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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/natural-gas/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 08 Aug 2026 02:26:22 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Natural Gas</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/natural-gas/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>A village biogas project tests Zambia’s push to improve rural energy access</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-village-biogas-project-tests-zambias-push-to-improve-rural-energy-access/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-village-biogas-project-tests-zambias-push-to-improve-rural-energy-access/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2026 07:44:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sokosi Silvester Banda]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/29072823/Photo-4-Nkhundwe-Plant--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318367</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Economics, Energy, Environment, Governance, Natural Gas, and Solar Power]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LUSAKA, Zambia — In Nkhundye, a farming community in Zambia’s Eastern province, cattle dung from a communal kraal, a traditional livestock enclosure, is being used to produce energy for cooking, to run irrigation pumps, and to meet some electricity needs. The biogas plant is managed by the Nkhundye Community Cooperative, whose members collectively keep some [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LUSAKA, Zambia — In Nkhundye, a farming community in Zambia’s Eastern province, cattle dung from a communal kraal, a traditional livestock enclosure, is being used to produce energy for cooking, to run irrigation pumps, and to meet some electricity needs. The biogas plant is managed by the Nkhundye Community Cooperative, whose members collectively keep some 300 head of cattle. The dung from the animals is fed into a biodigester that produces methane gas, which is used as a cooking fuel. As of March 2026, the project was providing biogas to 100 households. The cooperative comprises roughly 600 households and the operation is gradually being expanded to cover all members and nearby communities, according to the company Biogas Technology in Zambia, which is a partner in the project. Homes within 100 meters (330 feet) of the biogas plant receive gas through underground pipes, while those further away receive storage bags with enough methane to last three to five days, depending on use. A community member cooks using biogas in Nkhundye village in Eastern province, Zambia. Image courtesy of Biogas Technology in Zambia. Community members use the biogas for cooking through adapted biogas stoves. All the project equipment was supplied free of cost to the consumers, including fittings to install the connections. Household stoves are connected directly to gas storage bags using a valve and pipes. The process starts with mixing cow dung with water and feeding it into the sealed biodigester. Inside the biodigester, anaerobic bacteria break down the waste, producing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-village-biogas-project-tests-zambias-push-to-improve-rural-energy-access/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-village-biogas-project-tests-zambias-push-to-improve-rural-energy-access/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318367</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>DRC: Can the Kivu–Kinshasa Green Corridor turn a war economy into one of hope?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/drc-can-the-kivu-kinshasa-green-corridor-transform-a-war-economy-into-an-economy-of-hope/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/drc-can-the-kivu-kinshasa-green-corridor-transform-a-war-economy-into-an-economy-of-hope/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Apr 2026 13:33:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/20113123/image3__26337668410_35828ed6c6_k-1536x1024-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317778</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Economics, Environment, Lakes, Mining, Natural Gas, Oil, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo — Félix Tshisekedi is banking on one of Africa’s most ambitious conservation and development plans to transform the future of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He recently reiterated this vision in Bandundu during the annual Conference of Provincial Governors. “Through this Green Corridor, we are choosing to replace [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo — Félix Tshisekedi is banking on one of Africa’s most ambitious conservation and development plans to transform the future of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He recently reiterated this vision in Bandundu during the annual Conference of Provincial Governors. “Through this Green Corridor, we are choosing to replace a war economy with an economy of life, work, and hope,” Tshisekedi said. According to official documents and public statements, the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor would stretch from eastern DRC all the way to Kinshasa in the west. If implemented as planned, it would cover more than 544,270 square kilometers (210144 sq miles) —an area comparable in size to France—and would integrate conservation, economic development, and community protection. The initiative was first announced during the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2025. An aerial view of the village of Lac Paku within the peatland forest near Mbandaka, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Green Corridor traverses the Équateur province. Image by Daniel Beltrá/Greenpeace. Conservation Spaces and Drivers of Economic Stability Individuals involved in the planning process told Mongabay that the initiative could create more than 500,000 jobs—particularly for youth and women—preserve over one million hectares of land, and transport food products from the East to the major consumer market in Kinshasa. For the Congolese government, the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor goes beyond mere forest protection. &#8220;The objective is to protect our forests, restore ecosystems, create sustainable jobs, support responsible agriculture, stimulate local processing, and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/drc-can-the-kivu-kinshasa-green-corridor-transform-a-war-economy-into-an-economy-of-hope/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/drc-can-the-kivu-kinshasa-green-corridor-transform-a-war-economy-into-an-economy-of-hope/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317778</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Energy crisis revives push to drill in Philippines’ largest intact wetland</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/energy-crisis-revives-push-to-drill-in-philippines-largest-intact-wetland/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/energy-crisis-revives-push-to-drill-in-philippines-largest-intact-wetland/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Apr 2026 21:11:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bong S. Sarmiento]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/17185118/Philippine-Duck-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317714</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Natural Gas, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Resource Conflict, War, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MINDANAO, Philippines — There’s been a renewed push in the Philippines to develop oil and gas deposits in the southern Liguasan Marsh, prompted by the energy crisis caused by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has drawn criticism from environmental groups. The 288,000-hectare (712,000-acre) Liguasan Marsh, the largest intact wetland in the Philippines and home [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MINDANAO, Philippines — There’s been a renewed push in the Philippines to develop oil and gas deposits in the southern Liguasan Marsh, prompted by the energy crisis caused by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has drawn criticism from environmental groups. The 288,000-hectare (712,000-acre) Liguasan Marsh, the largest intact wetland in the Philippines and home to diverse fauna and flora, is considered by nonprofit conservation group BirdLife International an “important bird and biodiversity area” (IBA). A sizeable portion of Liguasan, on the southern island of Mindanao, has been declared a game refuge and bird sanctuary since 1941. The marsh is home to the critically endangered Philippine crocodile (Crocodylus mindorensis) and is the country’s last frontier for Tachybaptus ruficollis cotabato, a subspecies of the little grebe found only here, and the comb-crested jacana (Irediparra gallinacea). It also contains a significant volume of untapped oil and gas. A portion of the vast Liguasan Marsh beckons along the highway in Maguindanao province in the Bangsamoro region in the southern Philippines, in 2021. Image by Bong S. Sarmiento. In the 1990s, a joint exploration by the state-owned Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) and its Malaysian counterpart, Petronas, found that at least 202 million barrels of recoverable crude oil and 6 billion cubic feet of natural gas sit within Liguasan Marsh. Exploration did not proceed further due to ongoing conflict between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a 40,000-strong armed group fighting for the right of self-determination in the southern Philippines. A&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/energy-crisis-revives-push-to-drill-in-philippines-largest-intact-wetland/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/energy-crisis-revives-push-to-drill-in-philippines-largest-intact-wetland/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317714</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Hidden heroes: Australian tree bark microbes consume greenhouse &#038; toxic gases</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/hidden-heroes-australian-tree-bark-microbes-consume-greenhouse-toxic-gases/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/hidden-heroes-australian-tree-bark-microbes-consume-greenhouse-toxic-gases/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jan 2026 16:31:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/15105459/2.-Luke-Jeffrey-tree-climbing-wetland-Melaleuca-to-measure-gas-fluxes_credit-Luke-Jeffrey-Southern-Cross-Uni-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312991</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, Methane, Natural Gas, Pollution, Reforestation, Research, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Microbes living in tree bark consume vast amounts of climate-related and toxic gases, according to new research published Jan. 8 in Science. In the past, tree bark was considered little more than an inert protective covering for trees and unlikely to support significant microbial life. But over the last decade, research has found that microbes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Microbes living in tree bark consume vast amounts of climate-related and toxic gases, according to new research published Jan. 8 in Science. In the past, tree bark was considered little more than an inert protective covering for trees and unlikely to support significant microbial life. But over the last decade, research has found that microbes not only thrive in tree bark, but they consume methane, a phenomenon significant on a global scale. This knowledge caused scientists at Australia’s Monash and Southern Cross universities to wonder if microbial communities living in tree bark might also be utilizing and absorbing other ubiquitous atmospheric gases, a line of reasoning that turned out to be “spot on,” says Pok Man Leung, a research fellow at Monash University and the study’s co-lead author. The research team sampled the bark of eight common Australian trees across different biomes in subtropical eastern Australia. They then used metagenetics along with laboratory and field-based measurements of gas fluxes to determine what kinds of microbes lived in the bark, and what they were doing. Melaleuca wetland forest on the Tweed Coast of Australia, a hotspot for tree bark microbial life. Image courtesy of Luke Jeffrey/Southern Cross University. They found that the trees’ bark was brimming with microbes that digest methane, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Methane is at least 20 times more potent as carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, while hydrogen