International: South America

More in International: South America

Brazil hit by deadly floods and landslides

22 Feb 2023

Hundreds of rescuers searched on Monday for survivors of landslides and flooding that killed at least 40 people along the coast of Brazil’s southern state of Sao Paulo following a huge weekend downpour.

Calls for action as Brazil Yanomami indigenous people face crisis

27 Jan 2023

Brazilian officials have said that the Yanomami indigenous people are living in dire conditions, as illegal gold miners threaten them with violence and block the delivery of goods such as food and medicine to their embattled region.

Forest equity: what indigenous people want from carbon credits

16 Dec 2022

In a world where carbon credit markets are taking advantage of Indigenous people and their forests, the United Nation is losing its leadership on combating climate change, says Indigenous leader Levi Sucre Romero.

Lawyers press International Court to nvestigate crimes against humanity in Brazil’s Amazon

10 Nov 2022

Even as environmentalists cheer the ouster of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as a turning point for the Amazon rainforest, new information filed Wednesday with the International Criminal Court suggest that the battle to protect the region and its inhabitants is far from over

Lula victory boosts climate effort hopes

1 Nov 2022

The victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Sunday’s Brazilian presidential election was greeted with relief by world leaders desperately looking for some good news on climate change.

There’s only one choice in Brazil’s election — for the country and the world: Nature

28 Oct 2022

When Brazil elected Jair Bolsonaro as its president four years ago, this journal was among those that feared the worst. “The election of Jair Bolsonaro is bad for research and the environment,” we wrote (Nature 563, 5–6; 2018).

As climate risks intensify in Brazil, election rivals offer few solutions

19 Oct 2022

“People’s post-traumatic stress levels are extremely high,” says Rafaela Facchetti, a researcher at Brazil’s National School of Public Health, or ENSP.

Successes and struggles: Brazil’s 20-year Amazon reforestation carbon sink project

14 Oct 2022

The Peugeot-ONF Forest Carbon Sink project, implemented more than 20 years ago in northwestern Mato Grosso state, within the “arc of deforestation” of the Brazilian Amazon, has achieved significant ecological restoration and carbon sequestration results.

Beef in the time of net zero: Reducing livestock emissions in Latin America

13 Oct 2022

Beef production accounts for almost 60% of emissions from agriculture and land use change in Latin America, according to a recent study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). However, its researchers suggest it is possible to reduce these emissions through new production models and changes in diets.

The return of Aztec floating farms

11 Oct 2022

In Mexico City, a 700-year-old Aztec farming technique is giving a sustainable edge to modern agriculture. Chinampas, or "floating gardens", are ancient engineering wonders. These man-made island-farms are the last vestiges of a massive 14th-Century land reclamation project of the Aztec Empire that continues to feed the people of Mexico City even today.

New Brazilian Congress not likely to address climate

5 Oct 2022

Brazil has a major role to play in addressing climate change as home to the world’s largest rainforest, but after Sunday’s election, the subject is less likely to come up than ever.

Reducing beef’s carbon footprint is key to achieving net-zero in Latin America and the Caribbean

28 Sep 2022

In Latin America and the Caribbean, one of the biggest drivers of greenhouse gas emissions in the region — and its best hope for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 — remains the food system.

Puerto Rico is in the dark again, but solar companies see glimmers of hope

23 Sep 2022

Much of Puerto Rico is still without power after Hurricane Fiona battered the island on Sept. 19. The storm laid bare how vulnerable the territory's power system still is five years after Hurricane Maria plunged it into an 11-month blackout — the longest in American history — and led to the deaths of almost 3,000 people. Yet, some see hope.

Mangroves keep carbon in the soil for 5,000 years

21 Sep 2022

On top of all the other dazzling biology, mangrove forests are massive carbon sinks. According to new research on a Mexican mangrove forest, they can keep carbon out of the atmosphere for millennia.

As demand for electric cars grows, Chileans face the effects of lithium mining

19 Sep 2022

The South American country of Chile has become a center of lithium mining, which has boomed as demand for electric car batteries has risen. But what are the environmental costs?

