Peru will require some $400 million annually to mitigate affects from climate change, Environment Minister Antonio Brack said Thursday.
“We have done some calculators on how much it will cost to adapt to climate change and we arrived at an amount of approximately $400 million annually,” state news agency Andina reported Brack as saying. “This involves, among other things, programs for forest conservation, biodiversity and management of basins.”
He said the government is seeking international financing for the projects, adding that the cost of preventative measures is much smaller than corrective ones.
“Its clear that to prevent is cheaper than correcting afterward,” he said. “The losses would be much greater.”
Meanwhile, the national meteorological and hydrological service Senamhi announced it will produce a report on the climate situation Peru will face in 2035, Andina reported.
The report will be based on glacial retreat and climate change. Senamhi will produce the report by using two stations it recently received to monitor and study glacial retreat in the Mantario and Urubamba river basins, located in Peru’s central Junin and southern Cuzco regions, respectively.
Peru is home to some 70 percent of Earth’s tropical glaciers. The country’s glaciers, which feed hydroelectric plants and provide drinking water to Lima, the world’s second largest desert city after Cairo, Egypt, are in the process of accelerated meltdown due to global warming.
According to Peru’s National Resources Institute, or Inrena, the Andes Mountains have lost at least 22 percent of their glacier area since 1970.
