Climate Change

Honduras is using cloud seeding to combat a devastating drought in Central America's Dry Corridor, intensified by El Niño and climate change, as the region seeks emergency measures to restore rainfall and protect crops.

The National Congress began first reading of a framework bill to combat climate change through national policy, emissions controls, and international-treaty compliance, introduced by Partido Nacional congressman Jonathan Laínez.

The National Congress will debate bills on expanded consular services for Hondurans in the US, free hypertension medications, climate-change adaptation, and CPR training in schools, along with infrastructure projects and a pending electricity-sector reform vote.

The municipality of Gualcinse, Lempira, declared an emergency due to prolonged drought and climate change, reporting losses of approximately 1,400 acres of corn, 520 of beans, livestock feed shortages, and an 80% drop in river water levels.

A Liberal congressman from Yoro has introduced a bill to establish a permanent climate-resilience fund for Honduras's farm and livestock sector, aimed at funding water infrastructure, emergency response, and productivity support amid prolonged drought and extreme weather affecting rural areas.

Rectors from Honduras's universities signed a joint declaration committing to strengthen environmental research, academic cooperation, and sustainable solutions to address climate change and disaster risk management.

The capital's municipal government planted 100 trees on the iconic Juana Laínez Hill in a reforestation effort aimed at strengthening vegetation cover and reducing climate-change impacts on the urban zone, with students from five schools participating in the environmental education initiative.

Agroindustrial leader Gustavo Flores cautioned that climate change could disrupt Honduras's agricultural output and threaten the country's food security and access to basic grains.

A grain producer warns that an extended dry season from mid-July through early October, driven by climate change and El Niño, could reduce maize and bean output by roughly two million quintals (about 90,000 metric tons) in the dry corridor, deepening food insecurity for subsistence farming families.

Honduras's agricultural science agency is strengthening the genetic traits of corn, rice, and beans to improve their resilience to drought and climate-change impacts.

Weather forecasters warn that rainfall will return to various regions of Honduras beginning Thursday, June 5.

Honduras's congressional environment committee is drafting a climate-change law that would establish regulatory standards to help the country mitigate effects of El Niño, drought, and other climate impacts on infrastructure and production.

Over 40 years, the Gulf of Fonseca communities of Cedeño and La Puntilla have lost up to 100 meters of coastline to sea-level rise, destroying homes and businesses and driving residents—many of them young people—to migrate to the United States.