South America

UN calls Brazil dam burst a crime

5 Feb 19 - The Brazil dam burst last week happened less than a month after the country’s new climate-sceptic government came to office promising a relaxation of environmental laws and inspections to “take the yoke off producers”.

Brazil's resources open for business, says Bolsonaro

25 Jan 19 - Brazil will strike a balance between environment and “much-needed economic development”, Brazilian president Joao Bolsonaro has said in his first overseas speech.

Bolsonaro appoints 'beef caucus' minister

11 Dec 18 - Brazil’s far right president-elect Jair Bolsonaro has named Ricardo de Aquino Salles, a 43-year-old lawyer and a staunch ‘beef caucus’ ally to lead his environment department.

Bolsonaro names climate denier as key minister

19 Nov 18 - Brazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro has named an anti-globalist diplomat to lead on foreign affairs and his country’s relationship to the Paris Agreement.

Bolsonaro already at work in the Amazon

15 Nov 18 - Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon jumped almost 50 per cent during the three-month electoral season that brought Jair Bolsonaro to power, according to preliminary official figures.

Amazon is adapting, but not fast enough

13 Nov 18 - A 30-year analysis of Amazonian trees finds the world’s largest rainforest is already adapting to climate change, but probably not fast enough.

How fund managers could help save Amazon

12 Nov 18 - Large asset managers could play a pivotal role in safeguarding the Amazon forest, a new report shows, amid concerns Brazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro could strip the planet of its lungs.

Bolsonaro to merge environment and agriculture

2 Nov 18 - Brazil President-elect Jair Bolsonaro will merge the environment and agriculture ministries, a move activists have warned could imperil the Amazon rainforest.

Will Trump of the Tropics wreck Amazon rainforest?

30 Oct 18 - Will Jair Bolsonaro dedicate himself to the meticulous destruction of the Amazon now he has won Brazil's presidential election?

We can’t take many more populists like Bolsonaro

26 Oct 18 - Just when Earth badly needs pro-environment leaders, we get big-business strongmen. There’s a reason for this grim irony.

Likely Brazil leader is full of climate threats

11 Oct 18 - No more Paris Agreement. No more ministry of environment. A paved highway cutting through the Amazon. That's what Jair Bolsonaro will bring to the presidency of Brazil.

Amazon floods have increased fivefold

24 Sep 18 - New data suggest that flooding in the Amazon River has dramatically increased by as much as five times in both intensity and frequency in the last 100 years.

Brazil court overturns glyphosate ruling

6 Sep 18 - Brazilian farmers will continue to have access to the world’s most-used weed killer after a court reversed a ruling which had suspended the existing and new registration of glyphosate-based products.

Deforestation claims movie-star macaw

6 Sep 18 - Spix’s macaw, a brilliant blue species of Brazilian parrot that starred in the children’s animation Rio, has become extinct this century, according to a new assessment of endangered birds.

Brazil could restore a huge swathe of the Amazon

30 Aug 18 - Although almost 40 per cent of the Brazilian Amazon is conserved by protected areas and indigenous lands, some 428,721 sq km has been deforested over the past three decades.

Brazil candidate threatens to quit Paris pact

16 Aug 18 - Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is threatening to take Brazil out of the Paris Agreement if he wins the October election.

Brazil hits deforestation cuts ahead of schedule

13 Aug 18 - Brazil has already hit its 2020 targets for cutting emissions from deforestation, according to the government.

China gives Venezuela $250m to boost oil

6 Jul 18 - Venezuela will receive $250 million from the China Development Bank to boost oil production, the South American country’s Finance Ministry said.

Farming goes underground to win the climate change fight

22 Jun 18 - Bolivian farmers are going underground in order to protect their crops from drought, flash floods and increasing temperatures.