‘From the Andes to the Amazon’, major climate impacts long after headlines fade
By the Climate Centre
Vanishing glaciers, record-breaking hurricanes and wildfires, drought and floods – “from the Andes to the Amazon” – scarred the socio-economic landscape of Latin America and the Caribbean last year, inflicting major damage long after headlines fade, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
The State of the Climate for Latin America and the Caribbean 2024 , released on Friday, highlights the mounting toll of extreme weather on lives, livelihoods and food supplies “in a region which is no stranger to poverty and insecurity,” a WMO press release said.
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said Friday: “In 2024, weather and climate impacts cascaded from the Andes to the Amazon, from crowded cities to coastal communities, causing major economic and environmental disruptions.
“Drought and extreme heat fuelled devastating wildfires. Exceptional rainfall triggered unprecedented flooding, and [in Hurricane Beryl, photo] we saw the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record.”
Depending on the dataset used, it was the warmest year on record in Central America and the Caribbean, and the warmest or second warmest in Mexico and South America.
Venezuela became the second country in the world to lose all its glaciers with the disappearance of Humboldt, its last.
Floods triggered by heavy rainfall in Rio Grande do Sul became Brazil’s worst climate-related disaster, causing huge economic losses to agriculture and claiming nearly 200 lives.
With the disappearance of Humboldt, Venezuela became the second country in the world
to lose all its glaciers
Wildfires in the Amazon and Pantanal regions, central Chile, Mexico and Belize were fuelled by drought and extreme heatwaves; in Chile the wildfires resulted in at least 130 deaths, making them the country’s worst disaster since the 2010 earthquake.
Rising sea-levels rendered coastal communities and Caribbean island nations more vulnerable to hurricanes: Beryl was the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall on Grenada and its dependencies and caused devastation across the Caribbean.
Nearly 70 per cent of the region’s energy mix came from renewable sources, however, with solar and wind seeing “a remarkable 30 per cent increase in capacity and generation compared to 2023,” according to the WMO, an IFRC partner agency.
“There is also hope. Early warnings and climate services from national meteorological and hydrological services are saving lives and increasing resilience throughout Latin America and the Caribbean,” Celeste Saulo added.
“The work of the WMO community and all our partners is more important than ever to meet challenges and seize opportunities.”
The State of the Climate for Latin America and the Caribbean 2024 report includes an interactive story map and a dashboard on extreme events; it complements the WMO’s State of the Global Climate report released on earlier in March.
Volunteers from the Clare Valley branch of the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Red Cross help with the clean-up after rapidly intensifying Hurricane Beryl left their local beach choked with debris. The storm broke many records: it was the easternmost hurricane to form in the Atlantic in June; the earliest Category 4 and later the earliest Category 5 in the season; and the strongest-ever June hurricane measured by wind speed. (File photo: Anette Selmer-Andresen/IFRC)