Last week CBS aired an piece on Brazil.

Tags: brazil in the news

Lula opened yesterday the new plant of Braskem in Triunfo (Rio Grande do Sul) where plastic is made from Ethanol.

Two weeks ago Coca Cola Brasil launched it’s new “plantbottle’ in which 30% of the plastic consists of plastic made from ethanol.

Lula ceized the opportunity to claim that “while they -the developed countries- talk and set the rules, we here in Brazil talk less and do more”.  He reminded of the promises he made in Copenhagen: reduce deforestation by 80% and CO2 emissions by 39% by 2020.

And let’s have a look to those CO2 emissions today; more specifically the CO2 emissions per capita (the only fair comparison measure, why would one human being have more right to emit CO2 than another?). Ever since 1997 the CO2 emissions per capita in Brazil have been stable on 1,9 metric tons per capita. The average in the world went slightly up from 4,2 metric tons in 1997 until 4,4 metric tons today. This means that the average CO2 emission per capita is 230% higher worldwide than in Brazil. But let’s look then to the United states: 20,1 metric tons per capita in 1997 and 19,3 metric tons per capita today. No significant decrease whatsoever and 1000% more (10 times as much !) CO2 emissions per capita then in Brazil. 10 times as much. Belgium has with 10,2 metric tons per capita 5 times as much emissions as Brazil and South Africa has a surprising high emission per capita of 8,7 metric tons per capita (and rising !); this is mainly due to South Africa’s addiction to coal for electricity production.

If Brazil reduces it’s total emissions by 39% until 2020 and knowing that Brazil’s population will grow from 196 million today to 219 million in 2020 (12% growth); this means that the CO2 emission per capita would be reduced by 51% from 1,9 metric tons today until 0,97 metric tons per capita in 2020. To obtain the same goals, Belgium would have to reduce it’s current 10,2 metric tons to 5,1 metric tons per capita and the United States would have to cut 9,5 metric tons per capita in the coming 10 years. Still then, the United States would be emitting 10 times as much CO2 per capita as Brazil.

Tags: Braskem, C02 emissions per capita, Coca cola, plantbottle, Plastic ethanol

Le Monda published last week a special on Brasil, 98 pages of excellent articles and interviews.
The complete issue is available for download here (8,9 €); a must-read.

Tags: brasil le monde

The PNAD (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios) just revealed that the average family income in Brazil went up from R$ 2.055 to 2.085 from 2008 to 2009.
Noteworthy is that the income from the lower class works went up faster (5,9%) then the upper middle class and upper class (which even had a slight decrease in income).

As a result, the Brazilian Gini index further decreased from 0,521 in 2008 tot 0,518 in 2009.  Brazil used to be the most unequal country in the world (highest Gini Index).  In 2008 South Africa took over the position of the most unequal country in the world, with a Gini index of over 0,67.  Brazil itself has made tremendous progress and now sits in the league of countries like Mexico, Costa Rica and not all that far off from The United States with its increasing Gini index of 0,45 in 2007 .  Economists pointed out in 2005-2006 that the United States is becoming a country with bigger inequality then Mexico for example.

Aslo noteworthy is that the state of Rio de Janeiro feels the least the effects of the crisis.  The avarege wage in the Rio de Janeiro state went up with 6,4% between 2008 and 2009 and the unemployment further decreased from 9,6% in 2008 tot 9,2% in 2009.

Tags: gini brazil, gini united states, wage increase brazil

The Economist published a feature issue last week on the rise of Latin America, heavily focusing on Brazil and Mexico. They used a controversial image with the American continent turned upside down.

Some excellent articles from the issue:

Nobody’s backyard

So near and yet so far

A Latin American decade?