Brazil: growth, adaptive capacity & new green technologies
environmental opportunities and antagonisms for Brazil in the 21st CenturyProgress on Deforestation and Land Reform
Great piece from the WRI outlining where deforestation and land reform negotiations are up to in Brazil. The article explains Provisory Measure 458 passed earlier this year and links to useful conent around the thorny elements of the bill that were vetoed- much to the consternation of now Presidential candidate Marina Silva. With COP-15 round the corner, economic recovery tentatively on track and an election not too far away, expect a lot more around this issue to surface. This piece is a welcome contribution.
‘Rational deforestation’ and the Amazonian perspective for Copenhagen
Professor Virgilio Viana, former Secretary of State for Environment and Sustainable Development, Amazonas and currently the Director General of the Amazon Sustainability Foundation, talks about the role for the Amazon in combating climate change. Read the rest of this entry »
Road to Credibility 2
Short commentary on the SustainAbility report The Road to Credibility.
Download PDF Brazil emerges or click through to read online Read the rest of this entry »
O’Neil: Dont write off Brics yet
” Rather than suggesting our Bric dream may be derailed by the global recession, the notion that the Brics can become collectively bigger than the G7 by 2035 is becoming more plausible.” Jim O’Neil – ‘Bric’ term coiner. Full article here
The Road to Credibility
A report released by SustainAbility and the FBDS explores sustainability reporting in Brazil. Read the rest of this entry »
“Low Carbon, High Growth”
World Bank Report, written by Augusto de la Torre, Pablo Fajnzylber and John Nash, looking ahead to Copenhagen, examining how Latin America is in a position to lead middle income countries in reducing emissions from deforestation, breaking the impasse on hydropower development, improving energy efficiency, and transforming urban transport.
Deforestation pics, google maps (SIPAM)
Globo publishes a number of deforestation pictures as seen from google maps. The images collected in 2000 -2001 highlight the many different ways in which the forest is being degraded.
Farmers and debt
Banks are calling in their cash lent to farmers in the good years when high prices paved the way for agricultural expansion. As the good times get leaner and advantages are eroded loan capital has disappeared and the state has no concrete plans in place.
from FT.com
Drought in North East: traditional farming
Guardian audio, slideshow and article exploring how NGO-supported sustainable, small scale farming knowledge is breaking the cycle of migration from the arid North East to urban or to industrial agriculture centres.
Mangabeira Unger: Sustainable Amazonia
2 part interview with Manageira Unger(part 1, part 2), Harvard law professor and now minister for stategic affairs heading up the Institutue for Applied Research (IPEA), talking about the Sustainable Amazon Programme (PAS).
Latest Amazon deforestation
Inpe’s figures show that last month 541 km2 were cut down or degraded. 233km2 in Mato Grosso and 218km2 in Para, and 8% down on September’s figure. Inpe caution that the results are not wholly accurrate as the real-time satellite images show up clouds, obscuring detail of the land below.
Last week Inpe released figures for the period August 2007- July 2008. Almost 1,100 km2 was cut down or degraded, a 2.8% increaseon the preceding year.
BBC documentary: Survival
BBC documentary looking at the spread of hookworm, or the Amerelao, in Brazil airing final weekeend of November 08 on BBC World News. Watch a preview here
Poverty Map Brazil: Indice for family development
Developed by the Ministry for social development, the poverty map has measures for each municiality’s level of attainment in areas including: access to work, childhood development, availibility of resources and vulnerability.
Environmental requirements for ethanol
Brazil and seven other emerging nations are set to lodge an official complaint against the European Union over their cultivation requirements for exported ethanol, threatening to present the case to a WTO tribunal, claiming that the requirements will freeze the expansion of the industry. The EU proposition will state that Brazilian ethanol cannnot be come from the cerrado, nor forested regions.
The financial crisis and Brazil pt.III: exporters, currency
After the Federal Reserve’s US$30bn credit loaned to the Brazilian Central Bank up until April 30 2009, aimed at easing a shortage of dollars, markets and investors appeared to have regained confidence.
ECLAC 2009 Outlook, Competitiveness and Ethanol
The Economic Comission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has published its international outlook for the region for 2009 (Spanish download here). It includes an overview of the policy challenges facing the Brazilian bioenergy industry in light of anticipated growth of the sector.
Financial Crisis and Brazil pt.II, poll
The real, which on Thursday closed at R$2.36 against the dollar after the Banco Central’s announcement that it was putting US$50 bn into the currency futures market, may have reached fair value after a long period of overvaluation, according to John Authers.
Lester Brown: Eco Economy & emissions targets
Lester Brown, Founder of Earth Policy Institute, outlines the main facets of his Plan B 3.0 (whole book available to download) in four videos and why time for coordinated mass action on climate change is running out. Elsewhere the UK Government Climate Change Commission has said it will revise emissions targets to from 60% to an 80% cut from 1990 levels by 2050 and greenhouse gases by 40% by 2020. Read the rest of this entry »
Saving the Real, maintaining credibility
Ricardo Mereilles, writing for RGE Monitor, contrasts government action by purchasing Treasury bonds to halt the slide of the BRL in 2006 where the Real lost 14% of its value in a period of 21 days, to the administration’s current lack of urgency.
…the BACEN should act fast, as the option of letting our currency meltdown 50% in few days is not a good attitude to maintain the credibility build in the past recent years. Hurry up!
sulphur-free diesel
Brazlian company Votoratim has announced that from 2010 sulphur-free diesel, made from sugar cane, will be produced commercially in Sao Paulo state. The company’s investment arm had part funded the project headed by Californian biotech firm Amyris to produce the new fuel which is made with genetically modified yeast.
