Top 10 Environmental & Energy Headlines from South America The Brazilian Government launched its National Plan on ClimateChange on December 1, 2008, during the 14th Conference of theParties to the United Nations Framework Convention on ClimateChange (COP 14) in Poznan, Poland. Ever since the announcement of the Tupi discovery in November 2007, the eyes of the international oil industry have been firmly fixed on Brazil. Brazil is set to see a step change in the level of foreign investment into renewables projects. Signed on July 22, 2008 by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and published in the Official Gazette on July 23, 2008, Decree n° 6.514/08 has the purpose of speeding up the course of proceedings relating to administrative sanctions relating to the environment and rendering more efficient the collection of the fines applied. As the huge scale of Brazil's pre-salt oil reserves becomes clear, the country is attracting more and more interest from international operating companies. The end of Petrobras' monopoly and the promotion of bid rounds by the Brazilian National Petroleum Agency for the concession of exploration areas, as well as the new discoveries of oil and natural gas in the country, turned out to be essential factors in the development of the Brazilian maritime industry. The introduction of a federal cap-and-trade system in the US would bring significant changes to carbon markets globally. This will be possible if the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008, as proposed by a bill introduced in the US Senate by Senator Barbara Boxer on May 20,2008, is enacted. In cooperation with the Government of Guyana and the Commonwealth, the Iwokrama International Centre and its partners are seeking a new means to bring the world’s remaining rainforests into the world’s economy without losing them in the process. | 
