The Think Tank Index published in Foreign Policy makes dire reading for anyone interested in climate change. Even though it is now considered a priority for world leaders, none of the winners have significant programmes on climate change as conventional foreign policy concerns dominate the rapidly warming land of Wonk. In Latin America the situation is identical with the best think tanks yet to develop any credibility on the subject.   

It seems counter-intuitive that an issue which has scaled the slimly ladder of global political agendas and gained it’s proponents a Nobel Prize is not yet a major research interest of the world’s best think-tanks.

Given the ongoing debates and complex nature of the problem, climate experts have struggled to effectively communicate climate change into a digestible challenge for those influencing policy. The lack of interest within the think thank community is also because economists and social policy experts have only recently began to get stuck into the debate.

The index’s selection criteria are also biased against fresh issues like climate change. Even though 5,465 organisations were identified, criterion such as a think tank’s ability to retain elite analysts does not represent a fair assessment. Analysts on climate change are so new to their think tank jobs that whether they have found the stationary cupboard seems more relevant than how soon they might be leaving.

Latin American think tanks need to wake up and shift with the raising tide of opinion on global warming otherwise they risk becoming submerged in obscurity.

Firstly, climate change is beginning to position itself as a foreign policy concern for Latin American governments. In 2008 the European Union – Latin American and the Caribbean Summit wedged global warming firmly on the agenda, where as leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Peru reaffirmed their commitment to a declaration on climate change and energy security.

Although we should always regard these meetings with a little scepticism, the fact that Brazil and Mexico are developing national climate change strategies and Costa Rica plans to become carbon neutral by 2021 suggests this political lip service is more than a passing fad.

Secondly, studies on the economics of climate change and other climate initiatives are being carried out by regional organisations including the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and the Inter-American Development Bank.

Latino think tanks need to run with these agendas and capitalise on the political momentum by incorporating climate change into their programmes immediately.

Let’s hope by the end of 2009 a new list of Latin America’s best think tanks includes some of those working on climate change or at least the current winners that have subsequently developed new programmes on the transition to a low carbon economy.

In the meantime here is an inexhaustible list of think tanks and research institutes in Latin America working on climate change and sustainable development:

Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza – Costa Rica

Fundación Bariloche – Argentina

Chile Sustentable – Chile

Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia – Brazil

Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano – Ecuador