By putting more rainforest land under its umbrella this year, Brazil’s Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) program will reach its target of safeguarding 60 million hectares (231,700 sq miles) of rainforest, or 14% of the Brazilian Amazon, three years ahead of schedule, the country’s Environment Ministry has announced. ARPA was set up in 2002 by Brazil’s government with the help of donors including the World Bank’s Global Environment Facility, the Inter-American Development Bank, the German and Norwegian governments, the environmental organization WWF and private philanthropists. Targeting the Brazilian Amazon, its aims are to establish new protected areas, improve management of existing parks, open new sustainable-use reserves in which environmentally compatible economic activity is permitted and create a trust fund to ensure long-term...
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Despite the low prices for carbon credits derived from clean-energy and forest-conservation initiatives around the world, Latin America managed last year to attract more money for such projects on voluntary markets than any other region. In 2014, the region accounted for US$109 million in voluntary carbon market investment, compared to $93 million for Africa, and $34 million for Asia, according to a report released in June by Forest Trends, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit. Europe and the United States drew even less, in part because they operate obligatory compliance markets through the European Union Emissions Trading System and California’s cap-and-trade program, experts say. Governments and companies use voluntary markets to buy carbon credits from project developers, or brokers, as a means...
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Costa Rica has become the first country in Latin America where builders can take part in a building certification program made available by the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank unit that helps finance private-sector projects in developing nations. Designed specifically for developing nations, the Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies system (EDGE) helps builders upgrade their plans with an eye to improving the energy efficiency of their finished projects. Using specially designed software and drawing on local case studies, EDGE as a first step analyzes building plans and identifies areas where efficiency can be improved, then gives the developers free recommendations on how to improve their projects’ carbon footprint. Developers who are serious about creating sustainable buildings then can pursue full certification. To...
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An Argentine judge has ordered a freeze on US$156.4 million in assets belonging to five British companies carrying out offshore oil exploration near the Falkland Islands, the South Atlantic archipelago Argentina claims as its own and calls Las Islas Malvinas. The June 25 order by a federal judge in the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego followed an April 9 legal complaint by the Argentine government that the exploration activity is illegal and poses an “enormous environmental risk.” Its practical effect is unclear, however, as the companies’ assets are outside Argentina. The companies in question are Rockhopper Exploration, Premier Oil, Falkland Oil And Gas, Noble Energy and Edison International. They have been conducting exploratory drilling by permission of the British government, whose claims of...
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