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, […]
Latin America’s First Hydrogen Bus
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009Brazil is known for many “green” experiments and firsts in transportation. Think of Curitiba’s groundbreaking work on bus rapid transit, Brazil’s pioneering work on sugarcane ethanol and use of flex-fuel vehicles, the country’s aggressive biodiesel program, Vale’s trains run on biodiesel, Itaipu’s development of electric cars that can be charged from biodigestors, and the use […]
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 […]
Brazil Proposes Energy Labels for Buildings
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009Yesterday Brazil’s National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality (Inmetro) published for public comment in the official gazette (the Official Daily of the Union – Diário Oficial da União) a draft administrative rule (portaria) on the award of certification labels for energy efficiency in public, commercial and service buildings. It is supplemented by an […]
30% of Cancers in Brazil Preventable
Thursday, February 26th, 2009From World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF): Landmark report: many cancers could be prevented across the globe Over 40 per cent of bowel and breast cancer cases in the UK are preventable through healthy patterns of diet, physical activity and weight maintenance, according to estimates in a landmark report that has set out recommendations for policies […]
Trade in Used Cars in the Americas: Good for the Environment?
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009A recent working paper by two US economists looks at the environmental consequences of international trade in durable goods through data regarding trade in used cars between the United States and Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). [A tip of the hat to Rob over at Globalisation and the Environment for alerting […]
US$6.1 Billion Pledged for the Climate Investment Funds
Sunday, September 28th, 2008From the World Bank: Donor Nations Pledge Over $6.1 Billion to Climate Investment Funds Funds boost global fight against climate change Leading industrialized nations today pledged more than US$6.1 billion to the Climate Investment Funds, a pair of international investment instruments designed to provide interim, scaled-up funding to help developing countries in their efforts to […]
Closer US-Brazilian Energy Cooperation
Saturday, September 20th, 2008Last month the US Secretary of Energy and Brazil’s Energy Minister met and agreed to intensify cooperation between the two nations on energy-related technology and policy issues. I haven’t seen much about this in the regular press, so I thought I’d briefly flag it here. The two parties agreed “to focus on key areas of […]
Nominate a LAC Candidate for the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards
Saturday, September 20th, 2008The deadline for nominating candidates for these awards is 15 December. There are many worthy candidates in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) — my friends at Barbados Free Press, for example, have suggested a worthy one in the hopes that such an award will help boost tourism on that island. I am not going […]
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 […]
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