By Ben Tavener, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After weeks of celebrations and the samba school finale in Sambódromo, the big post-Carnival clean-up is underway in Rio. City officials say some 770 tons of garbage have been removed so far: 400 tons from the aftermath of bloco parties held across Rio and [...]
By Lucy Jordan, Senior Contributing Reporter BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL – Despite the city of Rio being recently named by The New York Times as a top destination for 2013, Brazil’s slowing economy and high ranking as an expensive place to live and travel has the government working to make tourism more attractive, focusing recently on spiking [...]
By Lucy Jordan, Senior Contributing Reporter BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL – From municipal elections to the mensalão, from dams to deforestation, for the slowing economy and the booming middle class, 2012 was big for Brazil. The year began with devastating building collapses in Rio de Janeiro, and ended with a farewell to world-renowned architect Oscar Niemeyer. In [...]
By Mary Carroll, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Survey results published on July 5th shows that retail sales in Rio de Janeiro increased by six percent during the Rio+20 Conference. The research was conducted by the Centre for the Study of Store Directors Club of Rio de Janeiro (CDL-Rio) in June. The largest [...]
By Antoni Galbany, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “This was garbage, only garbage,” is the way Vitor Alvez, founder of Sitiê, describes what used to be a garbage dump a few years ago, where Vidigal residents tossed old refrigerators, tires, bottles and all kinds of trash. Today, thanks to the Sitiê project, this [...]
Opinion, by Alfonso Stefanini RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – UN began its PaperSmart (Integrated Sustainable Papersmart Services), paperless program at Rio+20, where paper was replaced with digital media. One thing is for sure, information was hard to get at the summit and everyone at Rio Centro was a little lost. In past conventions the UN [...]
Editorial RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – June was an exciting month in Rio, the UN Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development was a major event that the city seemed to pull off in reasonably good order. Granted most of the activities and meetings took place in Barra da Tijuca, but there were plenty of concerns about [...]
By Jay Forte, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – UN press sources announced that Rio+20 concluded with more than US$500 billion mobilized with over 700 “commitments” made. World leaders finalized the outcome document agreement on Friday, which is intended to advance action on sustainable development. Although many critics questioned the clarity of the results, [...]
By Ben Tavener, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The UN’s Rio+20 Earth Summit has ended with broad agreements and a general “renewing of commitment” to sustainable development, greener economies and the eradication of poverty, after delegates from nearly 200 member countries approved the text of the 53-page official Outcome Document on Friday. However many details concerning [...]
By Ben Tavener, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – As Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, enters the final 24 hours of its three-day High-Level Summit the world eagerly awaits news of the agreements reached or torn up by the 193 participating UN member nations. At the same time in Rio security [...]
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