and carbon monoxide are considered indirect greenhouse gases. Carbon monoxide and VOCs are both harmful&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/hidden-heroes-australian-tree-bark-microbes-consume-greenhouse-toxic-gases/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/hidden-heroes-australian-tree-bark-microbes-consume-greenhouse-toxic-gases/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312991</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Saving forests won’t be enough if fossil fuels beneath them are still extracted, experts warn</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/saving-forests-wont-be-enough-if-fossil-fuels-beneath-them-are-still-extracted-experts-warn/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/saving-forests-wont-be-enough-if-fossil-fuels-beneath-them-are-still-extracted-experts-warn/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Nov 2025 11:25:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/02172845/kaltim_191418z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310184</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Brazil, China, Global, India, and Indonesia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Coal, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Fossils, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Natural Gas, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BELÉM, Brazil — A new analysis warns that the world is overlooking a major source of future emissions hidden beneath tropical forests — and that Brazil’s newly launched Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) could dramatically expand its climate impact by addressing it. Published by the nonprofit Leave it in the Ground Initiative (LINGO), the study overlays [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BELÉM, Brazil — A new analysis warns that the world is overlooking a major source of future emissions hidden beneath tropical forests — and that Brazil’s newly launched Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) could dramatically expand its climate impact by addressing it. Published by the nonprofit Leave it in the Ground Initiative (LINGO), the study overlays forest cover with national fossil fuel deposit maps and finds that forests in 68 countries sit on top of oil, gas and coal deposits whose extraction would release an estimated 317 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases. When including all resources, not just proven reserves, the figure rises to 4.6 trillion metric tons. The 317 gigaton (Gt) figure alone exceeds the remaining global carbon budget to keep warming below 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit), raising the stakes for countries that may be asked to choose between forest protection and fossil fuel extraction. “[We found] that governments were quite unwilling to stop fossil fuel extraction, even if it’s a national park, even if it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, or other categories of nature conservation,” LINGO director Kjell Kühne said at a side event of the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil. LINGO argues that forests sitting on fossil reserves face heightened risk, as authorities may see extraction as too financially valuable to forgo — even where forests are intact or legally protected. Maps of TFFF biomes with underlying oil/gas and coal. Image courtesy of LINGO A blind spot in forest finance All forests identified in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/saving-forests-wont-be-enough-if-fossil-fuels-beneath-them-are-still-extracted-experts-warn/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/saving-forests-wont-be-enough-if-fossil-fuels-beneath-them-are-still-extracted-experts-warn/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310184</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Offshore fossil fuel exploration jeopardizes Brazil&#8217;s climate leadership, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/offshore-fossil-fuel-exploration-jeopardizes-brazils-climate-leadership-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/offshore-fossil-fuel-exploration-jeopardizes-brazils-climate-leadership-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Nov 2025 22:39:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lucas Berti]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/14211603/Oil_platform_P-51_Brazil-scaled-e1763155424616-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309605</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Fossil Fuels, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Natural Gas, Oceans, Oil, and Oil Drilling]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This November, as Brazil opened the curtains to host the U.N. Climate Conference, COP30, in the Amazonian city of Belém, the troubles orbiting the country&#8217;s environmental agenda were featured in a new report by U.S.-based conservation technology nonprofit SkyTruth, which is dedicated to satellite-based environmental monitoring. In the run-up to the climate summit, the study [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This November, as Brazil opened the curtains to host the U.N. Climate Conference, COP30, in the Amazonian city of Belém, the troubles orbiting the country&#8217;s environmental agenda were featured in a new report by U.S.-based conservation technology nonprofit SkyTruth, which is dedicated to satellite-based environmental monitoring. In the run-up to the climate summit, the study revealed the growing impact offshore oil and gas structures pose to Brazil’s vulnerable areas, especially in biodiverse marine regions such as the mouth of the Amazon River. At a time when global eyes have turned to the Amazonian city, leading to increasing interest in the environmental solutions Brazil seeks to offer, the investigation questioned the host nation’s role as a climate leader. As one of its main arguments, the report jumped into the dilemmas of an economic model that remains highly dependent on something that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva&#8217;s administration has been promising to replace: Fossil fuels. The investigation maps oil spill-driven pollution and highlights rapid growth in both the traffic of oil industry vessels and the level of methane emissions, released through leaks during extraction. The numbers come in the wake of the expansion of the energy sector itself, which is growing in the opposite direction of the search for less-polluting energy sources. According to SkyTruth, “between 2014 and 2024, Brazil’s oil production increased by more than 49% and natural gas production increased by over 78%.” The study points to contradictions in the Brazilian government’s climate rhetoric: In October, as Lula&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/offshore-fossil-fuel-exploration-jeopardizes-brazils-climate-leadership-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/offshore-fossil-fuel-exploration-jeopardizes-brazils-climate-leadership-study-says/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309605</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Construction of TotalEnergies pipeline cuts through coral reefs in Mozambique</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/construction-of-totalenergies-pipeline-cuts-through-coral-reefs-in-mozambique/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/construction-of-totalenergies-pipeline-cuts-through-coral-reefs-in-mozambique/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Nov 2025 15:20:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/18104327/coral-reef-mozambique-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309730</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Environment, Environmental Law, Global Environmental Crisis, Industry, Infrastructure, Marine, Marine Conservation, Natural Gas, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past year, a dredger operated by Dutch company Van Oord cut through a coral reef off the coast of northern Mozambique, part of the construction of French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies’ troubled liquefied natural gas project in Cabo Delgado. Data scientists analyzing satellite imagery and vessel data have found that a massive [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past year, a dredger operated by Dutch company Van Oord cut through a coral reef off the coast of northern Mozambique, part of the construction of French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies’ troubled liquefied natural gas project in Cabo Delgado. Data scientists analyzing satellite imagery and vessel data have found that a massive chunk of coral has been dredged out of the ecologically sensitive reef. The 32 islands of the Quirimbas Archipelago extend from the mouth of the Rovuma River, on the Mozambique-Tanzania border, to Pemba Bay in the south. The archipelago is home to a high number of endemic and threatened species, including coelacanths (Latimeria chalumnae), dugongs (Dugong dugon) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas). Its coastal and littoral zone have estuaries and mangrove forests. “Of all the tropical oceans, the Indian Ocean by the Mozambique Channel is the ocean with the highest surface temperature increase, so corals are under stress,” said Daniel Ribeiro from the environmental justice organization Justiça Ambiental (JA!). “The ability to recover after damage is much lower because of these factors.” There are four major gas projects in the Rovuma Basin, including ENI’s Coral North floating liquefied natural gas project, which is the only one currently operational. TotalEnergies’ Mozambique LNG project was suspended in 2021, following an attack on facilities by insurgents. TotalEnergies and Exxon stopped work on their gas projects while regional troops joined the Mozambican army in battling the insurgents. In October 2025, the French company announced&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/construction-of-totalenergies-pipeline-cuts-through-coral-reefs-in-mozambique/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309730</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>These banks fund oil &#038; gas in the Amazon amid climate crisis: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/these-banks-fund-oil-gas-in-the-amazon-amid-climate-crisis-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/these-banks-fund-oil-gas-in-the-amazon-amid-climate-crisis-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2025 16:34:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/07095405/Nemonte-Nenquimo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308813</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Banking, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Deforestation, Environment, extractives, Finance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Natural Gas, Oceans, Oil, Oil Drilling, Oil Spills, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, a sprawling industrial facility has been carved out of the rainforest. This is the Camisea Gas Complex, a natural gas mega-field operated by a consortium of oil companies led by Argentina’s Pluspetrol. The complex now supplies 70% of Peru’s liquefied petroleum gas, primarily used for cooking. But the project has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, a sprawling industrial facility has been carved out of the rainforest. This is the Camisea Gas Complex, a natural gas mega-field operated by a consortium of oil companies led by Argentina’s Pluspetrol. The complex now supplies 70% of Peru’s liquefied petroleum gas, primarily used for cooking. But the project has left behind a trail of socioenvironmental rights violations, from threats to the survival of isolated Indigenous people to failure to provide energy access to the communities closest to the complex — and on the frontlines of the multiple gas leaks that have contaminated the forest in the 20 years since production began. In September, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, deemed Pluspetrol responsible for environmental damage and Indigenous rights violations in the Peruvian Amazon. A plethora of banks help fund the Camisea Gas Complex. According to nonprofit Stand.earth, Pluspetrol’s local subsidiary and fellow consortium members Repsol and Hunt Oil Peru have received $3.1 billion in financing since 2016. At least 16 banks — including Citibank, JPMorganChase, Itaú Unibanco and HSBC — have provided funding in the last year. These numbers are part of a new report, “Banks vs. The Amazon,” which uncovers how global financial institutions continue to direct resources toward oil and gas extraction in Amazonia, contributing