Costa Rican Mudslides and Climate Change

While most of the region's attention is on the river dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Costa Rica is also suffering through the worst natural disasters in recent memory.  As I mentioned Thursday, two consecutive days of heavy rains caused a mudslide in San Antonio de Escazu.  

The death toll has now risen to twenty-three with one more person unaccounted for.  Two thousand people are now in temporary shelters.  The nationwide extent of the damage is unclear.  The National Emergencies Commission has been distributing food, water and supplies to areas of the country isolated due to destroyed bridges, highway damage and roads blocked by landslides. 

Flooding has caused severe damage and loss of life this year in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico as well.  For this reason, the region's government officials are planning to voice their concerns at the 16th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held a the end of the month in Cancún.

"What we are most concerned about is the issue of vulnerability and adaptation, taking into account that the region contributes little to the greenhouse effect but we are very vulnerable to climate change," Carlos Mancilla, coordinator of the climate change unit at Guatemala's Environment Ministry, told IPS.

All told, the countries of Central America contribute less than 0.5 percent of the total greenhouse-effect gases at the global level, according to "The Economics of Climate Change in Latin America and the Caribbean 2009," a study by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)...

In Mancilla's view, Central America must be recognised as one of the world's regions most vulnerable to climate change in order to obtain financing for adaptation, capacity building, and technology transfer...

According to the national climate change coordinator for Honduras, Mirza Castro, "There is shared opinion and agreement to declare the isthmus as one of the regions that is most vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change."

Climate Change Vulnerability Index 2011

According to the Climate Change Vulnerability Index, most of Central America is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change   Unfortunately, Haiti is among the world's extremely vulnerable.  The index

evaluates 42 social, economic and environmental factors to assess national vulnerabilities across three core areas. These include: exposure to climate-related natural disasters and sea-level rise; human sensitivity, in terms of population patterns, development, natural resources, agricultural dependency and conflicts; thirdly, the index assesses future vulnerability by considering the adaptive capacity of a country’s government and infrastructure to combat climate change.

So while the last few years have been hard on Central Americans (Hurricanes Mitch 1998, Stan 2005, and Agatha 2010, and the 2009 drought), things are likely to get worse unless there are significant national and international reforms aimed at mitigating against the effects of climate change.