Current policies against global warming are generating higher energy costs hurting the poorest in particular.
An article by Bjørn Lomborg, published in Nacion.com, notes that "Energy generation using solar and wind power received $6o billion in grants in 2012 alone. This means that the world spent $60 billion more on energy than was necessary. And as the climate benefit achieved amounted to a mere $1.4 billion, this means basically that $58.6 billion of the subsidies was wasted. In addition, a further $19 billion in subsidies was spent on biofuels which basically provide no climate benefit. All that money could have been used to improve health care, hire more teachers, make better roads or reduce taxes. "
The project by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration will assist in improving living conditions of low-income families located in rural areas.
To improve the living conditions of people in rural areas of Nicaragua, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE), approved $ 8 million supporting the Integration of Small Producers to Value Chains and Market Access Program (PROCAVAL).
The funds will be earmarked for social development programs and to combat poverty.
The $ 19.5 million loan is for implementing the Family and Community Welfare Care Model, sponsored by the Ministry of Family, Youth and Children, (Mifano).
The Social Welfare Project is aimed at families living in extreme poverty with one or more children under 13 years of age, giving priority to children who are working and/or outside the school system.
Costa Rica fell asleep at the wheel, and is now the Latin American country where poverty increased the most between 2008 and 2009.
While in most Latin American countries poverty rates fall, Costa Rica shares with Mexico and Ecuador the dubious privilege of seeing an increase.
The report "Social Panorama of Latin America 2010" by the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), presented in Santiago de Chile by the agency's Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena, projected a decrease in poverty of 1.0 and 0, 4 percentage points compared to 2009, when the region suffered the effects of the global financial crisis.
Honduras’ population grows by 2.5% each year; in the most impoverished areas the rate is even higher.
According to the National Statistics Institute of Honduras, in 1988 the country had 4.616.000 inhabitants and by 2001 it had grown to 6 and a half million. Estimates for 2010 put the figure in 8.045.990. Honduras’ birth rate stands at 28.4 births for each 1000 inhabitants.
Behind the exports of the Free Zone and increased activity at the cruise ship port, there is poverty and insecurity.
“In 2009, the Colón Free Zone billed $10.6 billion in commercial transactions, according to unofficial data from the zone's Users Association”.
“…as we enter the center of the city, it is difficult to believe that this province, which contributes 12% of the country's gross domestic product, has a social environment unfit for insiders and outsiders alike”.