to the destruction of the rainforest and the rise of carbon emissions that contribute to higher global temperatures — despite some banks having adopted policies to end this. Between January 2024 and June 2025, direct&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/these-banks-fund-oil-gas-in-the-amazon-amid-climate-crisis-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308813</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>MPs across Latin America unite to stop fossil fuels in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mps-across-latin-america-unite-to-stop-fossil-fuels-in-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mps-across-latin-america-unite-to-stop-fossil-fuels-in-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2025 13:05:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/14165711/amazon_241209121112x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307268</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Latin America, and Peru]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, extractives, Forest Loss, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Law Enforcement, Mining, Natural Gas, Oil Drilling, Politics, Protected Areas, Saving Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BOGOTÁ, Colombia and SÃO PAULO, Brazil — On Oct. 7 in Brazil’s National Congress in Brasília, lawmakers, Indigenous leaders and civil society representatives gathered to present a global parliamentary investigation into the effort to phase out fossil fuels in the Amazon. The investigation, led by Parliamentarians for a Fossil-Free Future, a network of more than [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BOGOTÁ, Colombia and SÃO PAULO, Brazil — On Oct. 7 in Brazil’s National Congress in Brasília, lawmakers, Indigenous leaders and civil society representatives gathered to present a global parliamentary investigation into the effort to phase out fossil fuels in the Amazon. The investigation, led by Parliamentarians for a Fossil-Free Future, a network of more than 900 lawmakers from 96 countries, resulted in a report, which documents the impacts of fossil fuel activities in the Amazon, including deforestation, pollution and social conflicts, and proposes how to move toward a fossil-free Amazon. Prior to presenting the report, parliamentarians from Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador put forward bills in their national legislatures to stop fossil fuel expansion in the Amazon regions of their countries. A parliamentarian in Bolivia presented a bill along the same lines on Oct. 7, following the release of the report. It is the first time parliamentarians have united in a call for a no-expansion zone for fossil fuels in the Amazon, presenting law proposals in five of the Amazon’s nine countries. The parliamentarians hope COP30 in Belém will put a special focus on the Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest, as a key piece in addressing global climate change. Yet, fossil fuel extraction remains central to many Amazon economies, with countries continuing to invest heavily in petroleum projects. Oil and gas fuel the Amazon’s crisis Oil and gas exploration covers about 1.3 million square kilometers (more than 500,000 square miles) in the Amazon — roughly double the size of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mps-across-latin-america-unite-to-stop-fossil-fuels-in-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307268</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ocean acidification threatens planetary health: Interview with Johan Rockström</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/ocean-acidification-threatens-planetary-health-interview-with-johan-rockstrom/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/ocean-acidification-threatens-planetary-health-interview-with-johan-rockstrom/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Sep 2025 16:24:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Julian Reingold]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/24145834/IMAGE-0-BANNER-IMAGE_Oliver-OHanlon_1a_02881-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306516</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Carbon Emissions, Chemicals, Climate Change, Climate Science, Coal, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Food, Global Environmental Crisis, Industrial Agriculture, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Natural Gas, Oil, Planetary Boundaries, Plastic, Pollution, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Initiated in 2024, the Planetary Health Check is a comprehensive, science-based global initiative dedicated to measuring and maintaining Earth systems critical to life as we know it. These annual reports were created to provide a regular, comprehensive assessment of the state of our world, utilizing the most current planetary boundaries science — monitoring changes, gauging [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Initiated in 2024, the Planetary Health Check is a comprehensive, science-based global initiative dedicated to measuring and maintaining Earth systems critical to life as we know it. These annual reports were created to provide a regular, comprehensive assessment of the state of our world, utilizing the most current planetary boundaries science — monitoring changes, gauging risks, identifying urgent actions needed, developing solutions and determining progress in maintaining a “safe operating space for humanity.” The just-published 2025 assessment finds that seven out of the nine critical planetary boundaries (PBs) have been breached: climate change, change in biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater change, modification of biogeochemical flows, the introduction of novel entities, and now, ocean acidification. All of these Earth system boundary transgressions show escalating trends, threatening further deterioration and destabilization of planetary health in the near future. Just two PBs remain within the safe operating space: increase in atmospheric aerosol loading (with an improving global trend) and stratospheric ozone depletion (currently stable). Earth System scientist Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany, spoke to Mongabay on the occasion of the launch of the Planetary Health Check 2025 report, which announces the transgression of the ocean acidification boundary — the seventh Earth system boundary threshold crossed, putting the safe operating space for humanity at grave risk. PIK’s director is co-author of the 2025 report and author of the book and video documentary Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet (2021), which explains the planetary&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/ocean-acidification-threatens-planetary-health-interview-with-johan-rockstrom/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306516</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Despite pledge, Colombia still has ways to expand Amazon oil exploration</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/despite-pledge-colombia-still-has-ways-to-expand-amazon-oil-exploration/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/despite-pledge-colombia-still-has-ways-to-expand-amazon-oil-exploration/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2025 18:50:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29184358/AP22286596848453-1-768x500.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305112</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Land Rights, Law, Natural Gas, Oil Drilling, Politics, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the last several years, the Colombian government has taken steps to end oil and gas drilling in the Amazon. It pledged to stop issuing new exploration licenses and signed onto treaties to phase out current production, which has shown some signs of decline. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that oil drilling will stop altogether, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the last several years, the Colombian government has taken steps to end oil and gas drilling in the Amazon. It pledged to stop issuing new exploration licenses and signed onto treaties to phase out current production, which has shown some signs of decline. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that oil drilling will stop altogether, critics say. Active oil blocks can continue to operate, and inactive blocks without contracts remain legally available for future exploration. “Ongoing and potential new fossil fuel activities in the region, encouraged by narratives around economic profitability and energy security, continue to threaten the livelihoods and human rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities, the region’s rich biodiversity, and its carbon sink,” warns a new analysis from Earth Insight, a nature and climate policy group. So far, the government has granted 33 exploration permits and 14 production licenses in the Amazon, and maintains inactive blocks without licenses, together covering around 14 million hectares (34.6 million acres) — more than a tenth of the country’s total area — the group found in its analysis. But even if the government phases out current operations and maintains its pledge to issue no new licenses, there are still oil blocks on the map that haven’t been contracted out, as well as blocks that have been temporarily “shelved” but can still be reactivated. Indigenous leaders from across the Amazon protest against fossil fuels in Bogota, Colombia. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) Around 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) have been shelved and designated as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/despite-pledge-colombia-still-has-ways-to-expand-amazon-oil-exploration/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305112</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As gas giants move in, Philippine fishers fight for their seas and survival</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/as-gas-giants-move-in-philippine-fishers-fight-for-their-seas-and-survival/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/as-gas-giants-move-in-philippine-fishers-fight-for-their-seas-and-survival/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2025 15:50:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nick Aspinwall]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/29104210/IMG_0963-Joseph-Vargas-and-Wilma-Abanil-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303300</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Community Development, Conservation, Development, Disasters, Environment, Environmental Law, Extreme Weather, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, food security, Governance, Habitat Degradation, Industry, Marine, Marine Conservation, Natural Gas, Oceans, Pollution, Resource Conflict, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BATANGAS CITY, Philippines — On a hot October afternoon near the largest oil and gas port in the Philippines, the roar of a nearby natural gas tanker drowned out conversations on the shore. Wilma Abanil and her husband, Joseph Vargas, have called Santa Clara, a fishing village on the shore of Batangas Bay, home for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BATANGAS CITY, Philippines — On a hot October afternoon near the largest oil and gas port in the Philippines, the roar of a nearby natural gas tanker drowned out conversations on the shore. Wilma Abanil and her husband, Joseph Vargas, have called Santa Clara, a fishing village on the shore of Batangas Bay, home for decades. Standing outside a neighbor’s house, the couple explained how their home was destroyed by a tropical storm, Trami, that passed through days before. Storms aren’t the only threat they face. They live in a shipping channel touted by the government as a superhighway for liquefied natural gas. Local officials have repeatedly asked them to leave, to allow for the LNG companies whose plants surround them to expand their operations. “They told me, ‘Do not be an obstacle to the development of this town,’” Abanil says. “We want a simple life, but they say we are an obstacle.” When Mongabay caught back up with Abanil and Vargas in May this year, they still hadn’t been able to save up enough money to rebuild their home. The couple and their seven children have all but lost their main source of income. “There are no fish to catch in this area because of the power plant,” Vargas says. About 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, fisherman Jaime Ulysses Gilera has seen his daily catch dwindle. Off the coast of Mabini, a peninsula world-famous for its muck diving, he