International: South America
Ecuador’s voters protect rights of nature, reject proposal to rewrite constitution
Wed 19 Nov 2025
Ecuadorians handed their Trump-allied president a resounding defeat, choosing to maintain their “ecological constitution” and rejecting an attempt to allow foreign military bases in the country.
Brazilian lawmakers seek to decimate green laws one week after hosting climate summit
Tue 18 Nov 2025
Changes would damage President Lula’s efforts to cast Brazil as an environmental leader.
A fossil fuel fight brews at COP30 as delegates draft road map
Mon 17 Nov 2025
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva surprised many at the opening ceremony of the COP30 leaders summit in Belém last week when he called for world leaders to prepare a road map to “overcome dependence on fossil fuels.”
COP30: Brazil tries to find a home for tricky issues
Fri 14 Nov 2025
Brazil is trying to craft a compromise package on several contentious issues and has dismissed the idea of a roadmap away from fossil fuels.
Brazil’s Lula puts forward new vision for protecting the Amazon rainforest
7 Nov 2025
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva put forward his vision for how the Amazon rainforest should be protected, a future that didn’t depend on donations from wealthy nations and large philanthropies but instead included a major fund that paid countries to keep forests standing.
Police raids in Brazil’s Rio kill 64 ahead of events related to COP30 climate summit
30 Oct 2025
At least 64 people died on Oct 28 in Rio de Janeiro’s most deadly police operation ever, which targeted a major gang days before the city hosts global events related to the United Nations climate summit known as COP30.
Brazil's Indigenous battle with a dry Amazon rainforest
23 Oct 2025
As pastures and thirsty crops dry up the Amazon, Indigenous people try to adapt traditional farming methods.
Brazil greenlights oil drilling in Amazon as environmentalists raise alarm
22 Oct 2025
Conservationists argue president’s oil expansion plans clash with his image as a global leader on climate change.
Four Brazilians to watch at COP30
15 Oct 2025
Influential Brazilians, from government figures to Indigenous activists, will take center stage during UN climate talks in the Amazon next month.
MPs across Latin America unite to stop fossil fuels in the Amazon
14 Oct 2025
A network of more than 900 lawmakers presented the results of a parliamentary investigation into the phaseout of fossil fuels in the Amazon at the Brazilian National Congress in Brasília.
Brazil implores businesses to attend COP30 climate summit, despite 'second thoughts' amid Trump backlash
5 Sep 2025
November's COP30 summit comes at a precarious time for climate action, as companies back away from environmental initiatives, and attacks on green energy by President Trump.
Lessons from the Incas: How llamas, terraces and trees could help the Andes survive climate change
28 Aug 2025
New research suggests solutions may lie in environmental knowledge that the Incas and their predecessors developed centuries ago.
Amazon nations pledge support for Brazil's COP30 rainforest fund
27 Aug 2025
The fund will be backed by an initial, one-time $25-billion contribution from donor nations, along with $100 billion in private funds.
Bolivia will choose a new president but environmental activists see little hope of progress
22 Aug 2025
Many Indigenous and environmental leaders doubt the election will bring progress in stopping deforestation, wildfires or pollution in the Amazon.
Leaders should put the Amazon at the heart of a new green economy
21 Aug 2025
OPINION: Amazon nations meeting in Colombia can bring unified, bold commitments to COP30 – and define a model that prioritises people and planet through long-term prosperity.
Brazil's Lula vetoes parts of environment bill pushed by the opposition that could harm the Amazon
13 Aug 2025
Brazil’s president has vetoed parts of a controversial congressional bill that sought to loosen the country’s environmental licensing rules.
BP makes its biggest oil and gas discovery in 25 years off coast of Brazil
6 Aug 2025
BP has made its largest oil and gas discovery of the past 25 years off the coast of Brazil as it continues to shift its focus away from renewables and back to fossil fuels.
COP30 must make good on past climate commitments
24 Jul 2025
By Jacinda Ardern, Carlos Lopes, and Laurence Tubiana | COMMENT: COP presidencies tend to seek fresh agreements and ambitious initiatives, but when the celebrations are over, implementation often falls short. That is why Brazil’s COP30 presidency must eschew flashy results in favour of pragmatic pathways to deliver on past agreements.
Brazil’s Congress passes ‘devastation bill’ in major environmental setback
21 Jul 2025
In the early hours of July 17, the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies approved a bill to ease environmental licensing, which NGOs and environmentalists have dubbed the “devastation bill” and consider the nation’s most significant environmental setback in nearly 40 years.
Illegal loggers profit from Brazil’s carbon credit projects
17 Jul 2025
How a system designed to protect the world’s biggest rainforest is funding businesses with a track record of illegal deforestation.
Over 90 arrests made in global crackdown on environmental crime in the Amazon Basin
14 Jul 2025
Assets worth over $64 million were seized and 94 people arrested as part of a multinational law enforcement operation targeting environmental crime in the Amazon Basin.
In Latin America, the energy transition stirs a rise in human rights lawsuits
8 Jul 2025
A new report shows that more than half of the 95 energy transition-related lawsuits recorded globally since 2009 took place in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Countries must protect human right to a stable climate, court rules
7 Jul 2025
Costa Rica-based inter-American court of human rights says states have obligation to respond to climate change.
‘We are perilously close to the point of no return’: climate scientist on Amazon rainforest’s future
1 Jul 2025
Carlos Nobre, who has fought for decades to save the rainforest, says up to 70% of it could be lost if a tipping point is reached.
