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 …
More than 20 United Nations development agencies joined the World Bank and the World Trade Organization this week in Bern, Switzerland, to discuss emergency humanitarian aid and other measures to combat the growing world food crisis. The World Food Programme says it needs an extra US$755 million just to meet …
Progress in the Doha Round negotiations on trade and the environment remains sluggish, with little convergence in any of the key areas of the talks, including the scope of the mandate itself and the definition of products and services slated for deeper liberalisation on environmental grounds.
Vast areas of idle land in Brazil could be part of the solution to the world food crisis but there is a danger that surging prices will lead to more burning of the Amazon rain forest. Experts say deforestation in the Amazon closely tracks moves on global food markets as …
Brazil's environmental officials have found the skinned and salted corpses of about 740 alligators in the Piagacu-Purus reserve in the Amazon forests. The dried reptiles, weighing about eight tonnes, were destined for local restaurants. Brazilian law permits limited hunts of alligators by local residents. The country's environmental protection agency says …
As the governments of Argentina and Brazil are taking a new look at the Garabi hydroelectric project, initially planned in 1972, environmentalists are calling attention to the dam's potential harm to the Uruguay river basin. Already riddled with several dams, the flow of the Uruguay river, which flows through Brazil, …
Dubai: In a renewed effort to achieve a global trade deal under Doha Round of multilateral talks, trade ministers of India and the US will meet next week to bridge differences on farm subsidies and opening markets for industrial and agricultural products. "I am meeting USTR (Susan Schwab) on May …
BRAZIL'S President has blamed rising oil prices for the current global food crisis, saying biofuels are not the problem. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said rising oil prices were pushing up freight costs which, in turn, affected world food prices. "Ethanol production has not contributed in any way to …
Bio-fuels hold potential as an energy alternative Bio-fuels have recently been attracting the global spotlight for their potential as an energy alternative. Though increasing environmental concerns have led to a simultaneous cost-benefit analysis, the scales are still tilting in favour of bio-fuels. Goldman Sachs, who predicted a shift in the …
Oil could transform Brazil's economy. But not necessarily for the better THE legend is that Brazil never lives up to its vast potential. When Stefan Zweig, an exiled Austrian writer, said in 1941 of his new home that it was the "country of the future', popular humour quickly added the …
New Delhi, Apr 18 Foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon is scheduled to leave for Beijing on Sunday to participate in a meeting of senior officials of the Group of Five (G-5) countries. The meeting scheduled for April 21-22 is expected to focus on the likely approach the G-5 must adopt for …
There's some way to go for bilateral trade to touch $10 billion by 2010; meanwhile the partnership must forge ahead in non-trade areas too. The fact that India-Brazil co-operation has great potential and a bright future is strongly suggested by the fact that the two countries are forces to reckon …
Try India's Ayurveda medicinal system that could act as a panacea for Brazil's health woes. This was the advice from 73-year-old President Pratibha Patil to her Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 10 years her junior, during their one-toone meeting here. Ms Patil, who wrapped up her three-day state …
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defended Brazil's production of biofuels on Wednesday, rejecting criticism that they are furthering a surge in global food prices and harming the environment. "Don't tell me, for the love of God, that food is expensive because of biodiesel. Food is expensive because the world …
Climate change talks pose a difficult challenge. The recent high-level climate change meeting in Bangkok was the first significant step since last year's historic Bali Summit in which 187 countries agreed on a two-year process to thrash out a new international arrangement to tackle threatening consequences of climate change. The …
RIO DE JANEIRO: Heavy rains over the past month have created a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes carrying the dengue fever virus, deepening a crisis that has claimed at least 80 lives in the state of Rio. The dengue strain ravaging this tropical city is believed to be stronger and …
The Doha round of global trade negotiations has been stalled since 2001 because developing nations have refused to lower import tariffs that protect their farmers and rich countries won't give up farm-price supports. Now, import duties are being slashed from Brazil to Burkina Faso in response to prices that the …
As crude oil prices soar to new highs, Brazil's state-owned petroleum company Petrobras is looking beyond the windfall to place bets in the growing alternative energy market. The company does not plan to raise petrol and diesel prices, frozen since 2005, even as world oil prices have surpassed US $110 …
Brazilian Floods Kill 34, Leave 190,000 Homeless BRAZIL: April 9, 2008 RIO DE JANEIRO - Flooding from heavy rains that killed at least 34 people and left 190,000 homeless in Brazil's northeast now threatens to spread disease, authorities said on Tuesday. The unusually strong rains in recent days washed out …
