On May 9, the government of Alberta released a study into the extra carbon emitted by crude produced using oil sands instead of more conventional sources. The study, by a unit of California-based Jacobs Engineering Group, found that emissions from oil-sand crude are just 12 percent higher than from regular crude.

But the report was not just about the science. It also sent a political signal to Europe: Canada's fight over oil sands is not done yet.

Ecuadorian plaintiffs in an environmental lawsuit against Chevron Corp. (CVX) said Friday they will soon be able to begin a process in foreign countries to pursue a multibillion-dollar ruling issued by Ecuadorian courts against the U.S. company.

Plaintiffs' lawyers have said their strategy to collect the money will include confiscating company assets and freezing international accounts.

Venezuela will put 1,500 people to work clearing up an oil spill at a river in the east of the country that has forced the authorities to close a water purification plant, the environment minister said on Sunday.

Officials say an accident on February 4 ruptured a pipeline carrying crude near the city of Maturin in the latest of many mishaps to afflict state oil company PDVSA.

An opposition lawmaker has told local media as many as 60,000 barrels of crude were spilled in the Guarapiche, but there was no confirmation of that from PDVSA or the government.

Toronto Canada pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, saying the accord won’t help solve the climate crisis. It dealt a blow to the anti-global warming treaty, which has not been formally renounced by any other country.

Environment minister Peter Kent said Monday that Canada is invoking its legal right to withdraw and said Kyoto doesn't represent the way forward for Canada or the world.

The Canadian government gave Total SA approval on Thursday to start construction on its C$9 billion ($8.9 billion) Joslyn North oil sands project in Alberta, marking the fifth mining development in the vast crude deposit.

Total, the French oil major, and its Canadian, U.S. and Japanese partners aim to start production in 2018, hitting a peak of 100,000 barrels a day.

While the company welcomed Ottawa's go-ahead, following a six-year regulatory review, it has yet to make its final decision on whether to proceed with the massive project.

A flagship green climate fund aimed at channelling billions of dollars to help poor countries tackle global warming has been put on ice at the Durban climate summit as a growing number of countries bicker over how it should work.

Wealthy countries have promised to mobilise up to $100bn a year by 2020 to help developing countries tackle climate change. A significant portion is expected to flow through the fund but there have been tensions from the start over how much control donor and recipient countries should have over the fund.
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Eight South American countries pledged Tuesday to boost cooperation to protect one of the planet’s largest natural reserves from deforestation and illegal trafficking in timber and minerals.

Representatives of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela gathered in Manaus, northern Brazil, also vowed to speak with one voice at next June’s UN conference on sustainable development in Rio.

The Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest, is one of the world’s largest reserves of fresh water.

The family from a nearby village arrived at the small hospital here vomiting and with uncontrollable diarrhea, at first glance maybe a typical case of consuming bad food or water.

But the fluid loss was tremendous and unstoppable; two of the three brothers were already near death, and within hours the entire family would be dead. Meanwhile, a nightmarish stream of patients filled the small reception room, as doctors and nurses scrambled to rehydrate them.

Britain has been blamed by environmentalists for seeking to delay attempts by the European Union to penalise oil derived from tar sands.

This month the European Commission decided that it would classify such oil as being nearly a quarter more polluting than conventional crude.

In order to import such oil, suppliers would also have to invest in biofuels and other green products to offset the pollution – which could be cost prohibitive.

The musty jaguar pelts on display at a government office in Buenos Aires are a grim reminder of the big cat's precarious existence in Argentina's northern forests.

The Iguazu waterfalls that border Paraguay and Brazil mark what is now the outer limit of the jaguar's range. Just 50 of the big cats are estimated to live in the sub-tropical jungle around the famous falls.

Out of sight of the tourist hordes, Argentine scientists have been monitoring one of the nation's last remaining jaguar populations since 2003.