September 27: Environmental Awareness Day

Although no international entity has dedicated this day to environmental awareness, the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) commemorates the date this year in recognition of the need to create awareness and call for environmental action.

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report estimates that up to 3.6 billion people are vulnerable to climate change and the rising global temperatures will have serious consequences for ecosystems and human health and wellbeing. In Latin America and the Caribbean, changes in the magnitude and frequency of precipitation due to climate change impact agricultural production in places such as Brazil, the Andes, and the countries in the northern Caribbean.

Environmental awareness drives governments to develop public policies and contributes to changes in people's behavior to live more sustainably, preserve biodiversity, and help mitigate climate change. Daily actions hold important value, from consuming less food of animal origin, recycling garbage, promoting the circular economy, and using electricity efficiently to consuming ecological and local products. 

Upon the signing of the Agreement for the creation of the IAI, the institute committed to promoting regional and multidisciplinary international cooperation to improve the scientific and technical capacity of countries to respond to climate change. Some examples of this are the recent AmeriGEO Week, where the climate change and health nexus was explored in depth, and the IAI Compendium on Climate Change Impacts in Latin America and the Caribbean.