says the health of corals has deteriorated since a nearby&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/as-gas-giants-move-in-philippine-fishers-fight-for-their-seas-and-survival/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303300</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Oil ‘does not guarantee stability’: Colombia&#8217;s environment minister on energy transition</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/oil-does-not-guarantee-stability-colombias-environment-minister-on-energy-transition/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/oil-does-not-guarantee-stability-colombias-environment-minister-on-energy-transition/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2025 21:39:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/24211501/WhatsApp-Image-2025-07-24-at-17.12.36-e1753391860239-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303165</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Clean Energy, Climate, Climate Change, Critical Minerals, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fossil Fuels, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Mining, Natural Gas, Oil, Politics, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The energy landscape is a shifting terrain, full of twists and turns, according to statistics in the latest report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). While some countries are backtracking on phasing out fossil fuels, others are leaning in. While investment in renewables is surging beyond investment in fossil fuels, companies are repeatedly pulling out [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The energy landscape is a shifting terrain, full of twists and turns, according to statistics in the latest report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). While some countries are backtracking on phasing out fossil fuels, others are leaning in. While investment in renewables is surging beyond investment in fossil fuels, companies are repeatedly pulling out of climate commitments. Questions of energy security, stability, inflation, war and domestic politics are all influencing these trends, economists say. Amid this volatile landscape is Colombia, a major oil-producing country where government officials say they will stay the course on their fossil fuel pledges. Since 2023, the government has halted all new oil and gas exploration contracts. And during a U.N. forum on Indigenous issues, the ministry of environment announced it will submit a resolution for a binding global agreement on due diligence of critical minerals, elements used to power renewable technologies. The country’s goal is to progressively move away from oil and gas while strengthening local renewable energy and storage capacity. Lena Yanina Estrada, the new environment minister and first Indigenous person to hold the position, argues that it’s a model that helps bring long-term stability in a turbulent world. “Colombia, like other Andean-Amazonian countries, is highly vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis. Persisting in the expansion of the fossil frontier will not help to diminish these impacts; instead, it will deepen dependence on volatile economies,” Estrada says. “Dynamics in the international market show that dependence on the volatility of oil prices&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/oil-does-not-guarantee-stability-colombias-environment-minister-on-energy-transition/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303165</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>U’wa people await implementation of landmark court ruling against Colombian gov’t</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/uwa-people-await-implementation-of-landmark-court-ruling-against-colombian-govt/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/uwa-people-await-implementation-of-landmark-court-ruling-against-colombian-govt/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jul 2025 15:18:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Antonio José Paz Cardona]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/11113402/member-of-the-Uwa-Indigenous-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302255</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Governance, Health, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Law, Mercury, Natural Gas, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On Dec. 20, 2024, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights publicly announced a landmark decision against the Colombian government and found it responsible for multiple human rights violations against the U’wa Indigenous people. In a more than 200-page document, the court determined there were violations of the right of access to a healthy environment, freedom [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Dec. 20, 2024, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights publicly announced a landmark decision against the Colombian government and found it responsible for multiple human rights violations against the U’wa Indigenous people. In a more than 200-page document, the court determined there were violations of the right of access to a healthy environment, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, the self-determination of Indigenous peoples, collective property, political participation, access to information, participation in cultural life, children’s rights and judicial protection. Months after the ruling, Indigenous communities are insisting on its implementation. The U’wa Nation is located in eastern Colombia, across the departments of Arauca, Santander, Casanare, Northern Santander and Boyacá. The U’wa people have defended their ancestral territory and culture since the early 1990s, confronting tourism projects and the extraction of natural resources, such as oil and gas. U’wa lawyer Juan Gabriel Jerez Tegria emphasized that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the Colombian government to complete a number of tasks within two years: title the territory, clarify colonial titles, carry out a participatory process for the current extractive projects and guarantee that the projects located within in the U’wa reservation, or in adjacent areas, do not impact the U’wa people’s right to participate in their cultural life. A 2023 hearing in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Image courtesy of EarthRights International. “For us, this decision means that our demands and our rights were acknowledged. This means that there is a precedent that allows [us] to make&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/uwa-people-await-implementation-of-landmark-court-ruling-against-colombian-govt/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/uwa-people-await-implementation-of-landmark-court-ruling-against-colombian-govt/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302255</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Unnoticed oil &#038; gas threat looms for Indigenous people near Amazon blocks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/unnoticed-oil-gas-threat-looms-for-indigenous-people-near-amazon-blocks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/unnoticed-oil-gas-threat-looms-for-indigenous-people-near-amazon-blocks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jun 2025 07:00:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/03131049/Cacao-fields-in-Ecuador-share-the-same-stretch-of-rainforest-where-Donald-Moncayo-spends-many-of-his-days-giving-tours-of-toxic-oil-waste-Amazon-Watch-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300259</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Natural Gas, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[While oil prospects in the Amazon north shore attract international attention, the offer of exploration blocks around Indigenous territories goes unnoticed in Mato Grosso state.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On June 17, five months before Brazil hosts the COP30 climate summit in November, ANP, Brazil’s federal agency for oil and biofuels, will offer 332 areas to companies interested in prospecting for oil and gas. Media and civil society have been focusing on 47 of these areas on the Amazon’s northern shore, where the exploration block FZA-M-59 is located. Standing 175 kilometers (109 miles) from Amapá’s coast in Brazil’s far north and operated by the state oil company Petrobras, FZA-M-59 is at the center of an arm wrestle. On one side, politicians are pushing for the exploration — with support from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Senate’s president, Davi Alcolumbre. On the other hand, environmentalists and the federal environmental agency, IBAMA, warn of the tremendous risks of the project, which could endanger wildlife around the environmentally critical mouth of the Amazon River, the Atlantic coastline and neighboring countries. Environmental agents had been denying Petrobras’ licensing on technical grounds, arguing there’s a high risk of oil spills in an area known for its strong sea currents. According to studies from the state company itself, the oil slicks could reach eight countries in South America and the Caribbean if an accident occurs. In Brazil, it would mean an environmental disaster for the Amazon’s rich coral reef and the world’s largest mangrove belt, besides impacts on Indigenous territories and artisanal fishing communities in Amapá. After months of intense pressure, IBAMA is only one step away from approving Petrobrás’ licensing. According&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/unnoticed-oil-gas-threat-looms-for-indigenous-people-near-amazon-blocks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/unnoticed-oil-gas-threat-looms-for-indigenous-people-near-amazon-blocks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300259</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why Brazil should abandon its plans for oil and gas in Amazonia (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/why-brazil-should-abandon-its-plans-for-oil-and-gas-in-amazonia-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/why-brazil-should-abandon-its-plans-for-oil-and-gas-in-amazonia-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2025 21:59:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Philip M. Fearnside]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/15235017/p5_1-Bolivia-drilling-platform-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300250</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Deforestation, Development, Economics, Forests, Governance, Mining, Natural Gas, Oil, Oil Drilling, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On May 19, the head of IBAMA, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, overrode the technical opinion of the agency’s licensing department and issued a decision allowing proposed oil drilling in the FZA-M-59 drilling block in the mouth of the Amazon River to proceed for approval. Pressure on IBAMA has been intense with the approach of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On May 19, the head of IBAMA, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, overrode the technical opinion of the agency’s licensing department and issued a decision allowing proposed oil drilling in the FZA-M-59 drilling block in the mouth of the Amazon River to proceed for approval. Pressure on IBAMA has been intense with the approach of the massive June 17 auction of drilling rights, which includes 47 blocks in the mouth of the Amazon River. Environmental approval of the first block is seen as essential to stimulate oil companies to risk their capital in purchasing drilling rights in the blocks that are up for auction. Direct pressure from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is a likely explanation for IBAMA’s change, as indicated by his comment that he would close the issue of licensing the mouth-of-the-Amazon project upon return from his recent visits to Moscow and Beijing. At the same time, the National Congress was racing to approve a proposed law that would gut Brazil’s environmental licensing procedures, led by the most powerful proponent of the mouth-of-the-Amazon project: Senate president Davi Alcolumbre of Amapá, the state adjacent to the project that is expecting a financial bonanza from the offshore oilfields. The Senate approved the proposed law two days later, and Lula did not defend the position of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change against approval of the bill. Both houses of the National Congress and Brazil’s political structure as a whole are heavily stacked against action on climate and other