International: South America
Casualties mount in Bolivia's battle for white gold
20 Nov 2019
The overthrow of Bolivian president Evo Morales shows how the politics of environmentalism and social justice intersect in a silvery-white metal.
Argentina changes waste rule and opens doors to plastics
4 Nov 2019
Argentina has changed its definition of waste in a move that could allow it to import millions of tonnes of plastic waste discarded in the US.
Catholic church denounces Amazon policies
1 Nov 2019
The Catholic church in the Amazon has denounced attacks on the environment and the life of indigenous people — setting out on a collision course with Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro.
JUNGLE BUNGLE: Brazil pushes Amazon to 2021 tipping point
25 Oct 2019
The destructive policies of Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro could push the Amazon rainforest to an irreversible tipping point within two years.
Sorry about that, says Ecuador, and reinstates Big Oil subsidies
18 Oct 2019
Calm has returned to the streets of Quito after Ecuador’s government agreed to reinstate fuel subsidies following 11 days of nationwide, violent protests.
Pope v president as Amazon burns
8 Oct 2019
Two of the most powerful forces in Brazil, the president and the pope, are pulling in opposite directions on an issue critical to climate change.
'CHAOS, CHAOS, CHAOS': A trip through Bolsonaro's inferno
11 Sep 2019
From afar, it resembles a tornado: an immense grey column shooting thousands of feet upwards from the forest canopy into the Amazonian skies.
Central America climate change driving people out
10 Sep 2019
Droughts and damaging storms are impacting smallholder farmers in Central America and driving higher levels of migration from the region.
BOLIVIA BURNING: It’s not just Brazil's forests that are ablaze
29 Aug 2019
While the world watches the Brazilian Amazon burn, across the border in Bolivia it’s also ablaze.
Without our help, the world's forests would not be burning
26 Aug 2019
Fuel is everywhere in rainforests, but it seems unimaginable that such humid ecosystems could ever catch fire. And without human intervention, they don’t.
Outcry goes global as Amazon forests burn
23 Aug 2019
The environment minister of Brazil, where wildfires have been sweeping the Amazon rainforest, was booed at a climate event yesterday as celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio and Ariana Grande joined an international chorus of criticism.
Germany pulls millions in Amazon funding
13 Aug 2019
Germany will suspend $39 million in funds sent to Brazil to finance projects aimed at preserving the Amazon forest.
We might be expecting too much of the Amazon
7 Aug 2019
The Amazon might not be sequestering as much carbon dioxide as we think, scientists say.
Rampant deforestation driven by greed for meat
5 Jul 2019
Brazil’s huge beef sector continues to threaten health of world’s largest rainforest.
Brazil leader guts environmental agencies
12 Jun 2019
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro appears intent on decriminalizing Amazon deforestation, ending most fines, straitjacketing law enforcement, and gutting environmental agencies with mass firings.
Coal-dependent Chile vows to come clean by 2040
7 Jun 2019
Chile, host of the next UN climate talks, has unveiled its plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, which will require one of the fastest coal shutdowns anywhere.
Scientists fight Brazilian leader's cutbacks
31 May 2019
Brazil’s scientists are fighting back against President Jair Bolsonaro’s plans to slash funding for research and education programmes.
In the land of El Dorado, clean water has become ‘blue gold’
11 Apr 2019
In the land where the legend of El Dorado began, the race is on to solve the mystery of a vital 21st century treasure – the water that tens of millions of people rely upon across northern South America.
Climate change drives migrants to the US
9 Apr 2019
The northern triangle of Central America, the largest source of asylum seekers crossing the US border, is deeply affected by environmental degradation.
Costa Rica aims to show world the way
28 Feb 2019
Costa Rica has launched an economy-wide plan to “decarbonize” the country by 2050, as the Central American nation aims to show other nations what is possible to address climate change.
UN calls Brazil dam burst a crime
5 Feb 2019
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 2019
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
Bolivian farmers are going underground in order to protect their crops from drought, flash floods and increasing temperatures.
Costa Rica reckons it can be the first country free of carbon
14 May 2018
Costa Rica’s newly elected president is vowing to make his country the world's first truly carbon-zero territory.
