LatAm port sector in eye of climate change storm

Drought is gripping large swaths of Central and South America, while abnormally high rainfall flooded northern Chile earlier this year and Argentina's Buenos Aires province more recently.

On top of rising sea levels, melting Andean glaciers, increasing temperatures and changing rainfall patters, the region was put on notice this week of a strengthening El Niño weather system, which could turn out to be among the strongest of the last 60 years.​​

While the consequences are practically impossible to mitigate from a technological standpoint, the effects are being exacerbated by bad environmental management practices, says Julián Palacios, executive director of Latinports.

In a report assessing the challenges of climate change, the World Bank said that a 20cm rise in sea levels by 2050 could impact 22 of Latin America and the Caribbean's largest coastal cities, creating annual losses of US$940mn. A 40cm rise would lead to US$1.2bn/y in losses.

Among industry challenges, the report positions that in a scenario of increased tropical storm activity, port downtime for ships would rise, resulting in higher shipping costs.

With its low-lying geography and dependence on coastal and maritime activities, the Caribbean would be especially hit hard, as storm and infrastructure damages from tropical cyclones could reach a total of up to US$22bn by 2050 in a scenario of rising sea temperatures, the World Bank said.

Julián Palacios will moderate a presentation on Colombia's Magdalena navigability project at BNamericas' 9th South America Infrastructure & Energy Summit to be held in Bogotá on September 9-10.