Blogs


Unlocking Forests’ Potential in Latin America and the Caribbean  

Juanita Fonseca ˙ ˙ Voces

A cloud forest in Costa Rica Florent Mechain / Flickr / CC BY 2.0 DEED
Tropical forests, which cover 6 percent of Earth, are our planet’s largest natural carbon sink and our first line of defense against climate change. Even with massive human effort at reducing emissions, reaching the 1.5-degree target is not possible without forest restoration.    Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), whose forests…Read more +

Back to the Negotiating Table: Renewed Prospects of an EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement

Justin Kopek ˙ ˙ Voces

Photo of Lula and Scholz REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
In June 2019, after two decades of on and off negotiations, the European Union and Mercosur, the South American customs union consisting of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, reached an agreement to dramatically expand economic cooperation between the two blocs. This unprecedented free trade agreement would not only eliminate over…Read more +

Chile’s Coal Phase-Out: Opportunities for a Just Transition

Sarah Phillips, Ignacio Albe ˙ ˙ Voces

Smokestacks at a power plant Nick Humphries / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Chile’s initiative to fully phase out coal generation by 2040 will be critical for the Southern Cone country to comply with its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement. However, despite the urgency of slashing Chile’s emissions, ensuring that coal workers are not economically abandoned in the process exemplifies one of the main challenges for policymakers surrounding the just transition.Read more +