International: South America
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.
The case for Australian carbon tariffs
Thu 19 Feb 2026
OPINION: It may seem a niche issue but sorting the issue of carbon leakage from emissions-intensive facilities is needed to put industrial climate policy on a firm footing.
California, Connecticut preparing 'attack' against Trump's repeal of basis of US climate regulation
Fri 20 Feb 2026
California and Connecticut are working together on a multi-state "plan of attack" against President Donald Trump's repeal of the foundation of federal climate regulation of vehicles, the states' attorneys general told Reuters on Tuesday.
As Trump retreats from climate goals, China is becoming a green superpower
Thu 19 Feb 2026
How the world's biggest carbon emitter is now at the helm of a renewables revolution.
EU countries back stronger price curbs on new carbon market
Fri 20 Feb 2026
European Union countries on Wednesday backed plans to strengthen price curbs in the bloc's upcoming carbon market, EU diplomats told Reuters, in response to concerns from some governments that the policy could raise fuel bills.
Britain strengthens ties with California as new clean energy and climate agreement signed
Thu 19 Feb 2026
Britain has forged a deeper alliance with California on clean energy and climate action, as Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new agreement aimed at boosting transatlantic investment and environmental protection.
Mark Carney just picked his lane on climate change
Tue 17 Feb 2026
COMMENT: Mark Carney's time as prime minister has been defined in part by his decision to roll back Trudeau-era climate policies.
Modi's rooftop solar push slowed by reluctant lenders, states
Thu 19 Feb 2026
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's push to accelerate the rollout of rooftop solar power is falling short of targets despite heavy subsidies due to loan delays and limited support from state utilities, vendors and analysts say.
Pacific fisheries summit gives a boost to albacore and seabirds
19 Dec 2025
Much of the world’s albacore tuna catch, which usually ends up in a can, comes from the southwestern Pacific Ocean, where fishery managers just passed a new set of conservation rules.
Warming climate threatens Greenland's ancestral way of life
12 Feb 2026
The Arctic region is on the frontline of global warming, heating up four times faster than the rest of the planet since 1979, according to a 2022 study in scientific journal Nature, causing the sea ice to retreat.
Africa leads growth in solar energy as demand spreads beyond traditional markets, report says
Mon 16 Feb 2026
A report shows that Africa has emerged as the world's fastest-growing solar market even as global growth slowed last year, driven by a 60% surge in imports of solar panels from China.
Why Trump might be onboard with a UN carbon-offset programme for airlines
12 Feb 2026
The president’s team has backed the rollout of an initiative that calls for the use of sustainable aviation fuel and carbon credits, even as Trump has pulled back from other international emissions-reduction efforts.
