CLIMATE CHANGE: A Game With Too Many Free Riders

The evidence is piling up that climate change threatens to bring a chaotic future unlike anything ever known. Taking collective action in time to avert the worst means rewarding climate-safe behaviour, punishing climate transgressors and publicly praising those who are trying to protect the environment, a new study suggests.

BRAZIL: Clean Gasoline Fuels Soybean Production

The Brazilian government has decided to move up the deadlines for obligatory addition of biofuels to gasoline and diesel fuel, a measure that will boost the production of soybeans, the oilseed crop with the lowest yield and that causes the most environmental damage.

CLIMATE CHANGE: A Vision Worth Fighting For

Sweeping societal change is a slow and erratic business. The civil rights movement in the United States went nowhere for decades and then exploded in the 1960s. Not long ago, smokers could light up anywhere they pleased in Canada and the U.S. Now they are mostly confined to a few outdoor areas and as a consequence, far fewer people smoke.

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Fault Lies Not in Our Cars but in Ourselves

Rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth's atmosphere can be compared to a flooding river, swamping low areas at first but inevitably bursting its banks.

CHILE: Environmentalists Defend Patagonian Wilderness from Dams

Robert Kennedy, senior attorney for the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), is in Chile to support opponents of a plan for building five dams in the southern region of Patagonia.

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Future Is Now

Our fingers are glued to the global thermostat, pushing it ever higher, and climate catastrophe has already begun to reshape human civilisation.

MIDEAST: Palestinians Not Helping Themselves Either

A deal currently being discussed by Israel and Egypt would see Israel sever a major tie with the Gaza Strip. Under the agreement, Egypt would become the sole external supplier of power to Gaza, replacing Israel which is today the major provider of electricity to the coastal strip.

OIL-MEXICO: Floundering in Deep Waters

Billions of barrels of crude are lying under the deep seabed in the Gulf of Mexico, an area divided between Cuba, the United States and Mexico. But while the first two countries are approaching full commercial exploitation, the third is still trying to come up with a plan.

CAMBODIA: Planned Lao Dam Raises Concerns on the Mekong

The Lao government’s decision earlier this year to press ahead with plans to build the Don Sahong dam on the mainstream of the Mekong River in southern Laos is causing major concern in Cambodia and internationally.

ENVIRONMENT-CHILE: Experts Call for Stronger Anti-Smog Measures

"It’s as if we were swimming at a beach unfit for bathing. For four or five months a year, the air is unfit to breathe in the Chilean capital, and the government throws out a lifejacket when people are in difficulties, so that they don’t drown," Patricio Pérez of the University of Santiago told IPS.

ARGENTINA-BRAZIL: Planned Binational Dam Under Fire

Feeling the pressure of rising energy demand, the governments of Argentina and Brazil are taking a fresh look at old plans for the Garabí hydroelectric dam on the Uruguay River, which environmentalists say would endanger the flow of this already highly exploited water source.

ENERGY-EUROPE: Nuclear Power Debate Heats Up

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown are about to agree on a new generation of nuclear power plants in London this week, and plan to export the technology to the rest of the world, according to unconfirmed reports.

RUSSIA: Nuclear Deal with Egypt Signed

After years of diplomatic negotiations, Russia and Egypt finally signed an agreement Tuesday that paves the way for cooperation in the civilian nuclear energy sector.

RUSSIA: Price Fuels Gas War

A renewed Russian-Ukrainian gas conflict has been provisionally averted, but as Ukrainian politicians struggle for control of the gas sector, the next months are likely to bring more price wars.

DEVELOPMENT- ANGOLA: Research Initiative Nets Interesting Discoveries

More than 50 species of fish have been recorded in the initial phase of a two-year joint research project on the Kwanza River in Angola.

DEVELOPMENT-CAMBODIA: Bowing to Regional Hydropower Demands

For the Cambodian government, hydropower development represents great economic opportunities. But for non-government organisations (NGOs), and the communities they serve, dams pose severe social and environmental impacts.

KYRGYZSTAN: Opposition Runs Separate Parliament

A nation of five million, Kyrgyzstan has ended up with two parliaments: the official one, and the second that many consider the more legitimate one.

ENVIRONMENT-PORTUGAL: Enjoying the Outdoors in a Greener Lisbon

Steered by a city government that proudly proclaims its environmental credentials, the Portuguese capital is planning to develop wind energy, restore and connect its green areas, and promote clean transport and the outdoor life.

BRAZIL: Developing "Clean" Petrochemical Products

Glycerine, a by-product of biodiesel, is currently an environmental and economic problem for companies involved in the production of plant-based fuel in Brazil and other parts of the world. It can't be dumped, because it would harm the environment, and storing it racks up additional costs.

INDIA/US: New Deal in Nuclear Poker

As the political window of opportunity to conclude the United States-India civilian nuclear cooperation deal during George W. Bush’s presidency further narrows, the "now-it’s-off, now-it’s-on" game of political poker over the agreement has taken another turn in New Delhi.

VENEZUELA: Gov’t Celebrates British Ruling Against Exxon

Venezuela celebrated, as a triumph for countries of the developing South, Tuesday’s ruling in its favour by a British court in a legal dispute with U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil, which overturned an earlier court order to freeze around 12 billion dollars in Venezuelan assets.