Skimm for week of Nov 21

Quote of the Day: “The friendships we’ve established with countries like Peru, the reopening of diplomatic relations with Cuba, investments we’re making in trade, environmental policies and so forth — all those things I expect to continue,” says a very optimistic Barack Obama about the Trump administration concerning Latin American relations

Zero Carbon Nation
The Story:
The most recent Paris climate conference (COP22) signed 200 countries into the accord toward zero-carbon emissions, vital for the future of Earth. This accord is in response to the evidence toward climate change, shown by the countless negative effects. For example, the last five years have been the hottest yet which affects duration and extremity of storms, droughts, and heat waves. Ice caps are melting which is raising sea levels, endangering people who live in lower-level areas. Global warming further affects farming, housing, and infrastructure.

What Happened?
Some countries are in a better position to take the action necessary to actually achieve zero-carbon emissions. Latin America is one of the places in the world equipped for such action. One of the reasons being that there are areas with very little electricity therefore emitting little carbon. While this is true in some places, some countries in Latin America are on the list with some of the biggest emitters. Brazil and Mexico, being on that list, have also singed the COP22 accord. Latin America is ahead of other regions in respect to clean energy, specifically with transportation as it’s bus systems move 20 million people per day, only second to China. Latin America has already been making moves to further improve their transportation systems, but its vastness allows for even more especially as car ownership and oil consumption grows.

Steps for Climate Change
The COP22 accord outlines steps to reduce emissions by 2050, as specified for each agreeing country. Latin America would have to stop deforestation, reduce agricultural emissions, and cut citizen energy consumption by 40%. The largest reform comes in the power sector of Latin America’s economy, where the agreement has them working toward 90% less carbon usage. This is most notable with Latin America’s transportation, where it would need to become electric in order to satisfy the 90% cut. Namely, this would mean replacing oil and gas sources with lower-carbon sources such as solar and wind.

Latin America vs. Trump
The Story:
Trump announced early on during his road to the White House his plans of separating the United States and Latin America in many different ways. Some of these include building a wall in between the States and Mexico, deporting undocumented immigrants, and to revisit current free-trade agreements with Latin America.

What Happened?
Not surprisingly, many people within Latin America are reacting negatively to Trump’s victory. The disapproval comes from more than just the obvious parties like anti-American rulers in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Cuba; allies are also against the president-elect. The risk of Latin America becoming hostile to the point of America, or more severe, is possible and poses many dangers. Some leaders, such as former Chilean President Lagos are calling for other Latin American leaders to come together to denounce Trump’s wall. Protests against Trump are already on going via civilians, and it could soon include Latin American leaders.

Fighting Trump’s Policy
Foreign ministers of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico came up with a strategy to confront Trump’s deportation policy proposal. Central America in particular would be especially affected by this policy as many people in the region depend on the money sent back to them from family members that have migrated to the United States. The economies in Central America could simply not support the return of all those deported. The ironic part is there is evidence showing such mass deportation would not only hurt Latin America, but also the United States as a lot of these deportees would be hard-working people benefiting and contributing to the economy. At this rate, Trump will have a hard time making allies in these countries he plans on ostracizing which will pose even more problems for foreign relations and national security.

Obama Cleaning Up After Trump
The Story:
President Barack Obama visited Lima, Peru recently to ensure the nation that Trump’s claims would not be the final word. The venue was the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting. Obama spoke to students and young leaders from Latin America where he spoke about much of Trump’s policy, commenting on what should actually be worried about and what was most likely not going to be interfered with by the Trump administration. He also spoke to the aspiring entrepreneurs and civil society leaders of the young group about how to improve their lives and countries. While Obama tried to reassure Latin Americans that Trump would not undo much of the positive relations he worked for the past 8 years to build, little success came of his efforts.

What Happened?
Although he said Trump was unlikely to undo Obama’s work toward ties with Cuba, he was almost certainly likely to look at trade deals in Latin America. Obama warned of president-elect’s plans to examine every single trade policy and possibly reversing them, but ending on the uplifting though that with any revisions, Trump will have a hard time making any drastic changes. He is confident that once it is re-examined by Trump and his administration, they will see how much the policies are helping the US and partnering countries. The audience was unconvinced by Obama’s confidence as many questions showed the amount of anxiety present in the region concerning Trump’s policies.

Q&A with Obama
In response to the anxiety at the summit, Obama told the audience that Americans are uncertain after any election and that the world should not make any immediate judgments about what is to come. The main take away from the summit was Obama’s amazing confidence in the American government to protect Latin America from harmful policies. “The main message I want you to know is that you have a partner in me and you have a partner in the United States government…and we are going to work together.”

Articles in Order of Usage:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/24/opinion/how-can-latin-america-move-to-low-carbon-energy.html
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/andres-oppenheimer/article116678663.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/world/americas/obama-tries-to-reassure-latin-america-about-a-future-with-donald-trump.html