International: South America
Peruvian farmer goes head to head with German energy giant in landmark climate case
Wed 19 Mar 2025
A landmark climate lawsuit opens in a German court Monday, as a Peruvian farmer sues a German energy giant over the threat to his home from a mountain lake overflowing with glacier meltwater.
Brazil state hosting COP30 denies new road linked to climate summit
Tue 18 Mar 2025
The Brazilian state hosting a United Nations climate summit this year has denied any connection between a new road cutting through a protected area of Brazilian rainforest and the COP30 summit that will gather world leaders in November.
Argentina declares three-day mourning as flood death toll rises to at least 16
14 Mar 2025
Argentina declared three days of national mourning following flash floods that claimed 16 lives in Bahia Blanca, where a year's rain fell within hours, inundating neighbourhoods.
Amazon forest felled to build road for climate summit
13 Mar 2025
A new four-lane highway cutting through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest is being built for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.
Risk of financial fallout may deter Argentina from leaving Paris Agreement
4 Mar 2025
Argentina's President Javier Milei has expressed his will to leave the global climate pact, but key trade partners and foreign aid may stand in the way.
Brazil will join OPEC+, group of oil-exporting nations, months before hosting UN climate summit
20 Feb 2025
Brazil's government on Tuesday approved joining OPEC+, a group of major oil-exporting nations, signalling the country's evolution into a major oil state just nine months ahead of hosting the United Nations' annual climate summit.
Brazil asks UN to ditch proposed levy on global shipping
19 Feb 2025
Brazil has asked the UN to throw out plans for a new levy on global shipping that would raise funds to fight the climate crisis, despite playing host to the next UN climate summit.
Intense heatwave in southern Brazil forces schools to suspend return
14 Feb 2025
Record highs delay start of classes in Rio Grande do Sul, where floods linked to climate crisis left 180 dead last May
Probe details the playbook of one of Amazon's top land grabbers
30 Jan 2025
Professional land grabbers operating in the Brazilian Amazon have sophisticated strategies to steal and deforest public lands and get away with it.
Climate change is disrupting food systems across Latin America, UN report says
29 Jan 2025
Violent weather exacerbated by climate change fuelled hunger and food insecurity across Latin America and the Caribbean in 2023, according to a new United Nations report.
Ecuador’s coastal ecosystems have rights, Constitutional Court rules
24 Jan 2025
The Constitutional Court of Ecuador has determined that coastal marine ecosystems have rights of nature, including the right to “integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes."
Loggers and carbon projects forge odd partnerships in the Brazilian Amazon
10 Dec 2024
Brazil’s largest carbon credit scandal, which came to light in June after a major police raid, has cast doubt on the viability of REDD+ projects in the Brazilian Amazon.
Threatened by climate change, Panama Canal has big plans to combat drought
6 Dec 2024
The lush river valleys of El Zaino y La Arenosa in western Panama, home to hundreds of families that eke out a living farming, fishing and raising cattle, could soon be submerged by a massive man-made reservoir designed to ensure the viability of the Panama Canal in the face of a changing climate.
Agribusiness-friendly states in Brazil try to undo forest protections
3 Dec 2024
Several states in Brazil are trying to rid themselves of rainforest protections, bowing to pressure from cattle ranchers and soybean growers to cut down trees and expand agriculture.
Brazil state to consult Indigenous people on carbon credits sale
18 Oct 2024
The government of the Brazilian state of Para in the Amazon will consult Indigenous communities on how they will benefit from the future sale of carbon offset credits that U.S. companies have agreed to buy to try to protect the rainforest.
Deforestation remains low, but fires surge in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest
16 Oct 2024
The rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has remained near a six-year low despite a surge in the number of fires burning in Earth’s largest rainforest.
Indigenous groups in Brazil: We were not consulted on carbon credits
14 Oct 2024
Indigenous organizations in the Brazilian state of Para said they were not consulted by the government before it signed a deal with multinational companies to sell carbon offset credits to support conservation of the Amazon rainforest in the state.
Drought has dried a major Amazon River tributary to its lowest level in over 122 years
10 Oct 2024
One of the Amazon River’s main tributaries has dropped to its lowest level ever recorded, reflecting a severe drought that has devastated the Amazon rainforest and other parts of the country.
Amazon state that will host COP30 strikes largest carbon credit sale in history
9 Oct 2024
A coalition of developed countries and corporations has agreed to a massive purchase of carbon credits from the Amazon rainforest worth $180 million.
