Linking the Pharmacopeias of Argentina and Brazil
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009Brazil’s National Sanitary Vigilance Agency (Anvisa) today issued a regulation (Resolution RDC 37) permitting reference chemical substances certified by either the Argentine Pharmacopeia or the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Pharmacopeia to be used for evaluating the quality of pharmaceutical raw materials (active ingredients and excipients) and medicines produced in Brazil. Anvisa already allowed that, […]
Caixa Creates Label for Sustainable Housing
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009Caixa Econômica Federal (CEF, popularly known among Brazilians as simply “Caixa”), Latin America’s largest public bank, is already involved in promoting green building though its insistence on construction using certified wood and its concessionary financing for the installation of the solar panels and water heaters in Brazil’s recently announced “My House My Life” Program to […]
Brazil a Leader in Green IT?
Sunday, April 12th, 2009I ran across this interesting “green IT” study released last month by IBM and the Info-Tech Research Group during the course of my work on a chapter on power management issues for a forthcoming book on green IT (information technology). Info-tech surveyed more than 1,000 IT executives at companies with 100-1,000 employees in 12 nations […]
Germans Provide $135 mil. for Brazilian Wind Power
Friday, March 27th, 2009From the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES): BNDES executes agreement with KfW to borrow US$ 135 million On March 23rd, the BNDES executed a US$ 135.58 million loan agreement with KfW Entwicklungsbank (the German Development Bank) to finance wind power plant projects to be installed in Brazil by Brazilian private companies. By executing this operation, the […]
Brazil Seeks to Lead in Stem-Cell Research
Monday, January 26th, 2009Brazil’s Health Ministry is sponsoring Brazilian research that has led to the production of the first line of induced pluripotent stem cells. Pluripotent stem cells are able to transform into any cell type. They are similar to embryonic stem cells but do not need to be obtained from embryos. Brazil becomes the fifth (and the […]
Brazil Now Third Largest Biodiesel Producer
Sunday, August 24th, 2008Synopsis in English: The Brazilian Presidency proudly proclaims that Brazil is now the third largest producer of biodeisel behind Germany and the US. Brazil now has 41 biodiesel production plants in commercial operation and 52 plants in the process of getting authorization from the National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuel Agency (Agência Nacional de Petróleo, […]
Cell Phone Recycling in Brazil Weak?
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008Last month Nokia publicized the results of a survey it commissioned of 6,500 consumers in 13 nations, among them Brazil (the only LAC nation included). By now you know the drill — this is The Temas Blog, so we care mostly about the LAC nation involved and very little about the other 12! [Besides, I […]
More Glass Packaging Recovery, Less Piracy?
Sunday, October 7th, 2007When discussing recovery/recycling among packaging materials in Brazil, glass sometimes suffers by comparison. Brazil is a world leader in recycling PET and aluminum cans, and high among recyclers of corrugated cardboard (77%). Brazil’s 45% annual recycling rate for glass packaging is better than the glass packaging rate for the US (but then again, the US […]
Global Bioenergy Partnership Launches Its Website
Thursday, May 10th, 2007Temas Observation: It is curious that Mexico is one of the GBEP Partners, but Brazil is not. I wonder what Brasilia has to say about that? From the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): Global Bioenergy Partnership web site launched today Promotes information sharing on bioenergy The Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) today unveiled its […]
LAC Fares Well in Climate Change Performance Index
Tuesday, November 14th, 2006The Climate Action Network – Europe (CAN-Europe) and the German environment research organization, Germanwatch, have just released the 2007 version of their Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) at the meeting currently underway in Nairobi of the Contracting Parties (CPs) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol. Germanwatch first […]