Outlook on climate change adaptation in the Tropical Andes mountains

Introduction

Mountains are unique and threatened systems where changes due to climate change are among the best- demonstrated. The higher the mountains, the more temperature-sensitive these regions are, and often extreme impact events such as glacier lake outburst floods – due to glacier recession and subsequent formation of unstable lakes – can be directly attributed to the effects of long-term warming. In this outlook, mountain environments are areas with an elevation and slope angles that meet the UNEP (2002) definition. 1 The Tropical Andes region is the area of the Andean Mountain range from their northernmost point at 11°N in Colombia until 23°S on the southern border of Bolivia (Cuesta, 2012). This definition is based on national borders since the assessment focuses on policy instruments. However, the tropical mountain environment stretches until 27°S in the north-east of Argentina (Ibid.). The Tropical Andes pass through five countries: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. The Andes are approximately 7,000 km long and are the world’s longest terrestrial mountain range, running parallel along the entire west coast of South America. It is the second highest after the Hindu Kush- Himalaya mountain system. From northern Chile and Argentina, the Andes widen out to 700 km, with high valleys and a high plateau called the Altiplano. This area marks the start of the Tropical Andes and dominates Bolivia and southern Peru. Wide, high mountain valleys are prevalent in Peru before the range narrows from Ecuador and into Colombia. Valleys are generally parallel to the range. The range splits into three branches, one of which reaches Venezuela.

The Andes mountain range has a profound impact on the climate and environment of the South American continent. The range acts as a barrier between the coast to the west and the extremely humid Amazon basin to the east. Moisture from the rainforest is not able to move across the range, thereby creating the continent’s unique environment. The climate also changes drastically throughout the region and is greatly influenced by latitude and altitude, giving way to the world’s driest desert, Atacama on the western slopes of the Central Andes and rainforests along the eastern foothills. The countries of the Tropical Andes are all parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as Non-Annex I countries. The Convention serves as an important platform for international action on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Most of the Andean countries (except Venezuela) have announced Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) as their national commitments to mitigate climate change. These targets will be reached by mobilizing their own resources and also by requesting donor support for their climate actions. The impacts of climate change, however, continue to grow and are felt throughout the entire region. Rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns are leading to more frequent and intense weather events, clearly highlighting the need for immediate adaptation measures. Against this background, this outlook has been prepared by UNEP, its collaborating centre GRID-Arendal and the Consortium for the

Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN), involving a number of national and international experts. This outlook synthesizes and analyses existing climate change adaptation responses in the mountainous regions of the Tropical Andes and the extent to which they address key climate risks. Indoingso,theauthorsandcontributorshavefollowed the definitions set out in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (Oppenheimer et al., 2014). The outlook has taken three main steps: 1) the determination of the main climate hazards, vulnerabilities and key risks. Once identified, these key risks are considered priorities to be addressed by adaptation policy; 2) the identification of existing policies and strategies for climate change adaptation, and 3) the analysis of the extent to which these existing measures can respond to the key risks (gap analysis). Risks are considered key if there is a combination of vulnerability and likelihood of exposure to hazards (Oppenheimer et al., 2014). Climate hazards are the physical events or trends resulting from climate change that can threaten society or natural systems. For example, there is a high likelihood of increased temperatures in the high mountains, which will have negative consequences for local farmers.These farmers are generally vulnerable (predisposed to harm) due to their extreme environment, remoteness from services and markets, poverty and other social inequalities. The resulting high risk of decreased income and malnutrition is therefore considered to be key. This methodology is applied to describe the key risks to climate change in the Tropical Andes Mountains.

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