Peru, which recently played host to U.N. climate talks, is one of the most vulnerable nations to climate change.

Already, it faces diminished highland water supplies as Peru's glaciers have lost more one-fifth of their mass in just three decades. About 70 percent of Peru's 30 million people inhabit the country's Pacific coastal desert. They depend on glacial runoff for hydropower and to irrigate crops, meaning their electricity and long-term food security could also be in peril. Higher alpine temperatures are killing off plant and animal species in cloud forests, and scientists predict Pacific fisheries will suffer.

The U.N.'s World Food Program says 3 million Peruvians — or one in 10 — are highly vulnerable to food insecurity and natural disaster risks. Yet, like most developing nations, what it spends on adapting to climate change, including highlands reservoirs and irrigation projects, will have to compete with other urgent needs, such as improving education, public health and public transport.

"There isn't enough money and there aren't resources specifically earmarked to finance adaptation in Peru," said Lenkiza Angulo, who runs adaptation projects in the Andean nation funded by the Swiss government and valued at $11 million.

Associated Press