Tuesday, August 9, 2022
News and Views from the Global South
Integration and Development Brazilian-style
Desalination Plants, Solution and Environmental Challenge for Chile
The Pacific Ocean could quench the thirst caused by 10 years of drought in Chile, but the operation of desalination plants of various sizes has a long way to go to become sustainable and to serve society as a whole rather than just corporations.
Ethanol Not Enough to Heal Sugarcane’s Environmental Legacy in Colombia
As a visitor drives across the plains of the department of Valle del Cauca in southwestern Colombia, green carpets dominate the view: sugarcane fields that have been here since the area got its name.
International Women’s Day, 2022
Women Lighting the Way in Off-Grid Zimbabwe
Electricity transmission lines run through Chiedza Murindo’s home in Murombedzi, a small town in Zvimba district in Mashonaland West province, but her house has no electricity. That is the harsh reality for much of Zimbabwe’s rural population, where only 13% of households live without power compared to 83% of urban households. 
Cuba Steps Up Pace on Renewable Energy Expansion
Cuba has readjusted its plans to achieve at least 37 percent of electricity from clean energy by 2030, a promising but risky challenge for a nation that is a heavy consumer of fossil fuels and has persistent financial problems.
Mexico Needs a Mining Industry Model for the Energy Transition
The debate in Mexico and at an international level is focused on certain minerals that are fundamental to the energy transition, such as cobalt, lithium and nickel. But there are other indispensable minerals that remain in the background.
Spate of Water Projects in Mexico Ignore Impacts
The Mexican government is prioritizing the construction and modernization of mega water projects, without considering their impacts and long-term viability, according to a number of experts and activists.
Damaged Natural Infrastructure Exacerbates Urban Flooding in Brazil
People living in Jardim Pantanal, a low-income neighborhood on the east side of the Brazilian megalopolis of São Paulo, suffer floods every southern hemisphere summer. Many residents remember the three months their streets and homes were under water in late 2009 and early 2010.
Sugarcane Gas Opens New Horizons for Energy Agriculture – Video
Nothing is wasted from sugarcane, one can conclude from the biomethane production process at the Cocal plant, a Brazilian company that produces sugar, ethanol, electricity and other by-products from sugarcane agro-industrial waste. 
Rural Women in Peru Seed Water Today to Harvest It Tomorrow
"When I was a little girl we didn't suffer from water shortages like we do now. Today we are experiencing more droughts, our water sources are drying up and we cannot sit idly by," Kely Quispe, a small farmer from the community of Huasao, located half an hour from Cuzco, the capital of Peru's ancient Inca empire, told IPS.
Green Gas: Energy as a By-Product of Sugarcane in Brazil
First came sugar. For four centuries, it was the main sugarcane product in Brazil. But since the 1970s sugarcane has grown and diversified as a source of energy: ethanol, electricity and biogas.
Energy Inequality in Latin America Exacerbated by Pandemic, High Prices
The effects of the covid-19 pandemic and high energy prices have had an impact on the consumption of polluting fuels in Latin America and the Caribbean, exacerbating energy poverty in the region.
Politicians Subsidise Fossil Fuel with Six Trillion Dollars in Just One Year
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
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
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
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
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
"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
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
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
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
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.« Previous Page — Next Page »
South American imperialist power, or integrationist power? The role currently played by Brazil is perhaps located midway between these two extremes. On the other hand, there is no doubt about the dynamic nature of its economy or the influence of its corporations in Latin America. Wherever infrastructure, energy or the extraction of natural resources transcend borders in the region, Brazil tends to be a key player. What are the risks? What is the potential? What kind of development do dams and other major projects underway foment? What effect will they have on the population, and on nature? What will the new geopolitical order that is taking shape look like? With the support of the Mott Foundation, IPS is launching a series of investigative reports by Brazilian correspondent Mario Osava and a team of outstanding journalists in other key parts of the region, to produce a picture of the new course Brazil is taking in Latin America.
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Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