Drought is making Sao Paulo’s river emerald green while smoke turns its skies grey
19 Sep 2024
A major river in the Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paulo is suddenly emerald green and clear skies this week turned from blue to grey.
Nearly 40% of Amazon rainforest most vital to climate left unprotected, data shows
17 Sep 2024
Scientists agree that preserving the Amazon rainforest is vital to combating global warming, but new data indicates huge swathes of the jungle that are most vital to the world's climate remain unprotected.
Brazil’s Carvalho to lead seabed-mining authority following predecessor’s controversial term
7 Aug 2024
Brazilian oceanographer Leticia Carvalho has been named the next secretary-general of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) after winning an election that could change the course of the deep-sea mining industry.
Brazil minister warns carbon credit buyers to beware fraud
6 Aug 2024
Environment minister Marina Silva says alleged criminal schemes in Amazon could harm the reputation of credits.
Large birds can boost forest carbon storage — if deforestation doesn’t interfere
18 Jun 2024
A new study shows large fruit-eating birds in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest can contribute to a 38% increase in carbon storage by regenerating tropical forest.
New bill to expand farmlands in the Amazon may derail Brazil’s green efforts
11 Jun 2024
A bill that would reduce the amount of primary forest that landowners in the Brazilian Amazon must preserve may lead to the deforestation of an area twice the size of Rio de Janeiro state.
More than third of Amazon rainforest struggling to recover from drought, study finds
22 May 2024
More than a third of the Amazon rainforest is struggling to recover from drought, according to a new study that warns of a “critical slowing down” of this globally important ecosystem.
Despite drought, Amazon deforestation alerts hit five-year low
13 May 2024
The Brazilian Amazon experienced a 47% decrease in deforestation in April compared to last year, marking the lowest level in five years, and a 51% decrease over the past 12 months.
Forest carbon accounting lets Guyana remain net zero with oil pumping
9 Apr 2024
Experts said UN rules around forest and oil are open to abuse, so that countries like Guyana can claim net zero without cutting emissions.
Reforestation and restoration: Two ways to make the Pan Amazon greener
19 Mar 2024
One of the benefits of agroforestry and plantation forestry is the ability of tree crops to capture and store carbon in their above-ground biomass.
How a Colombian city cooled dramatically in just three years
8 Mar 2024
With “green corridors” that mimic the natural forest, the Colombian city is driving down temperatures — and could become five degrees cooler over the next few decades.
Colombian community displaced by coastal erosion takes case to human rights commission
4 Mar 2024
A Colombian community under threat from coastal erosion will have their case heard by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Locals at the mouth of the Amazon River get a salty taste of climate change
28 Feb 2024
Ocean rise and changes in the Amazon River are ruining the way of life in an archipelago close to where the Amazon River runs into the Atlantic.
Critics decry controversial bill that loosens deforestation restrictions in Peru
12 Feb 2024
Peru’s Congress approved a new amendment to the country’s forest and wildlife law, which loosens restrictions on deforestation and may affect the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Meet the young Peruvians fighting in court for climate action
5 Feb 2024
Seven youth plaintiffs, ages ranging from 14 to 16, argue that the state is violating their right to a healthy environment by failing to curb Amazon deforestation and mitigate climate change.
Suriname preparing to clear Amazon for agriculture, documents suggest
19 Dec 2023
The government is weighing a series of land deals that would allow the Ministry of Agriculture and a group of private entities to carry out agriculture, livestock and aquaculture activities in the Amazon Rainforest.
Climate change destroys coastal Mexican town
19 Dec 2023
Flooding, driven by rapid sea-level rise and increasingly brutal winter storms, has all but destroyed El Bosque, leaving twisted piles of concrete where houses used to line the sand.
Record drought hitting Panama Canal may ruin your kids’ Christmas
12 Dec 2023
The impact of a record-breaking drought in Panama has spread beyond energy supplies and is now affecting container shipping, a crucial sector of the global freight market.
Brazil to propose mega fund to conserve forests at COP28 climate summit
27 Nov 2023
Brazil plans to propose a “huge” fund to pay for the conservation of tropical forests at the United Nations COP28 climate change summit, the country’s top climate negotiator said.
The Galapagos are going green
23 Nov 2023
In recent years, there has been a growing movement to transform the archipelago into a beacon of sustainability.
Does the Amazon’s drought mean the forest is at a tipping point?
