
The 34th meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Marine Living Resources closed Friday in Hobart, Tasmania with the unexpected emergence of China as a supporter for a revised Ross Sea MPA. The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) described the Commission’s slow progress to live up to its conservation responsibilities as “challenging”.

Describing Brazil as a valued partner of Britain, and champion on climate change and tackling deforestation, Minister of State for Latin America, Hugo Swire, attended on Wednesday the Amazon Day 2015 at the Brazilian embassy where he also met with ministers Texeira, Levy and Coutinho who are in London for the first UK-Brazil economic and financial dialogue round.

The Antarctic Ocean Alliance (AOA) called on the 25 member countries gathering on Monday for the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) to finally agree on lasting and significant Southern Ocean protection.

The US government has announced new curbs on oil and gas exploration in Arctic waters off Alaska's northern coast. It comes after oil giant Royal Dutch Shell last month stopped its Arctic activity citing “disappointing” tests.

Ice ship HMS Protector is heading for waters no Royal Navy vessel has visited in 80 years as she begins a marathon deployment to Antarctica. The Plymouth-based icebreaker and survey vessel will ensure the world’s fishermen are not stripping the largely-unspoiled waters of the Ross Sea of marine life.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced this week the creation of the Nazca-Desaventuradas Marine Park, giving Chile claim to the largest marine reserve in the Americas -- as well as the Easter Island Marine Park, which will be the third-largest fully protected marine area in the world.

The Director of The Prince’s Charities’ International Sustainability Unit (ISU) which has been set up to reflect The Prince of Wales’ vision and aims in the area of sustainable development, Justin Mundy is in Chile to participate in Our Ocean international conference.

Oil giant BP has agreed to pay $20bn to settle claims with the US stemming from the company's Deepwater Horizon oil spill. An explosion on BP's deep-water drill, off the coast of Louisiana in 2010 killed 11 workers.

Agricultural expansion is the chief contributing factor to the deforestation of Brazilian ecosystems and has accelerated in recent years, according to an official study released last week.

Over the past few months, scientists have been trying to explain an area of very cold temperatures in a part of the North Atlantic Ocean. In fact, when the rest of the world was recording above average highs in temperature, making the year the hottest to-date, this part of the Atlantic was cold. The area is being called the Atlantic blob.