Welcome message by the National Secretary of Science and Technology of Guatemala, Dr. Oscar Manuel Cóbar Pinto

On behalf of the National Secretariat for Science and Technology and the Government of Guatemala, I feel honored to welcome you to the twenty-sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP-26) to the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI).

Because the IAI reflects the will of its Parties, the discussions and decisions adopted during the meetings will be of major importance in strengthening the role of the IAI of supporting interdisciplinary multinational scientific programs on global change and translating the information and outcomes into products that can be applied to policy-making.

In this regard, the IAI provides a tool to assist Parties in moving towards the achievement of national global-change related goals. For Guatemala, these goals include establishing an information system to support a decision-making process that is based on sound science; enhancing climate resilience of productive landscapes and of the socio-economic systems in destination municipalities that are threatened by the impacts of climate change and climate variability, particularly hydro-meteorological events which are growing in frequency and intensity; strengthening institutional and policy capacities to implement the climate change adaptation measures included in the budget and decision making; developing and implementing ecosystem management for climate change resilience and introducing production practices aimed at reducing the vulnerability of communities; and strengthening the capacities of community-based organizations to reduce the risks associated with climate-related socio-economic and ecosystem loss in municipalities in an area of interest.

International fora such as the Conference of the Parties to the IAI provide Parties with the mechanisms needed to address issues with a regional or international view. Such wide view becomes important when solutions to regional or global problems require actions that go beyond the solutions available at the national level. In this context, the IAI brings us together and provides support to facilitate scientific and political collaboration. Solutions to regional and international environmental problems, as for instance cross-border pollution, are complex. Political and social challenges that most require the contributions from science are frequently those where the science involved is more complex, requires interdisciplinary approaches and does not always provide simple answers. Environmental governance is impressively fragmented into the many agreements and conventions that address a variety of issues, including water, the atmosphere, biological diversity, waste, chemical waste and hazardous material; it is in this fragmented environment that regional and international organizations such as the IAI must work.

Science underlies many responses to the urgent challenges that countries in the region face today. Coffee producers in Mesoamerica are facing many new global change challenges that have direct impacts on the sustainability of their productivity and livelihoods. An IAI-funded research project led by a renowned Guatemalan scientist, Dr. Edwin Castellanos, examined the effects of climate change on this important crop. The results highlight the importance of shade coffee production and its positive impacts on the environment, especially in terms of biodiversity conservation and storage of sequestered carbon, as well as its benefits for rural communities.

The representatives of the Parties to the IAI provide the primary communication channel between the IAI Directorate and its many collaborators, including principal investigators and national scientific communities, to provide opportunities for scientific collaboration, capacity building and strengthening of national and regional scientific knowledge for the benefit of society. I wish that as a result of CoP-26 progress is made in articulation and potential implementation with regard to the concerns expressed by the Parties, their national obligations derived from membership with international organizations, and the capacity needed to implement activities mandated by their national environmental frameworks, including through the work of the IAI in collaboration with other international mechanisms, multilateral agreements and environmental programs that would contribute to decision-making at the national level. This way, we may also expect to see a reflection of regional interests and concerns related to the support and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) during the CoP-26.

Finally, I am particularly pleased that Guatemala is the host country of this important event, and I hope that you will find here a suitable environment for fruitful work.

It will be an honor to welcome you in person in La Antigua Guatemala in June.

Dr. Oscar Manuel Cóbar Pinto
National Secretary for Science and Technology
Guatemala