environmental&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/why-brazil-should-abandon-its-plans-for-oil-and-gas-in-amazonia-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/why-brazil-should-abandon-its-plans-for-oil-and-gas-in-amazonia-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300250</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Carbon capture projects promise a climate fix — and a fossil fuel lifeline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/carbon-capture-projects-promise-a-climate-fix-and-a-fossil-fuel-lifeline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/carbon-capture-projects-promise-a-climate-fix-and-a-fossil-fuel-lifeline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jun 2025 15:22:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nithin Coca]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/04113435/GP0SU3HU3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300175</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Industry, Natural Gas, Oil, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Kasawari gas field, off the coast of Malaysian Borneo, was discovered in 2011 and has been seen as a lifeline for the country’s energy dreams. Malaysia has long depended on oil and gas exports for economic expansion and government revenue, and this new field promised to allow state-owned oil company Petronas and its partners [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Kasawari gas field, off the coast of Malaysian Borneo, was discovered in 2011 and has been seen as a lifeline for the country’s energy dreams. Malaysia has long depended on oil and gas exports for economic expansion and government revenue, and this new field promised to allow state-owned oil company Petronas and its partners to continue fossil gas and petroleum production. But this time, Malaysia is seeking to harness the discovery for more than just oil and gas. The government and Petronas have announced plans to make the Kasawari field the world’s largest offshore carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project, storing CO2 from around the world as soon as 2028. The plan is to build a fixed offshore platform 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the coast, where compressed CO2 will be reinjected into a depleted reservoir via a 138-km (86-mi) subsea pipeline. It’s part of an ambitious plan to make CCS central to Malaysia’s energy transition, after its inclusion in the National Energy Transition Roadmap, and the March passage of a Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (“CCUS”) Bill, which sets guidelines for CO2 storage and transport. The Kasawari CCS project is one of several proposed and planned across Southeast Asia, including in Indonesia and Thailand. Proponents argue that, due to the young age of the region’s existing coal and gas-fired power plants and expected growth in energy demand, renewables like wind and solar won’t be enough to meet climate and regional net-zero targets. “There is intensive discussion among Government&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/carbon-capture-projects-promise-a-climate-fix-and-a-fossil-fuel-lifeline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/carbon-capture-projects-promise-a-climate-fix-and-a-fossil-fuel-lifeline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300175</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Science lays out framework to assess climate liability of fossil fuel majors</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/science-lays-out-framework-to-assess-climate-liability-of-fossil-fuel-majors/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/science-lays-out-framework-to-assess-climate-liability-of-fossil-fuel-majors/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 May 2025 06:12:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/09034706/johannes-plenio-jfXMQ6MZlR4-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298750</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Air Pollution, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Coal, Emission Reduction, Environment, Environmental Law, Fossil Fuels, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Heatwave, Law, Natural Gas, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Pollution, Social Justice, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As billion-dollar climate disasters pile up, and world leaders fail to act against global warming, lawsuits on behalf of impacted states, cities and other government entities have increased in number with the intent of holding the fossil fuel industry accountable for its contribution to climate change-caused economic damages. But directly linking specific companies and their [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As billion-dollar climate disasters pile up, and world leaders fail to act against global warming, lawsuits on behalf of impacted states, cities and other government entities have increased in number with the intent of holding the fossil fuel industry accountable for its contribution to climate change-caused economic damages. But directly linking specific companies and their emissions to the financial harm done by actual climate change-intensified extreme weather events has remained a stumbling block. Now, a new study published in Nature offers a framework to potentially strengthen such legal arguments by enabling plaintiffs to calculate contributions made by individual companies to rising temperatures, tying their emissions directly to extreme-heat disasters. “Advances in climate economics over the last 10 years have told us quite a bit about the way that local climate hazards translate into damage for people [and places],” said study co-author Christopher Callahan, a postdoctoral scholar in earth system science at Stanford University. “But putting these pieces together in a single causal chain is the novel contribution here,” helping to create linkages that can strengthen pending and future cases. Policymakers and litigators may know these climate data exist, Callahan told Mongabay, but they may not know how they can bring all this evidence together in a way that more clearly illustrates causation and thus legal liability by major greenhouse gas polluters. “Causal linkages from emitters to impact have been termed the Holy Grail of climate litigation,” the study states. Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/science-lays-out-framework-to-assess-climate-liability-of-fossil-fuel-majors/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298750</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s gas bet poses risks for economy, health and climate</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/indonesias-gas-bet-poses-risks-for-economy-health-and-climate/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/indonesias-gas-bet-poses-risks-for-economy-health-and-climate/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2025 09:55:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/08094352/image_1719806931458-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298786</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Alternative Energy, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Clean Energy, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Methane, Natural Gas, Pollution, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Experts have lambasted Indonesia’s heavy push toward natural gas, saying it risks locking the country into fossil fuel dependency under the guise of clean energy, dealing immense damage to the economy, public health and the environment. In a new report, Jakarta-based think tank the Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS) and Greenpeace [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Experts have lambasted Indonesia’s heavy push toward natural gas, saying it risks locking the country into fossil fuel dependency under the guise of clean energy, dealing immense damage to the economy, public health and the environment. In a new report, Jakarta-based think tank the Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS) and Greenpeace Indonesia identified significant downsides to this reliance, which has already seen a quarter of the national grid, or 26 gigawatts, powered by gas. The government recently unveiled a plan to build another 22 GW of gas power capacity by 2040. But even if only the announced projects from that new fleet, amounting to 2.6 GW, come online, that will still translate into additional annual emissions of 5.97 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and 5,332 metric tons of methane, according to the report. The full 22 GW gas expansion would raise this to 49 million metric tons of CO₂ and nearly 44,000 metric tons of methane annually, it says, making the embrace of gas incompatible with Indonesia’s climate goals. “Compared to renewable energy, which can contribute to reducing carbon emissions by 30-40%, fossil gas power plants can instead hinder progress toward achieving net zero emissions,” the report says. It adds that classifying gas as a “transition fuel” is “highly misleading, as it distracts from the immediate focus on adopting renewable energy that aligns with the Paris climate commitments.” The government has touted gas as a clean energy source that can bridge the transition from coal,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/indonesias-gas-bet-poses-risks-for-economy-health-and-climate/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298786</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sheinbaum’s energy agenda under fire as Mexican activists slam LNG megaproject</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/sheinbaums-energy-agenda-under-fire-as-mexican-activists-slam-lng-megaproject/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/sheinbaums-energy-agenda-under-fire-as-mexican-activists-slam-lng-megaproject/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2025 14:06:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniela DíazJoshua Collins]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/15123839/IMG_9019-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297648</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Carbon Emissions, Clean Energy, Conservation, Dolphins, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Marine, Methane, Natural Gas, Politics, and Whales]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On Jan. 29, the sky above Mexico City’s Zócalo plaza was filled with the floating figures of giant balloon whales. Hundreds of people from the “Whales or Gas?” coalition protested in front of the National Palace over the Saguaro energy project, a massive pipeline planned by the government with U.S. energy company Mexico Pacific that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Jan. 29, the sky above Mexico City’s Zócalo plaza was filled with the floating figures of giant balloon whales. Hundreds of people from the “Whales or Gas?” coalition protested in front of the National Palace over the Saguaro energy project, a massive pipeline planned by the government with U.S. energy company Mexico Pacific that will move liquefied natural gas from Texas to the Gulf of California. The organizers of the Ballena Fest (Festival of Whales) had gathered more than 200,000 signatures against Saguaro. They say the project, which includes plans for a major LNG processing and shipping complex in the small coastal fishing town of Puerto Libertad, will destroy habitats in protected inland areas, as well as threaten delicate marine habitats and marine mammals. They also say that Saguaro deepens Mexico’s reliance on U.S. fossil fuels and goes against President Claudia Sheinbaum’s promises to invest in the country’s energy transition. The 30 million metric tons of LNG that the Saguaro project would move annually would have a greenhouse gas footprint of about 82.8 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent, or the same as the yearly emissions of more than 19 million cars. Saguaro is also part of a broader controversy over a proposed energy reform bill that would lead to heavy investments in fossil fuel energy production and transport infrastructure in public-private partnerships with U.S. energy companies. Critics of the Saguaro energy project say the Saguaro pipeline, its associated infrastructure and increased industrialization will harm the Gulf of California,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/sheinbaums-energy-agenda-under-fire-as-mexican-activists-slam-lng-megaproject/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297648</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Colombia’s green transition should be inclusive: Interview with Susana Muhamad, former environment minister</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/colombias-green-transition-should-be-inclusive-interview-with-susana-muhamad-former-environment-minister/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/colombias-green-transition-should-be-inclusive-interview-with-susana-muhamad-former-environment-minister/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Apr 2025 11:35:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/11043036/54165427000_ae3037a6f3_4k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297190</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forest Loss, Fossil Fuels, Global Environmental Crisis, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law Enforcement, Mining, Natural Gas, Oil, Palm Oil, Politics, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BOGOTÁ — In June 2022, Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla member, was elected as Colombia’s first avowedly leftist president, promising to fight inequality, bring “total peace” to the country, and dismantle the fossil fuel industry.  