In a world of higher electricity demand growth, clean electricity is stepping up to the challenge. Spearheaded by exponential solar expansion, clean power is set to grow faster than demand, marking the start of a permanent decline in fossil generation. 2024 both clarified and consolidated the shape of the global …
This article examines interactions among climate change, political-economic interventions and technical progress, focusing on the impacts of biofuels in the Amazon and Cerrado regions in Brazil.
The potential loss or large-scale degradation of the tropical rainforests has become one of the iconic images of the impacts of twenty-first century environmental change and may be one of our century's most profound legacies. In the Amazon region, the direct threat of deforestation and degradation is now strongly intertwined …
Suez expects to land "multiple" large-scale projects in Brazil after a consortium led by the French electricity and water group won a concession for a $5 billion hydroelectric plant in the Amazon. Due to merge with state-owned gas supplier Gaz de France in coming weeks, Suez said the Brazilian deal …
The best way to preserve the Amazon rain forest is to develop the region and bring viable economic alternatives to the millions of people who live there, a Brazilian cabinet member said on Friday. Roberto Mangabeira Unger, a former Harvard law professor picked by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva …
Russia, India, China and Brazil on Friday vowed to turn their four-way group into a powerful instrument for changing the world. At their first stand-alone meeting here, the Foreign Ministers institutionalised BRIC, agreeing to hold regular meetings at the level of Foreign Ministers. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee hailed BRIC …
We've all heard about the deforestation of the Amazon, but what's it like to be caught between the loggers and the people living in the forests? Mauricio Torres is employed by the Brazilian government to monitor this front line. He tells Adrian Barnett how he has come up against corruption …
International concerns expressed after Brazil's environment minister quit this week show that some groups are fronts for exploiting the Amazon's resources, the country's justice minister said on Thursday. "There are parts of the international community that defend the Amazon as if it was not Brazilian but a territory of humanity," …
As a recent policy adviser to the United Nations in a programme intended to address environmental threats in the Amazon, I would caution readers of your Special Report 'Brazil goes to war against logging' (Nature 452, 134
German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Brazil on Wednesday to adopt tougher environmental standards in producing biofuels but said rich nations needed to pay up to help protect rain forests and their biodiversity. Brazil is the world's largest exporter of ethanol, which it derives from sugar cane. Critics say increased production …
The Surui people who live inside the Amazon rain forest think they have a new saviour. They call it "Ragogmakan'. But we know Surui's benefactor as Google. Almir Narayamoga, the tribe's chief believes that Google Earth can help them check illegal mining. He came up with the idea when a …
Brazil's environment minister, hailed as a champion of the green movement but scorned by powerful farming groups, resigned on Tuesday after losing key battles in her efforts to protect the Amazon rainforest. Marina Silva's resignation is likely to reinforce the view that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is more …
Ethanol is taking a tumble. Once hyped as a magic brew for reducing both oil addiction and global warming, alcohol made from corn kernels is now being accused both of triggering a global food crisis and doing more ecological harm than good. Ethanol critics, ranging from environmental groups to pig …
Rejecting recent attempts to link trade to climate change, the government said that countries like India would not accept any move by industrialised countries to use climate change to restrict trade. Prime Minister's special envoy Shyam Saran said that India rejected all attempts to push developing countries to cut their …
Tata Steel, the world's sixth-largest steel maker, is looking to acquire Brazilian iron ore assets of the UK-based London Mining (LM), which will help ensure raw material supply for its Anglo-Dutch subsidiary, Corus. The valuation of the asset is yet to be completed, but analysts said, it would be in …
Brazilian Indian leaders pitted against armed farmers in a bloody land conflict said on Wednesday they will fight on despite death threats, political pressure and military concerns over territorial sovereignty. The standoff marks the height of a movement by Indians to reclaim ancestral lands -- granted to them by the …
The fuel ethanol industry has evolved from its experimental beginnings in Brazil in the 1970s and the passionate advocacy of U.S. corn growers in to the mainstream to become a key part of the global energy menu.
Meeting in Bangkok in early April, climate change negotiators started grappling with key trade related issues, such as intellectual property rights and competitiveness concerns. Delegates also considered the responsibilities that countries could take on in the post-Kyoto climate regime they hope agree on by 2009. India proposed basing future commitments …
