable sustainable development.
Towards this end, the publication “Climate Change and Biodiversity in Latin America: eleven views from Policy and Economics” calls upon a group of renowned experts from Latin America to offer their reflections on the economics and policy of climate change and biodiversity conservation. This is not an academic type of publication, although it has demanded rigorousness of the data and information it presents. On the contrary, the essays are personal reflections on critical issues of special relevance for the region. It is important to recognize that, as with many of the major global problems afflicting the planet, climate change and biodiversity loss will not be solved by a single discipline or perspective. Both require multidisciplinary approaches. However, this publication attempts to focus on public policies, legal frameworks and economics, from a regional perspective, as tools for change and support for the ambition and action required to reverse the aforementioned trends.
* The publication is available in Spanish and English.