Global pact sought to preserve 80% of Amazon forest

12 Sep 2022

Scientists warn that the Amazon is close to a tipping point

‘Gigantic missed opportunity’: Chile rejects green constitution

6 Sep 2022

Chile rejected a new constitution on Sunday which, if accepted, would have significantly expanded environmental rights and recognised the urgency of climate action.

Why lithium power politics are playing out very differently in Chile and Bolivia

26 Aug 2022

The people of Bolivia and Chile imagine a different kind of extraction: one that is controlled by those who live by the resources and one that does not destroy the earth.

Peru's capital Lima backs Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

25 Aug 2022

City lawmakers in Lima, Peru on Monday unanimously passed a motion calling for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, a proposed global mechanism for tackling the source of most of the greenhouse gas emissions that are fueling the climate emergency.

In Guatemala, Indigenous is ingenious when it comes to climate change

10 Aug 2022

On International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, World Food Programme agronomist Deborah Suc tells Simona Beltrami she’s lost her shyness for sticking up for others – and the environment.

Chile’s lithium provides profit to the billionaires but exhausts the land and the people

3 Aug 2022

The Atacama salt flat in northern Chile, which stretches 1,200 square miles, is the largest source of lithium in the world. We are standing on a bluff, looking over la gran fosa, the great pit that sits at the southern end of the flat, which is shielded from public view.

Battered by climate change, Latin America must brace for worse

25 Jul 2022

Floods, heat waves and the longest drought in 1,000 years: Latin America is grappling with devastating climate change impacts that will only get worse, a World Meteorological Organization report warned Friday.

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon hits record for first half of 2022

12 Jul 2022

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest reached a record high for the first six months of the year, as an area five times the size of New York City was destroyed, preliminary government data showes.

In Ecuador's Amazon, indigenous forest defense gains legal ground

23 Jun 2022

Deep in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest, indigenous leader Marcelo Lucitante deftly climbs a tree and attaches a camera trap, camouflaged among thick jungle foliage, to record footage of trespassing illegal gold miners.

Colombia's new vice president is a climate activist

21 Jun 2022

Environmental activist Francia Marquez will become Colombia’s first Black vice president in a government that was elected on a platform of radical change.

'We beg God for water': Chilean lake turns to desert, sounding climate change alarm

14 Jun 2022

The Penuelas reservoir in central Chile was until twenty years ago the main source of water for the city of Valparaiso, holding enough water for 38,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. Water for only two pools now remains.

Munich Re starts carbon removal venture

3 Jun 2022

Munich Re has announced the launch of TreeTrust, a corporate venture that brokers and structures high-quality afforestation projects for carbon removal.

Climate change effect on Peruvian glaciers debated in German court

30 May 2022

German judges and experts have arrived at the edge of a melting glacier high up in the Peruvian Andes to examine a complaint made by a local farmer who accuses energy giant RWE of threatening his home by contributing to global warming.

Brazil to serve 10 million plant-based meals to students every year

21 Apr 2022

More than 170,000 students in Brazil are set to receive healthy, sustainable school meals, packed with plant-based foods.

Deforestation of Brazil's Indigenous lands a threat to country's climate target

20 Apr 2022

Indigenous lands in the Brazilian Amazon are under constant pressure, and deforestation of these areas has accelerated in recent years.

The quest to build a tiny Bolivian EV

19 Apr 2022

Bolivian startup Quantum Motors makes tiny EVs aimed at the Latin American masses. Will they buy it?

Chile's new constitution likely to enshrine rights of nature

5 Apr 2022

Chile’s constitutional convention, underway in Santiago since July 4, 2021, is the first time a country has re-written its foundational document in the wake of the Paris Agreement and comes as the world reckons with three interconnected environmental crises: climate change, biodiversity loss and toxic pollution

Brazil unveils incentives to spur biomethane output

23 Mar 2022

Brazil's government has unveiled a series of incentives to spur the production and sustainable use of biomethane, a fuel that can be obtained from recycling urban and rural waste, and that can replace natural gas, diesel and gasoline.

