When Gabriel Boric spoke to voters after winning Chile’s presidential election in December 2021, he said he did not want to see communities destroyed by development projects. Then he got specific, citing plans for Dominga, a massive iron and copper mine and port complex in the northern region of Coquimbo, as a potential case in point. His administration recently followed up in dramatic fashion. On Jan. 18, a committee of ministers overturned a previously issued approval for the US$2.5 billion project. Andes Iron, the Chilean sponsor of the project, announced it will appeal the six-minister committee’s decision in court. The fate of Dominga had been uncertain for years due to environmental concerns stemming from the project’s proposed coastal location, just 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Chile’s Humboldt Penguin National Reserve. Andes Iron began seeking government environmental approval for the project in 2013, but has since received a string...
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The state-owned Mexican oil company Pemex illegally burnt off US$342 million worth of gas and condensate resources in the three years ending in August 2022, the Reuters news service has reported. Three internal documents from the National Hydrocarbons Commission, Mexico’s lead oil and gas regulatory body, state that flaring destroyed hydrocarbons valued at US$275 million in the Ixachi oil and gas field in Veracruz state and US$67 million in the Quesqui oil and gas field in Tabasco state, the Reuters news service reported on Jan. 18. A mixture of methane, heptane, propane, hexane and other gasses are released as a natural byproduct of oil production. Methane is the lightest and most abundant so the term “flaring” mainly refers to burning methane, a particularly destructive greenhouse gas. Experts say methane has 80 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide during the first 20 years after it reaches...
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Fernando Meoli, a farm manager in the Argentine farming community of Coronel Pringles, shared a photo this month on Twitter showing a bag of grain that had been ripped open by a wild boar (Sus scrofa). The post drew comments from many other Argentine farmers who complained of similar problems. Wild boars were introduced into Argentina at the beginning of the 20th century to become a focus of wild-game hunting and are now estimated to live in at least 10 of the country’s 23 provinces. They are among the country’s most destructive invasive species, causing some US$1.38 billion in damage annually, according to a study and strategy blueprint prepared last year by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Argentine Environment Ministry. Experts say the animals damage cropland, attack small livestock, spread disease, and harm the food sources and young of native species such as Pampas...
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Brazil’s new government will be able to count on an environmental boost from the World Bank, which in December approved a US$500 million project, the bulk of it loan funding, to spur sustainability efforts in the country’s economy. The Brazil Climate Finance Project won the approval of the bank’s board of directors on Dec. 22. It will provide a US$400 million credit line to enable the government-controlled Banco do Brasil, a large retail bank, to extend loans to small and medium-sized businesses in Brazil that commit to using the funds to cut their carbon emissions. An additional US$98 million will be earmarked to establish a Climate Debt Fund aimed at leveraging private capital for sustainability-project finance in the broader economy. These funds will be used by Banco do Brasil to buy bonds from Brazilian companies making credible emissions reductions in their own operations and...
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