After Petro took office, Colombia became the first major oil-producing country to join the treaty initiative to eliminate fossil fuel [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BOGOTÁ — In June 2022, Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla member, was elected as Colombia’s first avowedly leftist president, promising to fight inequality, bring “total peace” to the country, and dismantle the fossil fuel industry.  After Petro took office, Colombia became the first major oil-producing country to join the treaty initiative to eliminate fossil fuel extraction. In early 2023, he banned new oil and gas exploration contracts, while putting pressure on Congress to pass a ban on fracking. Colombia quickly stepped in to assume the presidency of the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) after Türkiye, the planned host, withdrew following three devastating earthquakes in February 2023. To lead his ambitious environmental agenda at home and internationally, Petro named Susana Muhamad as the minister of environment and sustainable development, and president of COP16. Muhamad, 47, started her career as a sustainable development consultant for Shell Global Solutions International in the Netherlands. She later went on to work as secretary of the environment and general secretary of the Bogotá mayor’s office, then as a city councilor. She served as vice president of the national coordination board of the Colombia Humana political party before her appointment to Petro’s cabinet in August 2022.  Colombia is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, and the most biodiverse per square kilometer. It’s home to the Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest, which covers more than a third of the country’s territory. Colombia contributes less than 1% of the world’s CO2 emissions, but is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/colombias-green-transition-should-be-inclusive-interview-with-susana-muhamad-former-environment-minister/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/colombias-green-transition-should-be-inclusive-interview-with-susana-muhamad-former-environment-minister/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297190</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chauffeur at Indonesia energy nonprofit drives uptake of biogas by Java farmers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/chauffeur-at-indonesia-energy-nonprofit-drives-uptake-of-biogas-by-java-farmers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/chauffeur-at-indonesia-energy-nonprofit-drives-uptake-of-biogas-by-java-farmers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2025 07:55:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Toto Sudiarjo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/13070548/biogas-man-indonesia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295717</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Clean Energy, Community-based Conservation, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Natural Gas, Natural Resources, Nature-based climate solutions, Pollution, Renewable Energy, Solutions, Sustainability, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SLEMAN, Indonesia — A decade ago, Suyono’s neighbors found his antics collecting the goat and quail droppings outside his home verging on the strange. Today, it’s become the norm in many households in Minggir, a Javanese village producing its own gas. “A lot of people just laughed,” Suyono, 50, told Mongabay Indonesia. “‘Um, pak, you [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SLEMAN, Indonesia — A decade ago, Suyono’s neighbors found his antics collecting the goat and quail droppings outside his home verging on the strange. Today, it’s become the norm in many households in Minggir, a Javanese village producing its own gas. “A lot of people just laughed,” Suyono, 50, told Mongabay Indonesia. “‘Um, pak, you can just buy it [gas] at the food stall.’” In 2014, after a period living abroad in Malaysia as a low-paid migrant worker, Suyono returned home to Minggir village, which is located a few kilometers west of the city of Yogyakarta. Once settled, he took a job as a driver at Yayasan Rumah Energi, a foundation that works on household renewable energy projects, like biogas. Biogas is produced via anaerobic digestion, where microorganisms break down animal manure, biological waste or plant residues in a sealed environment deprived of oxygen. The chemical reaction produces methane and other gases, which can be burned as alternatives to propane and butane cylinders, which governments burn billions of dollars a year on subsidizing (and whose price is determined by international markets). Chauffeuring Yayasan Rumah Energi staff sparked Suyono’s interest in the foundation’s work on biogas. After studying the basics, Suyono went to work and began producing around 1.8 kilograms (4 pounds) at a time. Within a few years, people increasingly began asking Suyono for help installing biogas infrastructure at local Islamic boarding schools and in nearby homes. Later, he helped build 500 units in farther-flung East Nusa Tenggara province. Yayasan&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/chauffeur-at-indonesia-energy-nonprofit-drives-uptake-of-biogas-by-java-farmers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/chauffeur-at-indonesia-energy-nonprofit-drives-uptake-of-biogas-by-java-farmers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295717</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Next-gen geothermal offers circular promise, but needs care and caution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/next-gen-geothermal-offers-circular-promise-but-needs-care-and-caution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/next-gen-geothermal-offers-circular-promise-but-needs-care-and-caution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Dec 2024 14:38:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/18121517/6-fossil-fuel-industry-personnel-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291887</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Circular Economy, Clean Energy, Conservation, Earth Science, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Geoengineering, Geothermal Energy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Industry, Natural Gas, Oil, Oil Drilling, Renewable Energy, Research, Science, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Next-generation geothermal technologies are gaining steam as a source of clean, renewable energy and an alternative to fossil fuels. With demonstration projects across the globe now showing strong potential, enhanced geothermal (using ever-present and bountiful heat found deep within the Earth) could one day offer energy to millions of homes, businesses and cities. But geothermal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Next-generation geothermal technologies are gaining steam as a source of clean, renewable energy and an alternative to fossil fuels. With demonstration projects across the globe now showing strong potential, enhanced geothermal (using ever-present and bountiful heat found deep within the Earth) could one day offer energy to millions of homes, businesses and cities. But geothermal currently makes up just a fraction of global energy produced, at less than 1%. That’s because conventional geothermal methods require special conditions, including permeable land, subsurface heat, plus available water with which to tap into this energy resource. This trifecta means that, while geothermal is exploited in slightly more than 30 countries — led by the U.S., Indonesia, the Philippines and Turkey — actual production is miniscule, a mere 16,318 megawatts of installed capacity. By contrast, installed global wind capacity tipped 1 million MW over the last year. But next-gen geothermal seems poised to take a great leap forward, expanding its capacity massively because all that’s needed is underground heat and economical access to it. Instead of tapping surface hot springs, next-gen tech aims to drill deep into hot rocks to create permeability. It then injects water or other fluids, such as brackish water or treated wastewater, into the Earth to construct artificial subsurface reservoirs heated by the surrounding hot bedrock. These innovative approaches, once perfected, could drive geothermal use far higher. In the U.S. alone, it’s estimated that next-gen geothermal could provide 8.5% of the country’s energy by 2050; that’s enough to power 65&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/next-gen-geothermal-offers-circular-promise-but-needs-care-and-caution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/next-gen-geothermal-offers-circular-promise-but-needs-care-and-caution/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291887</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate financing should come from oil and gas ‘super’ profits, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/climate-financing-should-come-from-oil-and-gas-super-profits-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/climate-financing-should-come-from-oil-and-gas-super-profits-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2024 20:37:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/02190515/exxonmobil_chicago-2-768x450.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291064</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Global, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Environmental Law, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Natural Gas, Oil, Politics, Regulations, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The international community is struggling to come up with enough funding to adequately address climate change, especially for developing countries that are impacted the most. At the latest climate change conference, COP 29, leaders tripled annual funding for developing nations combatting climate change to $300 billion annually, but it still fell short of the $1.3 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The international community is struggling to come up with enough funding to adequately address climate change, especially for developing countries that are impacted the most. At the latest climate change conference, COP 29, leaders tripled annual funding for developing nations combatting climate change to $300 billion annually, but it still fell short of the $1.3 trillion experts say is needed. The $300 billion, negotiated in Azerbaijan, renews an agreement made in 2009 to provide poorer nations with $100 billion to transition away from fossil fuels and address droughts, natural disasters and other impacts of climate change. But many critics said they want more money and more creative solutions. “Fossil fuel-producing countries continue to promote their own interests, jeopardizing both the COP negotiations and the fate of humanity,” said Jack Corscadden, a climate campaigner for the Environmental Investigation Agency. “Continued fossil fuel extraction and consumption is not compatible with limiting warming to 1.5°C.” One study, published ahead of the conference, argued that policymakers haven’t been asking enough of sectors with the highest emission rates, most notably oil and gas. Companies have the ability to make significantly higher financial contributions than they are right now — especially when they see unexpected profits. “There is a clear case to include fossil fuel profits on the agenda of [UN] climate finance negotiations and to pursue an international agreement on minimum fossil fuel production taxes,” said the study, which was published in Climate Policy. The