New river brings havoc to Argentina
3 Apr 2018
A new river in Argentina is playing havoc with farmland and roads and even threatening a city – but also highlights the potential cost of the country’s dependence on soya beans.
Brazil fights emissions cap for shipping
9 Mar 2018
Brazil is seeking to water down prospective climate targets for the shipping sector.
Amazon wildfires send emissions soaring
15 Feb 2018
Climate change-induced wildfires are now the biggest source of carbon emissions in Amazon forests.
Chile creates five national parks over 10m acres
31 Jan 2018
Chile has created five sprawling national parks to preserve vast tracts of Patagonia – the culmination of more than two decades of land acquisition by two US philanthropists.
How deforestation is starving São Paulo of water
30 Nov 2017
São Paulo could face more devastating water shortages if farmers continue to clear the Amazon forest, warns the utility chief who recently steered the biggest city in the Americas from the edge of drought catastrophe.
Brazil’s recession grows as emissions rise
16 Nov 2017
Brazil’s recession has earned it an unhappy distinction: it is the only major country in the world where damage to the climate is growing while people are becoming poorer.
Brazil’s carbon emissions rose 8.9% in 2016
1 Nov 2017
Despite Brazil’s worst recession in history, national greenhouse gases emissions are estimated to have risen 8.9 per cent in 2016 and reached the highest level since 2008.
For cattle farmers in Brazil, money can’t buy love
31 Oct 2017
In regions of the Amazon where farmers could choose to grow more sustainable and lucrative crops like fruit or vegetables, ranchers persist in their low-income cattle business.
Brazilian Amazon loses 660,000ha of forest in one year
24 Oct 2017
The Brazilian Amazon lost 6,624 sq km of forest between August 2016 and July 2017.
Brazil records worst month for forest fires
12 Oct 2017
Brazil has seen more forest fires in September than in any single month since records began, and authorities have warned that 2017 could surpass the worst year on record if action is not taken soon.
Labor accused of ‘gaslighting’ Australians on climate crisis as fossil fuel projects keep getting approved
9 Jun 2025
‘They offer sympathy and then just go and approve massive fossil fuel projects anyway,’ one advocate says.
EPA to propose rolling back climate rule for power plants Wednesday
Thu 12 Jun 2025
It marks an escalation in President Donald Trump’s effort to purge climate initiatives from the federal government.
China's approvals of coal power plants grow after 2024 decline
Wed 11 Jun 2025
China approved 11.29 gigawatts of new coal power plants in the first three months of 2025, already exceeding the 10.34 GW approved in the first half of 2024.
Ocean current ‘collapse’ could trigger ‘profound cooling’ in northern Europe – even with global warming
Fri 13 Jun 2025
A “collapse” of key Atlantic ocean currents would cause winter temperatures to plunge across northern Europe, overriding the warming driven by human activity.
Oil giant funds computer game that promotes fossil fuels to schoolchildren
9 Jun 2025
Equinor, the company looking to develop the Rosebank oil field in the North Sea, has funded a computer game aimed at UK school children, promoting the idea that fossil fuels are part of a green energy mix.
'This is classic climate change': Canada's Saskatchewan faces worst wildfire season in decades
4 Jun 2025
There have been 207 wildfires this year as of Friday – 40 more than in the same period last year.
Carbon capture projects promise a climate fix – and a fossil fuel lifeline
Wed 11 Jun 2025
Governments across Southeast Asia are looking at carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) as a way to meet climate targets.
Vanuatu criticises Australia for extending gas project while making COP31 bid
4 Jun 2025
Vanuatu’s climate minister has expressed disappointment over Australia’s decision to extend one of the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas projects and said it raises questions over its bid to co-host the COP31 summit with Pacific nations.
I just returned from Antarctica: climate change isn’t some far-off problem – it’s here and hitting hard
13 May 2025
Antarctica is often viewed as the last truly remote place on Earth – frozen, wild and untouched. But is it really as untouched as it seems?
Death toll from Nigeria flash floods rises to 151
3 Jun 2025
At least 151 people in central Nigeria are now known to have died following flash floods that destroyed homes and displaced thousands of residents earlier this week.
UN University report warns against carbon credits from REDD, tree planting, and improved forest management
Fri 13 Jun 2025
But the report stops short of recommending banning the trade in carbon temporarily stored in trees.
