Environment at a Glance in Latin America and the Caribbean

Reader’s guide

This report presents a digest of selected environmental trends in LAC countries with a focus on climate change, and its interconnection with air quality and biodiversity. Particular attention is given to emission trends, mitigation needs, climate-related hazards, and policy instruments for climate.

The analysis and key messages are based on indicators from the OECD Core Set of Environmental Indicators – a tool to monitor environmental progress and performance and to track the course towards sustainable development – and on indicators to monitor progress towards climate objectives. Most of these indicators are available on the interactive Environment at a Glance web-platform and in the IPAC Dashboard.

Box 1. The “Environment at a Glance” interactive web platform: a gateway to OECD indicators

The Environment at a Glance platform provides an interactive access to OECD environmental indicators and to the latest data on the environment received from OECD members and compiled from international sources. It highlights major environmental trends in areas such as climate change, biodiversity, water resources, air quality, circular economy and ocean. Users can access the indicators updated in real-time from OECD databases, play with the data and graphics, and consult and download thematic webbooks and country profiles. The topics covered and the indicators provided will be progressively expanded so as to provide a user-friendly gateway to OECD indicators on the environment, green growth and sustainable development: http://oe.cd/env-glance.

The Latin America and Caribbean region

The following countries and dependent territories are considered in this report, grouped under three sub-regions: South America, Central America and the Caribbean. Depending on the availability of data, regional and sub-regional averages may not always have the same country coverage across indicators.

List of LAC countries

Caribbean		Central America		South America
AIA	Anguilla (GBR)	BLZ	Belize	ARG	Argentina
ATG	Antigua and Barbuda	CRI	Costa Rica	BOL	Bolivia
ABW	Aruba (NLD)	SVD OR SLV	El Salvador	BRA	Brazil
BHS	Bahamas	GTM	Guatemala	CHL	Chile
BLM	Saint Barthélemy (FRA)	HND	Honduras	COL	Colombia
BRB	Barbados	MEX	Mexico	ECU	Ecuador
CUB	Cuba	NIC	Nicaragua	GUF	French Guiana
CUW	Curaçao (NDL)	PAN	Panama	GUY	Guyana
CYM	Cayman Islands (GBR)			PRY	Paraguay
DMA	Dominica			PER	Peru
DOM	Dominican Republic			SUR	Suriname
GRD	Grenada			URY	Uruguay
GLP	Guadeloupe (FRA)			VEN	Venezuela
HTI	Haiti
JAM	Jamaica
KNA	St. Kitts and Nevis
LCA	St. Lucia
MAF	Saint Martin (FRA)
MSR	Montserrat (GBR)
MTQ	Martinique (FRA)
PRI	Puerto Rico (USA)
SXM	Sint Maarten (NDL)
TTO	Trinidad and Tobago
TCA	Turks and Caicos Islands
VCT	St. Vincent and the Grenadines
VGB	British Virgin Islands (GBR)
VIR	U.S. Virgin Islands (USA)

Data availability

The preparation of this webbook has underscored the urgent need for more and better data on the environment and sustainable development in the region. There are major gaps in statistics and data on key issues, and many data quality issues, in particular as regards:

1. GHG emissions and related trends

2. Clarity on emissions targets

3. Climate-related hazards

4. Environment and climate-related policy instruments

Comparability and interpretation

The indicators used in this report are of varying relevance for different countries. Care should be taken when interpreting the indicators and when making international comparisons. Issues to be considered include:

• National averages can mask variations within countries. This is particularly relevant given the large differences in scale across countries. Definitions and measurement methods vary among countries, hence inter-country comparisons may not compare the same things.

• There is a level of uncertainty associated with the data sources and measurement methods on which the indicators rely. Differences between two countries’ indicators are thus not always statistically significant; and when countries are clustered around a relatively narrow range of outcomes, it may be misleading to establish an order of ranking.

• For some indicators, showing the direction and magnitude of change over time for a given country is more meaningful than cross-country comparisons, and trends in the indicators’ value are more important than their absolute value.

• No single approach has been used for normalising the indicators; different denominators are used in parallel to balance the message conveyed. Many indicators are expressed on a per-capita and per-unit-of-GDP basis. The population estimates used include persons who are resident in a country for one year or more, regardless of their citizenship. The GDP figures used are expressed in USD, at 2015 prices and purchasing power parities (PPPs). Definitions and metadata can be found in the webbooks available at http://oe.cd/env-glance and in the glossary at the end of this report.

For each topic, a section on comparability and interpretation provides further detail.

Cut-off date

The indicators build on the latest available data from OECD and other international sources up to April 2023. The period under review for the herein data is from 1979 to 2023. Data on climate hazards is available from 1979, data on environmentally related tax revenue is available from 1994, and data for GHG emissions, air pollution, energy use, land use and socio-economic indicators is available from 1990. Data on climate tagged aid is available from 2002, data on climate policy instruments is available from 2015, and data on Net Effective Carbon Rates from 2018. Some indicators draw on recent work carried out under the International Programme for Action on Climate.

List of abbreviations

CAPMF	Climate Actions and Policies Measurement Framework	LULUCF	Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry
CBD	Convention on Biological Diversity	NASA	National Aeronautics and Space Administration
CDS	Copernicus Climate Data Store	NbS	Nature-based solutions
CO2	Carbon dioxide	NDC	Nationally Determined Contribution
CO2e	Carbon dioxide equivalent	NOx	Nitrogen oxides
COP	Conference of Parties	PA	Paris Agreement
DAC	Development Assistance Committee	PINE	Policy Instruments for the Environment (database)
ECR	Effective carbon rate	PM2.5	Fine particulate matter
ESG	Environmental, Social and Governance	PPPs	Purchasing Power Parities
ETS	Emission trading systems	SLCF	Short-lived climate forcers
GBF	Global Biodiversity Framework	SOx	Sulphur oxides
GDP	Gross domestic product	TES	Total energy supply
GHG	Greenhouse gas emissions	UNCED	United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
GSSS	Green, social, sustainable and sustainability‑linked	UNEP-WCMC	UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre
IEA	International Energy Agency	UNFCCC	United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
IPAC	International Programme for Action on Climate	UTCI	Universal Thermal Climate Index
IPCC	Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change	WDPA	World Database on Protected Areas
IUCN	International Union for the Conservation of Nature	WHO	World Health Organisation
LAC	Latin America and the Caribbean	WRI	World Resource Institute
LTS	Long-Term Strategies