study looked at oil and gas profits from 2022, when&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/climate-financing-should-come-from-oil-and-gas-super-profits-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/climate-financing-should-come-from-oil-and-gas-super-profits-study-says/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291064</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plastic pollution pushing Earth past all nine planetary boundaries: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/plastic-pollution-pushing-earth-past-all-nine-planetary-boundaries-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/plastic-pollution-pushing-earth-past-all-nine-planetary-boundaries-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Nov 2024 15:19:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alden Wicker]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/25125427/ocg-saving-the-ocean-IminhMpXoCQ-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290604</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aerosol Pollution, Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Conservation, Consumption, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Microplastics, Natural Gas, Oil, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Politics, Pollution, Regulations, Toxicology, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Plastics pollution exacerbates the impacts of all [nine] planetary boundaries,” warns a report published this month in the journal One Earth in the run-up to what could be the final United Nations summit to hammer out an international treaty addressing the global plastics crisis. That meeting, known as INC-5, in Busan, South Korea, happens from [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Plastics pollution exacerbates the impacts of all [nine] planetary boundaries,” warns a report published this month in the journal One Earth in the run-up to what could be the final United Nations summit to hammer out an international treaty addressing the global plastics crisis. That meeting, known as INC-5, in Busan, South Korea, happens from Monday, Nov. 25, to Sunday, Dec. 1. The planetary boundary framework, hypothesized in 2009 and updated several times since then by an international group of scientists, seeks to identify the safe limits of human activity impacting Earth systems. Beyond those safe limits — dubbed the “safe operating space for humanity” — the planet’s natural processes can destabilize, degrade, stop self-regulating or even collapse, creating an extreme and hostile environment for life as we know it. As of this year, human activities have transgressed six of the nine boundaries. The fifth of those limits to be violated, scientists note, was the novel entities boundary, which was determined crossed in 2022. Novel entities encompass human-made chemicals and other synthetic entities added to the natural environment. One of the most pervasive of novel entities today is plastic. Globally, 500 million tons of plastics are produced every year, but only 9% get recycled, says the One Earth research article. Plastics are persistent and don’t break down. And some plastics, along with many of their additives, are toxic to life. Plastic has been found everywhere on Earth — from deepest oceans to high mountains, in clouds and pole to pole.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/plastic-pollution-pushing-earth-past-all-nine-planetary-boundaries-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/plastic-pollution-pushing-earth-past-all-nine-planetary-boundaries-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290604</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Microplastics are sickening and killing wildlife, disrupting Earth systems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/microplastics-are-sickening-and-killing-wildlife-disrupting-earth-systems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/microplastics-are-sickening-and-killing-wildlife-disrupting-earth-systems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Nov 2024 15:43:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/21110656/bottlenose-dolphin-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290402</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Animals, Birds, Chemicals, Conservation, Consumption, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Health, Mammals, Microplastics, Natural Gas, Oceans, Oil, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Poisoning, Politics, Pollution, Seabirds, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bottlenose dolphins leapt and torpedoed through the shallow turquoise waters off Florida’s Sarasota Bay. Then, a research team moved in, quickly corralling the small pod in a large net. With the speed of a race car pit crew, veterinarians, biologists and their assistants examined the animals, checking vital signs while taking skin, blood and other [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bottlenose dolphins leapt and torpedoed through the shallow turquoise waters off Florida’s Sarasota Bay. Then, a research team moved in, quickly corralling the small pod in a large net. With the speed of a race car pit crew, veterinarians, biologists and their assistants examined the animals, checking vital signs while taking skin, blood and other samples. They held a petri dish over each dolphin’s blowhole until it exhaled, with an intensity similar to a human cough. Then, they rolled up the net and the dolphins swam off unharmed. A pod in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay was similarly tested. Generations of dolphins have been part of this ongoing dolphin health study, run by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program since 1970. It tracks populations and individuals and also looks for health issues related to pollutants in the marine environment. In the lab, scientists discovered that all 11 of the dolphins had breathed out microplastic fibers, shed from synthetic clothing, says Leslie B. Hart, associate professor at the College of Charleston and an author on this research. The fibers resembled those found in human lungs in previous studies, proving that dolphins, like us, are breathing plastic. In people, microplastic has been linked to poor lung function and possible lung disease. An earlier collaboration linked phthalates circulating in the dolphins’ blood to alterations in their thyroid hormone levels — an effect also found in humans that can impact nearly every organ in the body. Phthalates, toxic chemicals found in flexible plastics, readily leach into the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/microplastics-are-sickening-and-killing-wildlife-disrupting-earth-systems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/microplastics-are-sickening-and-killing-wildlife-disrupting-earth-systems/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290402</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The plastics crisis is now a global human health crisis, experts say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-plastics-crisis-is-now-a-global-human-health-crisis-experts-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-plastics-crisis-is-now-a-global-human-health-crisis-experts-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Nov 2024 18:15:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alden Wicker]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/19131858/pexels-mumtahina-tanni-1080117-8395838-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290316</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coal, Conservation, Consumption, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Health, Microplastics, Natural Gas, Oceans, Oil, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Poisoning, Politics, Pollution, Protests, Public Health, Regulations, Social Justice, Toxicology, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s been clear for some time: We’re in the midst of a rapidly escalating global plastics crisis. More than 11 billion metric tons of virgin plastics were produced worldwide from 1950 to 2022. And the rate of production has soared, with at least 71% of all plastics ever made produced in the 21st century. Of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s been clear for some time: We’re in the midst of a rapidly escalating global plastics crisis. More than 11 billion metric tons of virgin plastics were produced worldwide from 1950 to 2022. And the rate of production has soared, with at least 71% of all plastics ever made produced in the 21st century. Of all those billions of tons manufactured, three-quarters were discarded in landfills, open dumps or directly into the environment. Today, our oceans, beaches, rivers, cities and wild places are awash in discarded plastic and synthetic textiles, while microplastics have been detected from pole to pole, on remote mountaintops and in clouds. In view of the tremendous buildup of visible trash, it’s not surprising that the plastics crisis so far has mostly been treated as a problem of poor waste management and consumer choice. Likewise, efforts for a fix have largely focused on recycling and consumer education. But talking about plastic as a litter problem ignores one of the most alarming facets of our plastic addiction: its impacts on human health. Fast-mounting evidence points to microplastics entering the human body and doing internal damage. Likewise, thousands of chemicals that leach out of plastics are finding their way into our bodies (via food wrappers, storage containers, cooking utensils and other routes) with some of those chemicals linked to a range of health impacts, including immune suppression and cancer. In a new report out Nov. 7th in the journal One Earth, an international group of researchers attempted to gather&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-plastics-crisis-is-now-a-global-human-health-crisis-experts-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-plastics-crisis-is-now-a-global-human-health-crisis-experts-say/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sumatran province brings hammer down on illegal oil wells after fatal blasts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/sumatran-province-brings-hammer-down-on-illegal-oil-wells-after-fatal-blasts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/sumatran-province-brings-hammer-down-on-illegal-oil-wells-after-fatal-blasts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Aug 2024 12:11:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Taufik Wijaya]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/15071227/Sumur-minyak-meledak-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286140</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, South Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Logging, Natural Gas, Oceans, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PALEMBANG, Indonesia — A law enforcement crackdown against widespread opportunist oil extraction has shuttered at least 95 illegal wells following a spate of deaths in Indonesia’s South Sumatra province, police said. “I appeal to the people still working in this illegal supply chain to consciously change their professions,” South Sumatra police chief Albertus Rachmad Wibowo [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PALEMBANG, Indonesia — A law enforcement crackdown against widespread opportunist oil extraction has shuttered at least 95 illegal wells following a spate of deaths in Indonesia’s South Sumatra province, police said. “I appeal to the people still working in this illegal supply chain to consciously change their professions,” South Sumatra police chief Albertus Rachmad Wibowo said in a statement. On June 27, a fire broke out at an oil well in Sungai Lilin, a subdistrict on Sumatra’s arterial highway between the cities of Jambi and Palembang. Police said deliberate damage to an oil pipe there to enable illegal extraction caused an oil leak, which culminated in a blast that killed four people. Less than a month later, another fire in the early hours of July 21 in Sungai Lilin killed a local resident. Police in South Sumatra have arrested and charged at least two people in connection with the June explosion. A string of other fires and explosions have occurred at illegal oil refineries and storage sites since the start of the year. Blasts are often reported at the estimated 10,000 illegal oil wells located in Musi Banyuasin, just one district of Indonesia’s Sumatra island. (Sumatra is home to more than 150 districts and cities; Musi Banyuasin encompasses Sungai Lilin.) Previous incidents included fires at illegal oil refineries and storage warehouses in the Musi