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Loading ...A Bill to Require EIAs Before Packaging Drinks in Plastic
Saturday, May 30th, 2009Last year in a post about efforts in Brazil to stop the sale of beer in PET bottles, I explored some of the possible ramifications of an April 2008 rejection by a federal judge of all challenges to a 2002 ruling that brewers wishing to bottle their beer in PET or any other plastic must […]
Peru Opens Public Consultations on Draft National Environment Policy / Peru pone en consulta pública borrador de política nacional del ambiente
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009Peru’s Environment Ministry (Minam) is circulating for public comment its proposal for a National Environment Policy. Interested parties can submit comments and suggestions through a web-based form. Minam will also be holding consultative workshops on the draft Policy in Lima and four regions. The draft Policy is clear and concise, with a set of overarching […]
Using Community Mapping to Combat Deforestation / Utilizando mapeamento participativo para combatir o desmatamento
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009Temas Observation: I have long stressed the importance of good data-gathering and diagnosis as the basis for sound action, and advocated getting individuals, civic groups and communities involved in such work. Hence I applaud this effort led by Greenpeace. As their press releases point out, combating deforestation in the Amazon is difficult in part because […]
Brazilian Resistance to Beer in PET Bottles
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008Brazilian brewers wanting to market their beers in PET bottles are not having a good year. First a court ruling that such bottles pose a significant risk to the environment, and therefore require environmental impact studies and licensing. Then a state ban on pigmented PET, and now a looming state ban on PET bottles for […]
O futuro é hoje!
Thursday, September 27th, 2007It is a pleasure to welcome a second guest post by Brazilian Federal Deputy Arnaldo Jardim — for a full introduction please see his "Cidadania Ambiental." As I mentioned in that post, for those of you who cannot read Portuguese, you can always use the handy translation button in the righthand column of this blog. […]
Chile Reforms Its EIA System
Wednesday, August 8th, 2007Synopsis in English: Last week in a joint press conference featuring the Chilean Ministers of Environment, Treasury, Economy, Energy and Mining presented a package of measures intended to make the national Environment Impact Assessment System (Sistema de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental – SEIA) more “efficient” and “agile.” The measures were mostly drafted by the National […]
Assessing the Lamberts Windfarm Proposal
Thursday, June 7th, 2007Back in my post “A Sustainable Energy Plan for Barbados?“, I mentioned that a linchpin of the Barbados government plan to expand the use of renewable sources in the island’s power supply was Barbados Light & Power’s (BLP) plans for a windfarm at Lamberts, St. Lucy. That proposal is hardly a “done deal” yet, though.
An IDB-Sponsored “Blueprint for Green Energy in the Americas”
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007At the briefing on the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) biofuel investment plans for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), the Bank finally released the study it commissioned from consultant Garten Rothkopf on biofuels entitled “A Blueprint for Green Energy in the Americas.” To download the various portions of the study, follow this link. I confess […]
A Sustainable Biofuels Policy for Chile?
Monday, March 19th, 2007I scribbled some notes on this story when the report was first released in late January. But when I could not get back to finishing and publishing it right away, I thought about just dropping it because I half-expected President Bachelet to act on it quickly. Instead she appears to be holding off, digesting it […]
PAC’ing Brazil III: Energy, Petrochemicals and Biofuels
Saturday, March 3rd, 2007In Part I, I provided an overview of what the Program for Accelerated Growth (Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento – PAC) proposed by President Lula is and why it matters to the issues I discuss in The Temas Blog. I also discussed its most direct impact on environment policy, the proposed changes in environmental licensing. […]