Integration and Development Brazilian-style

Politicians Subsidise Fossil Fuel with Six Trillion Dollars in Just One Year

By Baher Kamal
It sounds incredible: while politicians have been cackling about the climate emergency and profiling in empty promises to halt it, they have spent six trillion US dollars from taxpayers' money to subsidise fossil fuels in just one year: 2020. And they are set to increase the figure to nearly seven trillion by 2025.

Biofuels, the World’s Energy Past and Future

By Mario Osava
The number of victims of serious burns, some fatal, has increased in Brazil. Without money to buy cooking gas, the price of which rose 30 percent this year, many poor families resort to ethanol and people are injured in household accidents.

Mobilising the ‘Tools’ for Renewable Energy Investment in the Seychelles

By Catherine Wilson
Breaking the world’s reliance on fossil fuels and accelerating the global uptake of renewable energy will play a decisive role in diminishing the threat of global warming to the survival of life on earth, according to experts. But turning the vision into reality will demand unwavering political will and, critically, massive investment, which can no longer be shouldered solely by aid and development partners.

Obtaining Water, a Daily Battle in Argentina’s El Impenetrable Region

By Daniel Gutman
Next to the brick or adobe houses of El Impenetrable, a wild area of forest and grasslands in northern Argentina, loom huge plastic barrels where rainwater collected from the corrugated iron roofs of the houses is stored. However, the barrels are empty, because it has hardly rained for two years, local residents complain.

Combating Energy Poverty in Chile with Community Inclusion

By Orlando Milesi
More than 90 percent of Chile's 17.5 million people have access to electricity. But many live in energy poverty because they do not have access to hot water, have unsafe connections, houses without thermal insulation and with indoor pollution, or can't afford to pay the monthly bill.

Argentina’s Small Farming Communities Reach Consumers Online

By Daniel Gutman
"The biggest problem for family farmers has always been to market and sell what they produce, at a fair price," says Natalia Manini, a member of the Union of Landless Rural Workers (UST), a small farmers organisation in Argentina that has been taking steps to forge direct ties with consumers.

Cuba’s Power Crisis Drives Home Need to Accelerate Energy Transition

By Luis Brizuela
With aging infrastructure and problems with fuel supplies, Cuba is facing a crisis in its electric power generation system, which could accelerate plans to increase the share of renewable sources in the energy mix.

Pandemic Highlights Urgent Need to Improve Sanitation in Brazil

By Mario Osava
Basic sanitation, a sector that is undervalued because, according to politicians, it does not bring in votes, has gained relevance in Brazil due to the pandemic that has hit the poor especially hard and the drought that threatens millions of people.

Rural Communities in El Salvador United to Supply Water for Themselves – VIDEO

By Edgardo Ayala
As the saying goes, united we stand, divided we fall, hundreds of families in rural communities in El Salvador are standing together to gain access to drinking water.

Less Overseas Coal Is Good, But Developing Countries Still Need More Electricity

By Philippe Benoit
President Xi announced last month that China is stopping its financing for new coal-fired power plants overseas. With this announcement from Beijing, the governments of the world’s largest economies have now achieved a consensus to halt their overseas funding of coal plants in developing countries, thereby advancing global efforts to reduce future carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Rural Water Boards Play Vital Role for Salvadoran Farmers

By Edgardo Ayala
After climbing a steep hill along winding paths, you reach a huge water tank at the top that supplies peasant farmer families who had no water and instead set up their own community project on this coastal strip in central El Salvador.

Indigenous Peoples in Mexico Defend Their Right to Water

By Emilio Godoy
In the San Lorenzo Huitzizilapan Otomí indigenous community, in the state of Mexico –adjacent to the country’s capital–, access to water has been based on collective work.

Latin America’s Central Banks Push Climate Crisis to the Back Burner

By Emilio Godoy
Despite the impact that their policies have with regard to the climate emergency, Latin America's central banks continue to avoid applying guidelines in measures that affect the operation of credit institutions, which distances them from compliance with the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Climate Crisis Drives Up Cost of Electricity and Brings Big Changes in Brazil

By Mario Osava
As most of the world seeks to modify its energy mix to mitigate climate change, Brazil has also been forced to do so to adapt to the climate crisis whose effects are being felt in the country due to the scarcity of rainfall.

Argentina Takes Controversial Step Backwards in Biofuel Production

By Daniel Gutman
Argentina, historically an agricultural powerhouse, has become a major producer of biofuels in recent years. However, this South American country is now moving backwards in the use of this oil substitute in transportation, a decision in which economics weighed heavily and environmental concerns have been ignored.

Railroads Drive Expansion of Soybean Cultivation in Brazil’s Amazon Region

By Mario Osava
The sea of soybeans that sprouts every November will spread even further in the state of Mato Grosso if three new railway lines that would boost soy production in central-western Brazil and growing parts of the Amazon rainforest are built.

Community-Based Solutions Alleviate Water Shortages in Central America – In Pictures

By Edgardo Ayala
Access to water is a constant struggle in Central America, a region with more than 60 million people, many of whom live in rural areas where conditions for good quality water and enough for food production are becoming increasingly difficult.

Solar Energy Revitalises Indigenous and Farming Communities in Chile

By Orlando Milesi
Communities in Arica y Parinacota, the region in the extreme north of Chile, are using solar energy and are being empowered by projects for shrimp and trout farming, the production of yarn from camelid wool, the production of tomatoes and cheese, and even the sale of surplus solar power to the national electric grid.

World Bank Looks to Trains in Argentina’s Climate Battle

By Daniel Gutman
Argentina will receive a 347 million dollar loan from the World Bank to upgrade one of the most important suburban railway lines in the city of Buenos Aires. The operation is part of the multilateral lender’s new policy, which deepens its commitment to the fight against climate change.

China Struggles with Socio-environmental Standards in Latin America

By Emilio Godoy
In southeast Mexico, work on the Yucatan Solar Park, owned by the Chinese company Jinko Solar, has been halted since 2020 for lack of proper consultation with indigenous communities, after affected local residents filed an injunction against the project.

Kenya’s Huge Railway Project Is Causing Environmental Damage. Here’s How

Kenya is constructing a railway line that connects the coastal port of Mombasa and the interior of the country. It is expected to terminate at Malaba, a town on the border with Uganda, and link up with other railways that are being built in East Africa. It’s locally known as the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).
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