Banyuasin subdistricts of Babat Toman, Keluang and Sanga Desa, leading to multiple arrests. In response to the string of accidents, the acting governor of South Sumatra,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/sumatran-province-brings-hammer-down-on-illegal-oil-wells-after-fatal-blasts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286140</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>No plans, no progress make Peru’s energy transition uncertain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/no-plans-no-progress-make-perus-energy-transition-uncertain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/no-plans-no-progress-make-perus-energy-transition-uncertain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Aug 2024 16:21:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yvette Sierra Praeli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/01160652/PLANTA-FOTOVOLTAICA-INTIPAMPA-TACNA00007-2048x1365-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285567</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Clean Energy, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Natural Gas, Oil, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Three years ago, I bought a solar panel so we could have light at home. Before that, we could only light our house with candles. We don’t have power, so everyone gets a solar panel that provides whatever energy they can get their hands on, but it’s not enough,” says one of the inhabitants of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Three years ago, I bought a solar panel so we could have light at home. Before that, we could only light our house with candles. We don’t have power, so everyone gets a solar panel that provides whatever energy they can get their hands on, but it’s not enough,” says one of the inhabitants of Peru’s Huarca community in Espinar, Cusco. She does not want her name published, because those living in the mining corridor of southern Peru who protest mining activities fear the consequences of speaking out against the companies that operate here. Not everyone has electricity in Huarca, she adds, maybe only half the town does. The solar panel she bought in 2021 cost her 1500 soles (about $400). Until then, she says, there was no light in her house. “It’s a small panel&#8230; and it’s only enough to light the two rooms of our home.” Only 33.5% of households — some three out of every 10 homes — in the rural areas of Espinar Province have electricity, according to the latest population and housing census conducted in Peru. While copper is an excellent conductor of electricity, in Espinar, where large copper mines are located, electricity is not available to the entire rural population. Image by Miguel Gutiérrez / Cooperacción. Paradoxically, copper, which is extracted from the area’s mountains, is an excellent conductor of electricity — used in electric cables, solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and batteries — and there is an increased demand for it, given&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/no-plans-no-progress-make-perus-energy-transition-uncertain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/no-plans-no-progress-make-perus-energy-transition-uncertain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285567</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationists look for new ways to fight oil pipelines in southern Mexico</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/conservationists-look-for-new-ways-to-fight-oil-pipelines-in-southern-mexico/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/conservationists-look-for-new-ways-to-fight-oil-pipelines-in-southern-mexico/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jul 2024 19:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/24185044/WhatsApp-Image-2024-07-24-at-12.15.49-PM-768x450.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284836</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Law, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Mining, Natural Gas, Oceans, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Pollution, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mexico has pledged to more than double its clean energy output by 2030, investing in solar and wind power while transitioning away from fossil fuels. Yet the country continues to lag behind on its renewable energy targets, producing just 12% of its power from clean sources last year, watchdogs have found. At the same time, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mexico has pledged to more than double its clean energy output by 2030, investing in solar and wind power while transitioning away from fossil fuels. Yet the country continues to lag behind on its renewable energy targets, producing just 12% of its power from clean sources last year, watchdogs have found. At the same time, the country continues to subsidize the struggling state-owned oil company Pemex while beefing up its oil and natural gas infrastructure with new refineries and massive, transnational pipelines. The projects worry environmentalists not only because of climate change impacts caused by carbon emissions, but because they can pollute marine ecosystems and encroach on local and Indigenous communities. Pipelines currently under construction in southern Mexico have proven especially controversial, with residents saying they were never consulted about the projects and that they could compromise their way of life, which includes coastal tourism and fishing. Conservationists also say adequate environmental impact studies were never carried out. “We’re dealing with the issue of climate change, and that’s an issue that’s already very, very evident,” Ramón García Sánchez, an attorney with the Mexican Alliance against Fracking, said. “It’s increasingly necessary, and logical, that this type of infrastructure and development in these industries needs to stop.” One of the projects, the $4.5-billion Southeast Gateway Gas pipeline, is scheduled to start operating next year. It will expand the Sur de Texas-Tuxpan natural gas pipeline that runs 800 km (497 miles) under the Gulf of Mexico, supplying powerplants in the states of Veracruz&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/conservationists-look-for-new-ways-to-fight-oil-pipelines-in-southern-mexico/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284836</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Weak banking regulations leave two-thirds of Amazon vulnerable to oil and gas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/weak-banking-regulations-leave-two-thirds-of-amazon-vulnerable-to-oil-and-gas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/weak-banking-regulations-leave-two-thirds-of-amazon-vulnerable-to-oil-and-gas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2024 16:23:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/11160511/Oil-and-Gas-Image-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283125</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Banking, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Finance, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Natural Gas, Oil, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There are hundreds of oil and gas operations across the Amazon Rainforest. And while critics have gone after them for reckless environmental damage, those companies also don’t work alone. They need support from big banks that provide direct funding through loans and underwriting bonds, which themselves need to be regulated, critics say. In recent years, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There are hundreds of oil and gas operations across the Amazon Rainforest. And while critics have gone after them for reckless environmental damage, those companies also don’t work alone. They need support from big banks that provide direct funding through loans and underwriting bonds, which themselves need to be regulated, critics say. In recent years, increasing pressure on the banks has led to new environmental policies meant to minimize financing for projects tied to deforestation, pollution and human rights violations. The banks tend to celebrate their policies for being ambitious and effective. But many environmental groups say they’re actually far from adequate, and even amount to greenwashing. A joint investigation by several conservation groups looked at more than 560 financial transactions involving more than 280 banks and 80 oil and gas companies working in the Amazon, concluding that what the banks claim to be doing for the environment is far from the “true impacts of their policies.” In fact, some of the biggest bankrollers of oil and gas (Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Itaú Unibanco, Santander and Bank of America) only apply their policies to about a third of the rainforest, leaving the rest vulnerable to potential environmental destruction. The areas where the policies do apply still aren’t completely protected, the report said. “Through their deceptive policies and empty promises, these banks are attempting to greenwash oil and gas extraction in the Amazon, and obscure the destructive impacts of their ecosystem-devastating investments,” said report co-author Angeline Robertson, senior investigative researcher at Stand.earth.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/weak-banking-regulations-leave-two-thirds-of-amazon-vulnerable-to-oil-and-gas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283125</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Planetary boundary pioneer Johan Rockström awarded 2024 Tyler Prize</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/planetary-boundary-pioneer-johan-rockstrom-awarded-2024-tyler-prize/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/planetary-boundary-pioneer-johan-rockstrom-awarded-2024-tyler-prize/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Feb 2024 13:20:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/29091703/1-BANNER-IMAGE-Johan-Rockstrom-Potsdam-164-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279288</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Carbon Emissions, Chemicals, Climate Change, Climate Science, Coal, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Food, Global Environmental Crisis, Industrial Agriculture, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Natural Gas, Oil, Planetary Boundaries, Plastic, Pollution, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The 2024 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement has gone to Johan Rockström who led the team of international researchers who originated the planetary boundary framework in 2009.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The 2024 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement has been awarded to Johan Rockström for his pioneering work leading the international research team who originated the groundbreaking planetary boundary framework in 2009. The theory, updated in 2015 and 2023, is founded upon decades of Earth System Science and the work of researchers worldwide. The planetary boundary framework was conceived while Rockström was director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, which he co-founded in 2007. The theory delineates planetary boundaries for nine Earth systems, whose stability and resilience are vital to maintaining life as we know it. The framework establishes scientifically quantified thresholds — limits for environmental impacts from human activities in order to maintain a “safe operating space for humanity.” By respecting planetary boundaries, the hope is that the world can sustain an environment similar to the Holocene epoch during which civilization emerged, and avoid more of the extreme environmental harm that has arisen in the Anthropocene — a new geological epoch in which human consumption and pollution are dangerously destabilizing Earth life support systems. In 2023, scientists published a new study finding that humanity is “well outside of the safe operating space” for six of the nine planetary boundaries. Transgressing multiple planetary boundaries could, according to Rockström, risk “reaching tipping points that will undermine the Earth’s life-support systems.” Researchers warn that tipping points are looming in the Arctic, Amazon, the world’s oceans and elsewhere. The 2023 planetary boundaries update showing 6 boundaries transgressed. The nine boundaries are counterclockwise from top: climate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/planetary-boundary-pioneer-johan-rockstrom-awarded-2024-tyler-prize/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279288</doi>				</item>
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