This article was first posted on Latino Cambio

The UN Climate Change Conference, which kicked last week in Poznań, Poland, is a key stepping stone towards securing an international agreement on climate change for the post-Kyoto era in 2012.

The 10,000 delegates attending will attempt to gain consensus on some extremely thorny issues, not least working out commitments to cut carbon emissions and the amount of cash that developed nations are willing to commit to the developing world for dealing with climate change.

These issues are of considerable importance for Latin America for two reasons. Firstly, Latin America is now a ‘middle income continent’, which normally coincides with a rapid expansion of emissions as the new middle classes develop a taste for cars and other luxury goods. Developing countries may now be faced with potential limits on their emissions and subsequent space for development, inflating a very sensitive political issue for Latin American countries which they will be unable to avoid.

Secondly, Latin America is one of the most vulnerable regions to the impacts of climate change. An increased frequency of El Niño, hurricanes, droughts, floods, food and energy insecurity have the potential to seriously undermine the region’s development prospects. As the region is still largely dependent on external sources of finance and aid for its climate change programmes, Latin America is beholden to the generosity of the industrialised countries of the North.

These reasons suggest that both the physical impacts of climate change and the political consequences of an agreement on climate change should be of immense concern to Latin American leaders. Despite this, Latin American leaders have not really bothered to take much interest in the Poznan conference.

Official lists of participants show that aside from Brazil and Mexico, the majority of Latin American countries are only sending environmental experts and the odd ambassador based in Europe. There are very few ministers or representatives from key decision making ministries such as finance, energy and development in attendance.

This compares with three other countries. China is sending an Olympic team of development specialists and treaty experts. Spain is attending with representatives from the Ministry for Industry, Trade and Tourism. And the UK is sending in Minsters and officials from four key ministries with Nicholas Stern as well for backup.

The stance of some Latin American countries appears to be what José Alberto Garibaldi describes as a ‘shy’ approach where a country is content to take a backseat and watch what happens at the conference. Given the risks facing Latin America, a bold approach of improving alliances, carving out political space and creating new policies, is urgently required. As we learnt as teenagers, staying at home instead of going to the school disco is not only boring but a real mistake for your future development.