Integration and Development Brazilian-style

Nicaragua’s Interoceanic Canal, a Nightmare for Environmentalists

By José Adán Silva
The international scientific community’s fears about the damage that will be caused by Nicaragua’s future interoceanic canal have been reinforced by the environmental impact assessment, which warns of serious environmental threats posed by the megaproject.

Brazil’s Megaprojects, a Short-lived Dream

By Mario Osava
Working as a musician in a military band is the dream of 21-year-old Jackson Coutinho, since hopes that a petrochemical complex would drive the industrialisation of this Brazilian city near Rio de Janeiro have gone up in smoke.

Cuba’s Extra-Heavy Crude Awaits Technology and Investment

By Ivet González
Cuba's oil industry only exploits five percent of the petroleum found in onshore and offshore deposits due to a lack of foreign capital and technology to develop oilfields like Varadero 1000, the country's biggest oil operation until now.

Itaborai, a City of White Elephants and Empty Offices

By Mario Osava
Itaboraí still recalls its origins as a sprawling city that sprang up along a highway, not far from Rio de Janeiro. But a few years ago big modern buildings began to sprout all over this city in southeast Brazil, whose offices and shops are almost all empty today.

Shale Drives Uncertain New Geoeconomics of Oil

By Emilio Godoy
The emergence of fracking has modified the global market for fossil fuels. But the plunge in oil prices has diluted the effect, in a struggle that experts in the United States believe conventional producers could win in the next decade.

Brazil’s Expanded Climate Targets Frustrate Environmentalists

By Mario Osava
Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction programme, hailed as bold, has nevertheless left environmentalists frustrated at its lack of ambition in key aspects.

Mexican Government Depends More and More on Private Business Partners

By Emilio Godoy
The Mexican government has increasingly turned to public–private partnerships (PPPs) to build infrastructure in the energy industry and other areas. But critics say this system operates under a cloak of opacity and is plagued by the discretional use of funds.

How to Fix Environmental Woes in Buenos Aires Shantytown

By Fabiana Frayssinet
Children have been poisoned by lead in Villa Inflamable, a shantytown on the south side of the capital of Argentina. Resettling their families involves a socioenvironmental process as complex as the sanitation works in one of the most polluted river basins in the world.

Activists Say Fracking Fails to ‘Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful’

By Emilio Godoy
U.S. activist Vera Scroggins has been sued five times by the oil industry, and since October 2013 she has faced a restraining order banning her from any properties owned or leased by one of the biggest players in Pennsylvania’s natural gas rush, Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation.

Opinion: Brazil’s Crisis is a Blessing and a Curse

By Tarso Genro
The Lula development model that lifted 35 million people out of poverty and raised living standards for another 20 million people during the governments of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011) has run its course.

Crisis in Brazil Hampers Infrastructure under Construction

By Mario Osava
Besides suffering from macroeconomic imbalances, like a drop in GDP, a high inflation rate and a large public deficit, Brazil is experiencing heavy losses as many oil industry and logistical works grind to a halt.

Two Indigenous Solar Engineers Changed Their Village in Chile

By Marianela Jarroud
Liliana and Luisa Terán, two indigenous women from northern Chile who travelled to India for training in installing solar panels, have not only changed their own future but that of Caspana, their remote village nestled in a stunning valley in the Atacama desert.

Local Development, the Key to Legitimising Amazon Hydropower Dams

By Mario Osava
In the case of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in Brazil, the projects aimed at mitigating the social impacts have been delayed. But in other cases, infrastructure such as hospitals and water and sewage pipes could improve the image of the hydropower plants on Brazil’s Amazon rainforest rivers, turning them into a factor of effective local development.

Plant in Chile Opens South America’s Doors to Geothermal Energy

By Marianela Jarroud
Chile, a land of volcanoes and geysers, has started building South America’s first geothermal plant, which would open a door to this kind of renewable energy in this country that depends largely on fossil fuels.

China’s Economy Has Sounded the Alert; Will Latin America Listen?

By Diego Arguedas Ortiz
For years, Latin America has exported its raw materials to China’s voracious factories, fuelling economic growth. But now that the Asian giant is putting a priority on domestic consumption over industrial production, how will this region react?

Presalt Oil Drives Technological Development in Brazil

By Mario Osava
The extraction of deepwater oil, the most abundant kind in Brazil, is costly but foments technological and industrial development, requiring increasingly complex production equipment and techniques.

Latin America Has Enormous Untapped Potential for Green Infrastructure

By Diego Arguedas Ortiz
Latin America is facing a two-pronged challenge: double power generation by 2050 while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The only solution? Green energy.

Money, Knowledge and Controversy in Brazil’s Development Bank

By Mario Osava
Brazil’s rush to build hydroelectric dams, refineries, railways, ports and other megaprojects since the last decade, not only at home but in other countries as well, has been fueled by the sheer volume of financing from its development bank.

Belo Monte Dam Marks a Before and After for Energy Projects in Brazil

By Mario Osava
Paulo de Oliveira drives a taxi in the northern Brazilian city of Altamira, but only when he is out of work in what he considers his true profession: operator of heavy vehicles like trucks, mixers or tractor loaders.

Central America Fails to Take Advantage of Energy from Sun, Wind and Earth

By Diego Arguedas Ortiz
Central America, a place of abundant wind and sunshine, is still chained to thermal power and large-scale hydroelectricity and has failed to include local communities in clean, environmentally-friendly and less invasive projects.

Opinion: A BRICS Bank to Challenge the Bretton Woods System?

By Daya Thussu
The formal opening of the BRICS Bank in Shanghai on Jul. 21 following the seventh summit of the world’s five leading emerging economies held recently in the Russian city of Ufa, demonstrates the speed with which an alternative global financial architecture is emerging.
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