In recent weeks, countries like Chile, Colombia and Ecuador have seen massive demonstrations in their cities, with protesters railing against their governments’ inadequate responses to the population’s needs. Bolivia recently entered the UNDP’s group of countries with high human development, joining Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil. Yet, when adjusting for inequality, all of them fell in the rankings, “Brazil’s snapshot of average income, education and health is even worse when we incorporate the distance between Brazilians on these things,” said Marcelo Neri, who directs the social policy department at the Getulio Vargas Foundation university. “Brazil was the pioneer of big protests in 2013. In that sense, all of Brazil’s economic and now social decadence is a worrisome preview for our Latin neighbors.”

Dec 10, 2019 - Riviera

Designs for a fleet of LNG- and battery hybrid towboats and LNG tank barges will be developed by naval architect Robert Allan Ltd in partnership with inland operator Hidrovias do Brasil to underpin new gas-to-power projects in Brazil. In an announcement at the International Workboat Show in New Orleans, the Canadian naval architect said it would develop gas-powered pushboats and cryogenic transport barges for Hidrovias do Brasil to transport LNG in the Amazon Basin. The goal is to meet regional demand in Brazil from local thermo-electric plants and industrial complexes with combined demand potential of over 5M m3 of natural gas/day

Dec 10, 2019 - Al jazeera

Brazil will push to expand oil drilling in its massive "pre-salt" oil and gas area off its coast in spite of growing global concerns about climate change, the country's energy minister told Reuters on Monday. The country's Mines and Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque spoke on the sidelines of a climate summit underway in Madrid where leaders from the United Nations have been urging countries to do the opposite and aggressively cut emissions of climate-altering gases that come largely from fossil fuels, or risk a global catastrophe.

Dec 10, 2019 - BNAmericas

Italy's Enel is facing the risk of Brazil’s Goiás state terminating its power distribution concession due to quality issues, a move the company says would be unconstitutional. Terminating the contract has the backing of governor Ronaldo Caiado, who claims Enel did not improve the quality of distribution services since it acquired the former Celg-D, which was owned by federal power company Eletrobras, in a privatization process concluded in 2017. Caiado supports a bill in the state assembly to end the concession. The main problem the market sees regarding the issue is that the state would be ending a concession that was signed by the federal government, which could create legal uncertainties regarding other electric power concessions in the country just as the government plans more privatizations.