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    Brazil Preparing New National Wind Atlas

    Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

    Agência Brasil reports that Eletrobrás‘ Energy Research Center (Centro de Pesquisas de Energia – Cepel) is preparing a new national wind atlas for release in late 2010.  Researchers feel that the existing wind atlas, prepared in 2001, may have greatly underestimated Brazil’s potential for electricity generation through wind.  At that time, the potential was estimated […]

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    Directional Signals in Brazilian Federal Waste Policy

    Monday, August 17th, 2009

    A body most people have never heard of, part of a larger organization many people do not know or understand, met today and took a series of decisions that will help shape new directions in waste policy in Brazil. The larger organization many do not know and a good many do not understand is Brazil’s […]

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    A Solar Atlas for Alagoas

    Monday, April 20th, 2009

    Just months after issuing an atlas of its wind power potential, the governor of the small northeastern Brazilian state of Alagoas just formally received an atlas of its solar power potential.  The new atlas is the product of a joint effort of the state government, Brazil’s state-controlled utility Eletrobras, and the Federal University of Pernambuco […]

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    Brazil Increases Pesticide Packaging Take-Back

    Saturday, March 28th, 2009

    I’ve posted before on The Temas Blog (here, here and here) about Brazil’s amazingly successful program at recovering used pesticide packaging, which is achieving recovery rates higher than in many OECD nations. Well folks, Brazil continues to improve on this front: the National Institute for Processing Empty Packaging (inpEV), the industry-appointed group solely in charge […]

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    Not Always Easy Exporting Ethanol

    Saturday, February 21st, 2009

    To hear some biofuel critics tell it, ethanol from sugarcane is being produced in Brazil without regard to its environmental impacts, and certification requirements in export markets such as Europe do not influence such behavior. Hearing of cases such as the one below gives me doubts about such charges. The sugar and alcohol producers in […]

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    Justice Ministry to Service Firms: Improve Customer Service, or Else

    Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

    Regulated service sectors are not complying with Brazil’s new rules on customer service, despite being given a (brief) grace period in order to bring their operations into line. So declared the Justice Ministry’s (MJ) Department of Protection of Consumer Rights (DPDC), which is now handing out fines, naming names, scrutinizing practices and issuing warnings. The […]

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    Brazil’s Poor Advance Less in Health MDGs / Pobres avançam menos em ODM de saúde

    Sunday, February 1st, 2009

    In a prior post I discussed how a new web portal (Portal ODM) has been created in Brazil, with help from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UNICEF, that would allow anyone who wishes to track (and perhaps influence) Brazil’s progress at the municipal level toward achieving the the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).* I […]

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    A Wind Map for Alagoas

    Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

    A wind atlas has been delivered to the government of the northeastern Brazilian state of Alagoas that was developed by the Curitiba-based Institute of Technology for Development (Instituto de Tecnologia para o Desenvolvimento – Lactec) in cooperation with the Federal University of Alagoas (Ufal) and the firm Camargo Schubert.  [Click on the image at right […]

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    Brazilian States Publicize Consumer Complaints

    Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

    In September the 21 Brazilian state consumer agencies (known in Brazil as “Procons”) belonging to the National System of Consumer Defense Information (Sistema Nacional de Informações de Defesa do Consumidor – SINDEC) opened (mostly on the internet) their registries of consumer complaints, including their rankings of which firms were the subject of the greatest number […]

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    CNPq vai investir R$ 22 milhões em biodiesel / CNPq to Invest R$22 Million in Biodiesel Production Research

    Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

    Brazil’s National Council on Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) has announced that it will invest R$22 million to stimulate research into improving biodiesel production.  The offering involves four different calls for proposals, and involves funds from the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – FNDCT), CNPq’s Agro-business […]

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