22 Nov 2023
Scientists say deforestation is compounding the effects of climate change, threatening to turn parts of the forest into savannah.
Oil companies attending climate talks have minimal green energy transition plans, analysis finds
14 Nov 2023
In 2022, a Brazilian oil and gas company had 68 places staked out for oil exploration off the South American coast, searching for new reserves while spending $6.9 billion in oil development projects.
Bolivia forest fires shutter thousands of schools
30 Oct 2023
Tens of thousands of Bolivian pupils had their classes suspended as schools closed their doors due to air pollution caused by massive forest fires, the education minister.
Amazon rainforest at risk of a large-scale dieback
6 Oct 2023
The impacts of global warming, deforestation and intensified land use are pushing the South American monsoon towards a critical destabilisation point.
South America swelters in unseasonal spring heatwave
2 Oct 2023
As the Northern Hemisphere emerges from the hottest summer on record, South America has taken up the planet’s extreme-heat mantle.
Brazil to revise climate targets to cut emissions 53% by 2030
21 Sep 2023
Brazil is expected to announce revised climate targets this week, as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva strengthens a prior pledge made by his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula scraps Bolsonaro’s cuts to Brazilian climate target ambition
19 Sep 2023
The Brazilian government has agreed to cancel former president Jair Bolsonaro’s cuts to its climate ambition and to work on a new improved climate target.
Extratropical cyclone kills at least 21 people in Brazil
8 Sep 2023
The extreme weather in the south of the country has displaced more than 3,700 people with more flooding anticipated.
Ecuador rejects oil drilling in Amazon protected area in historic vote
23 Aug 2023
Nearly 60% of voters back a push to halt to drilling in Yasuni National Park, a victory for environmental groups.
Brazil govt finalises proposal for cap-and-trade carbon market
21 Aug 2023
Brazil has finalised a proposal for the establishment of a cap-and-trade carbon market in a move to curb greenhouse gas emissions and help the administration reach its emissions reduction targets.
Carbon credits - land grab or the Amazon’s future?
11 Aug 2023
The Brazilian city of Belém is hosting the Amazon Summit, which brings together the eight South American countries who share a slice of the Amazon.
$800m pledge keeps Australia's green hydrogen dream alive
Today 11:00am
The Albanese Labor government has pledged more than $800 million in production incentives to a green hydrogen development in remote Western Australia, defying mounting scepticism over the future of the country's green fuel industry.
Trump is tackling every 'emergency' except the important one: climate change
Today 11:00am
To hear President Trump describe it, the U.S. is beset by emergencies. We allegedly have an energy emergency, a government waste emergency and a foreign trade emergency.
China's BYD launches EV charging system it says works nearly as fast as a fill up
Wed 19 Mar 2025
China's energy and auto giant BYD has announced an ultra fast EV charging system that it says is nearly as quick as a fill up at the pumps.
Danish investment firm raises record EU12 billion for energy transition infrastructure fund
Wed 19 Mar 2025
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners will invest primarily in large-scale renewable energy projects, including wind, solar PV, and battery storage in low-risk OECD markets across North America, Western Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
Factcheck: Why Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is wrong about UK's net-zero goal
Thu 20 Mar 2025
The leader of the opposition Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch, has shattered the political consensus on climate change in a speech attacking the UK's net-zero by 2050 target.
Canada: Carney kills consumer carbon tax in first move as prime minister
Tue 18 Mar 2025
Prime Minister Mark Carney wasted little time in removing a potent point of attack for the Conservatives in recent years: the consumer carbon tax.
Why action on extreme heat in Indian cities is falling short
Today 11:00am
Local governments face the difficult task of preparing communities and infrastructure for a warmer world - all while urbanisation accelerates and extreme weather becomes more frequent and intense.
Nauru sells citizenship to help fund relocations as sea levels rise
27 Feb 2025
A new 'golden passport' scheme aims to raise funds to relocate people inland as climate change raises sea levels.
Global sea ice levels just hit a new record low
10 Mar 2025
Sea ice cover in both the Antarctic and Arctic remained far below average throughout February as global average temperatures linger near record highs.
How much do rich nations owe Africa for climate damage?
27 Feb 2025
Wealthy nations owe African countries some 50 times more for climate damage than the debt Africa owes them, ActionAid report says.
COP29 chief exec filmed promoting fossil fuel deals
11 Nov 2024
A senior official at COP29 climate change conference in Azerbaijan appears to have used his role to arrange a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals.
