Latin America

The Foundation’s Latin America programmes are targeted at topics such as green sustainability, environmental protection, and democratic participation especially on the local and regional levels.

Venezuela already overtook Saudia Arabia as the country with the largest oil reserves in the world and 2012 is likely to be a crucial year for the climate, as the country aims to ramp up production of huge reserves of tar sands-like crude in the eastern Orinoco River Belt. But economical exploitation comes with huge environmental concerns.

In 2009 Trinidad and Tobago awarded a license to Petroleum Co. of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd. to explore tar sands at Parrylands-Guapo fields, which are thought to contain 2 billion barrels of oil. An Institute of Energy and Mining has recently been established that will "cater for the specific needs of what, in effect, will be an entirely new part of the local oil industry".

The migration stream going through Mexico is the largest in the world. Violence is on the migration routes of the day. At least since the discovery of 72 dead migrants in the northern state of Tamaulipas in August last year, brings the issue of serious human rights violations against migrants in Mexico increasingly into the public interest. An inventory

Argentina has been one of the first countries worldwide to build up a nuclear infrastructure since the 1950s. But after Fukushima, and in the context of possible financial restrictions in the coming years, the ambitious nuclear expansion plan presented by the government in 2010 of at least two more 700+ MW reactors seems less likely to be executed.

Since 1992 Uruguay has a law forbidding the use of nuclear power. Nevertheless the energy ministry of the government worked on an energy plan for the next 25 years focused on a great increase in renewables, sustainable biofuels and energy efficiency, which would make a nuclear power plant obsolete.

In quake- and tsunami-striken Chile, things have turned different since March 12th. After Fukushima 86 percent of Chileans are against nuclear power and even 60 percent would not accept it “under any circumstances”. But the mega hydro projects are also controversial.

Here you will a list of all the activities and contacts of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung during the climate summit in Cancún.

The abbreviation REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) was only commonly heard among insiders in climate negotiations but it now has entered the lingo of NGOs, indigenous organisations and action groups in the Amazon. While many have pinned their hopes on REDD to protect forests and the climate, others see the dangers of commercialising nature and habitats.

Open letter from brazilian environmental organisations, networks and social movements calling on the Brazilian Government to reject the idea of using REDD as a carbon market-based mechanism and of accepting it as a means to compensate the emissions from Northern countries.

Roberto Martínez Castañeda,  Ambassador of Honduras to Germany and the EU, describes the situation in Honduras from a constitutional perspective. "Brutal and illegitimate from the origin" he calls the de facto government and tells us why.

Democratisation, regional integration, and globalisation have led to changes in Brazil’s international standing over the last decades. Brazil is already progressively gaining international influence. At the same time, its foreign policy has become increasingly transparent, democratic, and representative of the diversity of its society.

A contribution of the Heinrich Böll Foundation on "avoided deforestation" for the UN climate summit in Bali 2007.