12 / 96
12
Mountains are unique and threatened systems where
changes due to climate change are among the best-
demonstrated. The higher the mountains, the more
temperature-sensitive these regions are, and often
extreme impact events such as glacier lake outburst
floods – due to glacier recession and subsequent
formation of unstable lakes – can be directly
attributed to the effects of long-term warming.
In this outlook, mountain environments are areas
with an elevation and slope angles that meet the
UNEP (2002) definition.
1
The Tropical Andes region
is the area of the Andean Mountain range from their
northernmost point at 11°N in Colombia until 23°S
on the southern border of Bolivia (Cuesta, 2012).
This definition is based on national borders since the
assessment focuses on policy instruments. However,
the tropical mountain environment stretches
until 27°S in the north-east of Argentina (Ibid.).
The Tropical Andes pass through five countries:
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.
The Andes are approximately 7,000 km long and
are the world’s longest terrestrial mountain range,
running parallel along the entire west coast of South
America. It is the second highest after the Hindu Kush-
Himalaya mountain system. From northern Chile
and Argentina, the Andes widen out to 700 km, with
high valleys and a high plateau called the Altiplano.
This area marks the start of the Tropical Andes and
dominates Bolivia and southern Peru. Wide, high
mountain valleys are prevalent in Peru before the range
narrows from Ecuador and into Colombia. Valleys are
generally parallel to the range. The range splits into
three branches, one of which reaches Venezuela.
Introduction
The Andes mountain range has a profound impact on
the climate and environment of the South American
continent. The range acts as a barrier between the
coast to the west and the extremely humid Amazon
basin to the east. Moisture from the rainforest is not
able to move across the range, thereby creating the
continent’s unique environment. The climate also
changes drastically throughout the region and is
greatly influenced by latitude and altitude, giving way
to the world’s driest desert, Atacama on the western
slopes of the Central Andes and rainforests along the
eastern foothills.
The countries of the Tropical Andes are all parties
to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as Non-Annex I
countries. The Convention serves as an important
platform for international action on climate change
mitigation and adaptation. Most of the Andean
countries (except Venezuela) have announced
Intended Nationally Determined Contributions
(INDCs) as their national commitments to mitigate
climate change. These targets will be reached
by mobilizing their own resources and also by
requesting donor support for their climate actions.
The impacts of climate change, however, continue to
grow and are felt throughout the entire region. Rising
temperatures and changing precipitation patterns
are leading to more frequent and intense weather
events, clearly highlighting the need for immediate
adaptation measures.
Against this background, this outlook has been
prepared by UNEP, its collaborating centre
GRID-Arendal and the Consortium for the
Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion
(CONDESAN), involving a number of national
and international experts. This outlook synthesizes
and analyses existing climate change adaptation
responses in the mountainous regions of the Tropical
Andes and the extent to which they address key
climate risks.
Indoingso,theauthorsandcontributorshavefollowed
the definitions set out in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment
Report (Oppenheimer et al., 2014). The outlook
has taken three main steps: 1) the determination of
the main climate hazards, vulnerabilities and key
risks. Once identified, these key risks are considered
priorities to be addressed by adaptation policy; 2) the
identification of existing policies and strategies for
climate change adaptation, and 3) the analysis of the
extent to which these existing measures can respond
to the key risks (gap analysis).
Risks are considered key if there is a combination of
vulnerability and likelihood of exposure to hazards
(Oppenheimer et al., 2014). Climate hazards are
the physical events or trends resulting from climate
change that can threaten society or natural systems.
For example, there is a high likelihood of increased
temperatures in the high mountains, which will have
negative consequences for local farmers.These farmers
are generally vulnerable (predisposed to harm) due to
their extreme environment, remoteness from services
and markets, poverty and other social inequalities.
The resulting high risk of decreased income and
malnutrition is therefore considered to be key. This
methodology is applied to describe the key risks to
climate change in the Tropical Andes Mountains.