International: South America
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.
Amazon fires pushing climate change beyond human control
6 Oct 2017
A leading Amazon scientist has highlighted grave problems in Brazil’s management of the world’s most important forest as climate-driven fires eat it away.
Diamonds and a bitter feud destroyed an Amazon reserve
28 Sep 2017
Family rivalry and Brazil’s Catholic church helped miners to devastate an indigenous territory that was once a leader in the fight against deforestation.
Brazil backs off mining bid in Amazon reserve
27 Sep 2017
The Brazilian government has pledged to reinstate a mining ban in an Amazonian nature reserve, reversing its earlier course after an international outcry.
Chaco forests go up in smoke as the West's barbecue fuel
4 Sep 2017
No tropical forests anywhere in the world are being destroyed more rapidly than the Chaco, stretching across Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. Mostly, the trees provide fuel for barbecues.
Brazil abolishes huge Amazon reserve
29 Aug 2017
Brazilian president Michel Temer has abolished an Amazonian reserve the size of Denmark, prompting concerns of an influx of mineral companies, road-builders and workers into the species-rich forest.
Brazilian downpours oust familiar drizzle
24 Aug 2017
Misty rain is giving way to fear of flash floods as Brazilian downpours cause chaos in the country’s biggest city.
Australia's battery subsidies spark rooftop solar resurgence
Tue 7 Jul 2026
The rooftop solar boom shows how countries stifled by transmission line logjams can continue reducing emissions, analysts say.
Clean energy hurt but resilient one year after Trump winding back climate policy
Wed 8 Jul 2026
The GOP budget law that President Trump signed a year ago has darkened the outlook for several clean energy sources, but stopped far short of strangling low-carbon tech.
China warming faster than global average as extreme weather intensifies, report says
Mon 6 Jul 2026
China is warming faster than the global average, while extreme heat, heavy rainfall and other severe weather events are becoming more frequent and intense as climate change accelerates worldwide.
Europe may face 'more deadly weeks' as new heatwave builds, WHO warns
Thu 9 Jul 2026
The World Health Organization warned Europe could face “more deadly weeks” ahead, with another intense heatwave forming over the Atlantic.
Low-cost loans for solar panels could save households hundreds on bills – thinktanks
Thu 9 Jul 2026
Millions of UK households could save hundreds of pounds a year on their energy bills if the government were to approve low-cost loans for solar panel installation, research has found.
Canada advances Alberta pipeline to Pacific Coast to expand oil exports beyond the US
Mon 6 Jul 2026
Canada took a step toward opening a new route for its vast oil reserves to Asian markets as Prime Minister Mark Carney advanced a Pacific Coast pipeline from Alberta, seeking to reduce the country’s dependence on the U.S. while easing separatist tensions and preserving environmental protections.
Enhanced flash flood risks in Hindu Kush Himalaya
Thu 9 Jul 2026
The communities in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region could face enhanced risks from flash floods due to bursts of extreme rainfall and cloudbursts during the southwest monsoon season along with high temperatures which could lead to accelerated glacier and snow melting.
‘Those blocking climate science are not our friends': Pacific leaders warn at Bonn talks
23 Jun 2026
Pacific nations and civil society groups have united at UN climate talks, pushing back against efforts to weaken agreed language on global temperature limits as negotiations continue behind closed doors.
Antarctica’s west coast missing an area of sea ice the size of France as temperatures peak 20C above average
16 Jun 2026
A vast area of the Bellingshausen Sea should be covered by sea ice by now, with one expert calling the loss of ice ‘depressing’.
Ugandan farmers launch UK court case against East African oil pipeline
Thu 9 Jul 2026
Four Ugandan farmers filed a case with London’s High Court aiming to stop the East African Crude Oil Pipeline from starting to operate by asking the court to apply Uganda’s laws against the project’s UK-registered company.
Strong El Nino will develop rapidly over coming months, says UN weather agency
Tue 7 Jul 2026
The United Nations weather agency on Friday raised its forecast for the rapid emergence of a strong El Nino in the coming months, warning that the phenomenon is likely to drive global temperatures higher.
