Environment

• Tuesday, August 27th 2019 - 07:38 UTC

  PM Johnson pledges £10 million to restore Amazon rainforest; UK wants to host 2020 climate change conference

  

  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday pledged £10 million (US$12.3 million) to help restore the Amazon rainforest that has been ravaged by fires, sparking a wave of global concern. The money would be made available immediately to help restore the habitat, including areas that have been hit by the fires, the British government said in a statement released at the G7 summit in the French resort of Biarritz.

• Monday, August 26th 2019 - 20:13 UTC

  Record number of fires in the Amazon rainforest coincides with a sharp drop in fines for environment violations

  

  The record number of fires in Brazil's Amazon rainforest has coincided with a sharp drop in fines for environmental violations, BBC analysis has found. Official data from Brazil's environment agency shows fines from January to 23 August dropped almost a third compared with the same period last year.

• Monday, August 26th 2019 - 19:13 UTC

  Brazilian warplanes dumpling water on the Amazon forest, but will it be enough?

  

  Brazilian warplanes are dumping water on the burning forest in the Amazon state of Rondonia, responding to a global outcry over the destruction of the world's largest tropical rainforest, according to a government video.

• Monday, August 26th 2019 - 18:42 UTC

  EU divided on ratification of trade pact with Mercosur, warns Donald Tusk

  

  The European Union Council president Donald Tusk said it was hard to imagine the bloc ratifying its trade pact with Mercosur as long as Brazil fails to curb the fires ravaging the Amazon rainforest. The EU “stands by the EU-Mercosur agreement”, Tusk told reporters at a G7 meeting in Biarritz in southern France.

• Monday, August 26th 2019 - 18:18 UTC

  Morales suspends re-election campaigning and calls for aid to fight blazes in the Bolivian Amazon

  

  Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Sunday he is open to international aid to fight the blazes that have engulfed rural villages and doubled in size since Thursday. Morales is also suspending his campaign for re-election for at least a week, just two months from election day, to focus on the wildfires.

• Monday, August 26th 2019 - 17:56 UTC

  New fires raging in the Amazon; agriculture sector warns Bolsonaro: “nationalistic bravado will not win the game”

  

  Hundreds of new fires are raging in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, official data showed, as thousands of troops were made available to help fight the worst blazes in years following a global outcry. Multiple fires billowing huge plumes of smoke into the air were seen across a vast area of the northwestern state of Rondonia.

• Monday, August 26th 2019 - 17:48 UTC

  Pope Francis calls for the protection of “the lung of forests vital for our planet”

  

  Pope Francis on Sunday called for a global commitment to put out the fires in the Amazon, saying the area was essential for the health of the planet. “We are all worried about the vast fires that have developed in the Amazon. Let us pray so that, with the commitment of all, they can be put out soon.”

• Saturday, August 24th 2019 - 16:23 UTC

  Amazon fires: Thousands of people protested in front of Brazilian embassies; Montevideo was not an exception

  

  Thousands of people gathered on Friday in front of Brazilian embassies in different cities around the world and Montevideo was no exception. Several hundred protesters, mostly young people, cut off busy Bulevar Artigas Avenue at the embassy of the Amazonian country, whose government is widely criticized for its environmental policies by countless NGOs around the world.

• Saturday, August 24th 2019 - 09:55 UTC

  G7 summit adds 'Amazon wildfires' to an already thorny agenda, which is scrapping a joint declaration

  

  G7 leaders gathering in France this weekend plan to hammer out “concrete measures” in response to the wildfires raging in the Amazon rainforest, putting them on a collision course with Brazil's rightwing leader.

• Saturday, August 24th 2019 - 09:08 UTC

  Climate activists protest outside Brazil embassy in London; PM Johnson described fires as “an international crisis”

  

  Climate change activists chanting slogans and waving banners demonstrated outside Brazil's embassy in London on Friday, urging President Jair Bolsonaro to do more to halt the fires in the Amazon rainforest.