Gearing Up with Science for Climate and Development

Photo: Ville Miettinen

“We’ve come to the summit to pray for rain,” cried Susana Laruta beside the almost-dry Incachaca reservoir overlooking La Paz, Bolivia, in October 2023. Along with hundreds of local people Susana was praying to Saint Peter, who as keeper of the keys to heaven might finally “open the sky”. 

Annual rainfall had dropped almost 30 percent over the previous five years, according to the National Institute of Statistics, decimating agricultural production and leaving over half the country’s 12 million people in a chronic state of food insecurity. Meanwhile in the south of Bolivia, a town named Villamontes had just hit 45°C, setting a new record for the highest winter temperature in the entire Southern Hemisphere. 

Susana’s prayers were soon, but sadly, answered. with a see-saw force majeure. Seven of nine Bolivian regions had been in the grip of severe drought in late 2023; and then seven of nine regions came under alert from heavy rains in early 2024. Hundreds of homes were inundated and dozens of people drowned in a perilous mix of floods and mudslides. The Incachaca reservoir almost burst, reaching “100 percent” at one point according to Iván Arias, Mayor of La Paz. 

This climate pivot is clearly on the radar of the Bolivian government, yet unlike many of its counterparts it is approaching these existential issues not only as an environmental challenge but as a focus for research and development: to better understand and prepare for the worst. 

Mauricio Céspedes Quiroga, Vice Minister of Science and Technology at Bolivia’s Ministry of Development Planning, attends our online interview during torrential rains that caused gridlock on the roads. He recalls how government officials recently met with hydrologists, who explained the new patterns of the dryer El Niño years and wetter La Niña years. “We previously had some time to recover between each phenomenon – perhaps two or three years – but now they’re occurring consecutively. One year we have problems with crops during the dry season and the next year we have floods. It’s been more extreme over the last few years and, according to our scientists, this pattern is set to become more frequent. It may even become the ‘new normal’,” he warns. Put simply, Bolivia is particularly vulnerable to climate change. New weather patterns are causing droughts and flooding, with severe knock-on effects for water supply, food production and even human health. 

Vice Minister Céspedes Quiroga then points to Bolivia’s shrinking glaciers high in the Andes. The Chacaltaya Glacier, 30 km from La Paz, was once home to the highest ski resort in the world at almost 5,300 meters above sea level. Having existed for roughly 18,000 years, the glacier had completely disappeared by 2009 because of new precipitation patterns mixed with the warming and eroding effects of successive El Niños. Like Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, it was literally evaporating into thin air. 

“Understanding these phenomena is a priority for Bolivia,” affirms Céspedes Quiroga. “Our top scientists are working on cutting-edge climate modelling along with international partners. From the meteorological station high up on the mountain and at the nearby research institute they are using Chacaltaya as a model so that we can learn and share the lessons.” 

According to the World Bank, many of the Andes’ tropical glaciers are set to disappear by 2030, threatening water supplies for around 80 million people. That will also jeopardize hydropower plants in the foothills of the mountain range – which Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru rely on for around half their electricity generation. 

The OPEC Fund & Bolivia 

To date, the OPEC Fund has approved 27 loans in the public and private sectors for US$306.4 million in Bolivia. The OPEC Fund has also provided US$1.5 million in nine national grants supporting healthcare, women, education and water infrastructure. 

Example 

A US$15 million loan signed in 2009 addressed a key development issue in Bolivia by connecting over 55,000 mostly rural households to the national electricity grid. The project included the construction of a 374 km-long transmission line and the installation of three transmission substations, four distribution substations and 150 km feeder lines. 

Factsheet: Bolivia 

Covering over a million square kilometers between the Amazon Basin and the Andes Mountains, Bolivia is the largest landlocked country in the Southern Hemisphere. With the world’s largest lithium reserves, estimated at 23 million tonnes by the US Geological Service, the country is also a top ten global producer of various metals and minerals including boron, lead, silver, tungsten and zinc. 

Bolivia is positioning itself as a key player in the energy transition by sealing international partnerships, recently attracting US$1 billion of investment from a Chinese consortium for industrial complexes in two of its three salt flats. Each complex is expected to produce 25,000 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate – to meet the soaring demand for electric vehicle batteries. 

The Bolivian government is also boosting investments in homegrown science, technology and innovation with imminent plans to launch a national research fund worth around US$7 million. This fund will be “mission-oriented” in key sectors including energy, health and climate action. An additional US$7 million is set to finance up to 200 mission-oriented research scholarships for young Bolivian professionals to attend top universities around the world, before returning to Bolivia for guaranteed jobs in public organizations. 

The Bolivian legislature passed the Rights of Mother Earth Law in 2010 and the Mother Earth Law and Integral Development to Live Well Law in 2012. They are centered on respecting the balance between human life and the natural environment, and prioritizing the rights and knowledge of the country’s majority indigenous population. Accordingly, the government has set up the Plurinational Authority of Mother Earth to oversee the implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation principles as part of the Ministry of Environment and Water.