Amazon rainforest nears tipping point that may see it become savannah

8 Mar 2022

The Amazon rainforest is nearing a tipping point that will see it transform into savannah, according to researchers who have found that the biodiversity hotspot has lost resilience in the past two decades.

Chile creates national park to save glaciers

7 Mar 2022

Chile said Saturday it is creating a vast national park to protect hundreds of glaciers that are melting due to climate change.

Panama enacts a rights of nature law

28 Feb 2022

PANAMA is the latest country to recognize the legal rights of nature, giving environmentalists a new tool to fight ecological harm.

Amazon deforestation: Record high destruction of trees in January

15 Feb 2022

The number of trees cut down in the Brazilian Amazon in January far exceeded deforestation for the same month last year, according to government satellite data.

‘We need politicians and experts’: how Chile is putting the climate crisis first

8 Feb 2022

Hidden behind the Andes in a quiet corner of South America, a formidable generation of former student leaders are putting together one of the world’s most exciting progressive movements.

When carbon credits drive people from their homes

13 Dec 2021

The Mayo River begins in the tropical cloud forests of Northeastern Peru. Where the Andean foothills meet the Amazonian plains, bromeliads, ferns, and mosses grow under palms, tropical hardwoods, and the liana vines that climb their trunks.

Brazil's Suzano CEO says $12-$13 carbon price could support forest regeneration

2 Dec 2021

Brazilian pulp and paper maker Suzano's (SUZB3.SA) chief executive Walter Schalka said on Wednesday that a market price of $12-$13 dollars per tonne for carbon could support the regeneration of one hectare of natural forest.

Chile wants to export solar energy to Asia via 15,000km submarine cable

16 Nov 2021

The Chilean government is planning to build a submarine cable to export photovoltaic energy to China, according to Chilean solar energy association.

How one woman protected millions of acres

28 Oct 2021

The first thing Kristine McDivitt Tompkins had to do when she arrived in Chile more than three decades ago was tear down fences. Demolishing 700 kilometers of barbed wire in the rough terrain that she and her husband bought was back-breaking work, but overcoming barriers in the minds of the locals was much harder. “

World’s first carbon-neutral fuel plant breaks ground in Chile

17 Sep 2021

Work has started on a pioneering wind farm on the Magellan Straits in southern Chile that will produce green hydrogen and help Porsche produce e-fuels, with Chilean energy minister Juan Carlos attending the groundbreaking ceremony.

Costa Rica’s environment minister's plans for a green economy

1 Sep 2021

Costa Rica's environment minister Andrea Meza has ambitious plans for the country’s fight against climate change. But between a warming planet and limited time in her role, she’s on a tight deadline.

Will chocolate survive climate change? Actually, maybe

1 Sep 2021

The forecast has been bad for domesticated cacao. But some environments in Peru might hold the key to the future of the world’s sweet tooth.

Medellin strives to become Latin America’s first ‘eco-city’

1 Sep 2021

The Colombian city, notorious decades ago for its crime and violence, is reinventing itself as an eco-city.

The killing of environmental activists continues five years after Berta Cáceres's murder

30 Aug 2021

The Indigenous activist in Honduras had won the Goldman prize for opposing the Agua Zarca Dam. But it didn’t protect Cáceres in one of the world’s most dangerous countries.

Reforestration fails to make up for Amazon's destruction

23 Aug 2021

Driven largely by the expansion of farm land to meet increasing global demand for products such as soya bean, over 810,000 km² of forest in the Amazon has been cleared – an area nearly as big as Norway and Sweden combined.

Environmental policies could see Bolsanaro in front of International Criminal Court

12 Aug 2021

For the third time in two years, Indigenous groups in Brazil are accusing President Jair Bolsonaro of committing international crimes, for his actions against Native peoples and his environmental policies.

Costa Rica eyes ban on fossil fuel exploration

5 Aug 2021

Costa Rican lawmakers this week will discuss a bill to permanently ban fossil fuel exploration and extraction, a move that would prevent future governments from pivoting on the issue as the popular eco-tourism destination country aims to decarbonize by 2050.