Pará’s Amazon forest carbon deal in doubt as prosecutors move to block it
13 Jun 2025
The Brazilian state’s contract with foreign governments and companies has run into trouble over concerns it was premature and agreed without consulting Indigenous communities.
Ahead of UN climate talks, Brazil fast-tracks oil and highway projects that threaten the Amazon
12 Jun 2025
Months before hosting the U.N.'s first climate talks held in the Amazon, Brazil is fast-tracking a series of controversial decisions that undercut President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s lofty environmental rhetoric and show widening divisions within his cabinet.
Brazil’s civil society pledges tested as COP30 climate summit approaches
9 Jun 2025
Hopes of real civil influence at November’s UN negotiations in Belém are being undermined by costs, bureaucracy and mixed messaging.
South America sets historic benchmark: Zero new coal plants planned
28 May 2025
South America just achieved a remarkable energy milestone, quietly setting a global benchmark: for the first time in history, the entire continent now has zero new coal-fired power plants planned.
In Panama, an Indigenous-led project rewrites the rules of reforestation
27 May 2025
Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute are collaborating with local communities in the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca, a protected Indigenous territory, to foster a ground-up reforestation strategy using native trees and carbon payments.
Brazil seeks early deals on two stalled issues at Bonn climate talks
26 May 2025
Moving forward work on just transition and implementing recommendations from the Global Stocktake of climate progress are key priorities for upcoming UN negotiations.
Tropical forest loss hit new heights in 2024; fire a major driver in Latin America
23 May 2025
Tropical forest loss skyrocketed in 2024, with vast swaths of primary forest consumed by fire, according to new satellite data.
Surfer, first lady and former PM among Brazil’s COP30 envoys
21 May 2025
Brazil has appointed 30 envoys including the first lady Janja Lula da Silva and New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern to liaise with “priority” sectors and regions.
‘Significant’ risk of Amazon forest dieback if global warming overshoots 1.5C
19 May 2025
Even passing 1.5C of global warming temporarily would trigger a “significant” risk of Amazon forest “dieback”, says a new study.
Who has the right to decide what happens on indigenous lands?
7 May 2025
In Ecuador, Indigenous communities are fighting for stronger safeguards to protect their sovereignty as more oil drilling looms. A right to say no to unwanted development could revolutionize consultation processes used around the world.
Honduras pays the climate cost as its forests disappear and storms rise
11 Apr 2025
Despite its high vulnerability to extreme weather events, Honduras continues to clear its forests, seen as one of its best protections against climate change and intensifying storms and hurricanes.
Colombia’s top oil company concealed environmental damages: Investigation
27 Mar 2025
A newly released investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency and Earthworks into the workings of Colombia’s largest company, oil and gas giant Ecopetrol, reveals a pattern of environmental negligence and corporate misconduct.
Ahead of Brics, Brazil official slams developed countries for ‘no interest’ in helping others
25 Mar 2025
A high-ranking Brazilian government official issued a broad criticism of Western developed countries including France on Thursday, in the run-up to a meeting of Brics energy ministers in the South American country’s capital.
Peruvian farmer goes head to head with German energy giant in landmark climate case
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
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.
South Korean decision to close all coal-fired power plants by 2040 sounds alarm for Australian exports
Wed 19 Nov 2025
Decision announced at Cop30 climate conference signposts risks for Australia’s reliance on fossil fuel exports, analysts say.
Trump is said to propose opening California coast to oil drilling
Fri 14 Nov 2025
Gov. Gavin Newsom, a chief critic of the president and an opponent of oil exploration in the Pacific, called the proposal “dead on arrival.”
China’s carbon plateau: A turning point or a temporary pause?
Wed 19 Nov 2025
For a quarter century, China has been the dominant driver of rising global carbon emissions. Its rapid industrialisation, swelling electricity demand, and unprecedented construction boom have shaped the world’s carbon trajectory more than any other country.
A crucial system of ocean currents may be on course to collapse. This country just declared it a national security threat
Mon 17 Nov 2025
As evidence mounts these currents could be on course for collapse, Iceland’s government has made the unusual move of designating the risk a national security threat.
Scotland's first wind farm 'supercharged' after upgrade
11 Nov 2025
Scotland's first commercial wind farm will be able to deliver five times more clean power than before after being upgraded.
The hidden dangers in Canada’s oil and gas ambitions
Tue 18 Nov 2025
Premier of Alberta Danielle Smith thinks global demand for oil will grow to 2050, perhaps beyond, and the Alberta industry will be viable for a hundred years.
South Korean growers sue state power utility, blaming climate change for crop damage
Mon 17 Nov 2025
Five South Korean farmers recently sued the state utility Korea Electric Power Corporation and its power-generating subsidiaries, alleging that their reliance on coal and other fossil fuels has accelerated climate change and damaged their crops.
Mystery heatwave warms Pacific Ocean to new record
21 Oct 2025
The waters of the north Pacific have had their warmest summer on record, according to BBC analysis of a mysterious marine heatwave that has confounded climate scientists.
Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around Antarctica
13 Oct 2025
Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the Antarctic seabed as the region warms, with new seeps being discovered at an “astonishing rate".
What do African countries want from COP30?
11 Nov 2025
At the UN climate summit, African negotiators are seeking more “debt-free” financing that would allow them to implement climate solutions – from adaptation to just transition.
Brazil releases draft text and letter to accelerate COP30 climate negotiations
Wed 19 Nov 2025
With a direct letter sent to nations and a draft text released Tuesday, host country Brazil is shifting the U.N. climate conference into a higher gear.
