Climate change is expected to cost Latin America one percent of its Gross Domestic Product each year as disasters and extreme weather take their toll on production, a UN report said Wednesday.
The Economic Commission for Latin America, releasing a report at world climate negotiations in Mexico, said that one percent is more than the region now spends on all of its research and development.
"In other words, growth will be restricted unless serious global mitigation measures are introduced and national plans to adapt to and mitigate climate change are implemented," said the commission, known by its Spanish acronym CEPAL.
CEPAL's executive secretary, Alicia Barcena, calls for "far-reaching reform of national and global markets" to develop a less carbon-intensive economy.
Latin America has the second lowest output of carbon emissions blamed for global warming, but the region is vulnerable due to its extreme weather, biodiversity and social pressures, the report said.
Rising sea levels would put major coastal cities at risk, while a three percent Celsius rise in temperatures would threaten the Amazon's unprecedented biodiversity through a decrease in rainfall, it said.
The study said that Central America was at particular risk and could lose the equivalent of 73 billion dollars in GDP by 2100 under the most pessimistic scenario.
More than 190 countries are involved in the talks in Cancun, Mexico, which are looking to agree on building blocks to an agreement on fighting climate change after the Kyoto Protocol's main requirements end in 2012.
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