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    Brazil’s PAC for Sanitation

    Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

    When Brazil’s multifaceted Program for Accelerated Growth (Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento – PAC) was announced in 2007, it included a segment earmarked for improving infrastructure in provision of drinking water and sanitation services. Today the head of the Civil House, Dilma Rousseff, and the Minister of Cities, Márcio Fortes, announced a list of 109 […]

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    More Progress on P2R2 in Brazil

    Monday, August 3rd, 2009

    Earlier this year I posted about how slowly Brazil’s states were taking up their role under the National Plan for the Prevention of, Preparation for and Response to Environmental Emergencies Involving Hazardous Chemicals Products (“P2R2”), and more recently about Environment Ministry (MMA) efforts to move things along. Now comes some new signs of movement among […]

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    The Most Sustainable Bank in Emerging Markets?

    Saturday, June 6th, 2009

    When the Financial Times and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced the winners of their annual Sustainable Banking Awards two days ago, guess who won among the emerging markets, beating out competitors from 37 countries? Brazil’s Itaú Unibanco.  Last year the winner also was a Brazilian bank, Banco Real (now part of Grupo Santander Brasil).  […]

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    Mato Grosso do Sul to Recycle Auto Glass

    Sunday, May 24th, 2009

    A few months ago the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo (ES) became the first jurisdiction in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to adopt a law on recycling auto glass.  Now it’s been joined by Mato Grosso do Sul (MS). Like the ES law it is modeled after, the new MS Law makes companies that […]

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    Pesticide Residue Levels in Brazilian Food

    Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

    Which fresh food sold in Brazil has been found most likely to present “irregular” pesticide residues — levels higher than those permitted by regulation, or even residues of pesticides banned or not authorized for use on the foodstuff it is found on? Peppers.  In 2008 more than 64% of the pepper samples analyzed by the […]

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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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    A Symbolic Ban of Asbestos

    Thursday, January 29th, 2009

    Brazil’s Environment Minister, Carlos Minc, just banned asbestos. Well, not quite.  He announced at the World Social Forum that has banned, through an administrative rule (portaria), the use of any product containing asbesto fibers in construction or goods acquired by the Environment Ministry (MMA) and its associated organs: the national environment agency, IBAMA, the Chico […]

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    More Refrigerator Swaps in the Name of Energy Savings

    Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

    The government of the central Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), in cooperation with the state electricity distributor Enersul, is handling out new top-rated (see the Procel energy efficiency seal on the upper right corner of that unit being offloaded from the truck?) energy-efficient refrigerators to low-income families in three cities — 250 […]

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    Pará Adopts a Recycling Policy

    Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

    Earlier this month Governor Simão Jatene signed a law creating a State Materials Recycling Policy for Pará. The new Law is based on similar measures adopted recently by its neighbor Amapá and by several other Brazilian states, including Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Rondônia (see the Temas list of waste/recycling legislation […]

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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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