Abstract
Climate change poses multiple risks to the population of Lima, the largest city and capital of Peru, located on the Pacific coast in a desert ecosystem. These risks include increased water scarcity, increased heat, and the introduction and emergence of vector-borne and other climate sensitive diseases. To respond to these threats, it is necessary for the government, at every level, to adopt more mitigation and adaptation strategies. Here, focus groups were conducted with representatives from five Lima municipalities to determine priorities, perception of climate change, and decision-making processes for implementing projects within each municipality. These factors can affect the ability and desire of a community to implement climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. The results show that climate change and other environmental factors are of relatively low priority, whereas public safety and water and sanitation services are of highest concern. Perhaps most importantly, climate change is not well understood among the municipalities. Participants had trouble distinguishing climate change from other environmental issues and did not fully understand its causes and effects. Greater understanding of what climate change is and why it is important is necessary for it to become a priority for the municipalities. Different aspects of increased climate change awareness seem to be connected to having experienced extreme weather events, whether related or not to climate change, and to higher socioeconomic status.
Highlights
The risks associated with climate change are increasing worldwide
Located in a desert ecosystem with little rain; the population is dependent on rivers flowing from the Andes, which are largely fed by glacial melt, for water for consumption and domestic uses
There was no mention of the environment as a priority except in M4, which was the only municipality to mention climate change and projects related to the environment before the facilitator brought up those subjects
Summary
The risks associated with climate change are increasing worldwide. Some effects of climate change are already impacting populations, and those impacts are projected to worsen and multiply in the future [1]. The global effects of climate change are varied, and include altered weather and precipitation patterns, increased rates of glacial melt [2], rising temperatures [3], changes in extreme temperatures, ocean acidification [4], and sea-level rise [5]. These can affect human health directly through extreme weather such as floods [6] and increases in the incidence of heat-related illnesses [7], and indirectly through changes in disease vectors and their related habitats [8,9], reductions in the quality and quantity of water [10], and decreases in agricultural production [11] that result in nutritional deficiencies [12]. Diminished water will potentially generate problems for agriculture, hydroelectricity generation, and subsistence livelihoods, unless adequate adaptation measures are taken
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