Brazil Institute Publication: “Emerging Powers: India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) and the Future of South-South Cooperation”

Due to the current trends of political and economic restructuring, South-South cooperation is expected to play an increasingly important role in the post-recession world. India, Brazil, and South Africa (IBSA) established a dialogue forum to increase multilateral collaboration on a number of issues, especially those relating to development.

Based on a half-day conference on IBSA, the Brazil Institute’s new Special Report, “Emerging Powers: India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) and the Future of South-South Cooperation,” reveals two key themes: current accomplishments in enhancing global governance, economic relations, and foreign policy strategies; and the potential to improve regional security in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The conference panelists questioned whether IBSA could offer permanent solutions to multilateral security efforts given the diversity both within the countries and within the regions.

Click here to download the report.

Click here to watch the conference.

Lula calls on leaders to attend climate talks

Ed Crooks in London and Fiona Harvey-Financial Times, 11/05/09

Brazil’s president has challenged other world leaders to attend next month’s climate talks in Copenhagen to break the deadlock in negotiations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told the Financial Times he would speak to Barack Obama, US president, next week to urge him and other leaders to go to Copenhagen on December 16-17, the final days of the talks, to save them from failure.

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What do the Olympics mean for Rio’s environment?

David Cleary-The Miami Herald, 11/09/09

Naturally we in the Cidade Maravilhosa are delighted to have beaten out the Windy City and snatched the 2016 Olympics from under the nose of the not-quite-glamorous-enough first couple of the United States: even Obama can’t compete with Copacabana when it comes to wowing Olympic committees.

But now that the cheering has died down along with the hangovers, a sober consideration of what the Olympics will mean for the world’s most interesting and biodiverse urban environment is in order.

You don’t normally associate biodiversity and conservation with cities, but Rio de Janeiro is an exception. Its extraordinary topography means steep hill slopes and mountainsides are still forested: not the least of the issues associated with the growth of favelas, Rio’s hillside slums, is that their expansion corrodes this green mantle.

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Brazil’s Olympic Run-Up

Oxford Analytica-Forbes, 11/09/09

Preparations for hosting the World Cup and 2016 Games will face municipal and bureaucratic challenges.

Brazil has long been a candidate to host the World Cup, last held there in 1950, as well as the Olympic Games, never before held in South America.

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Brazil’s Real Rises to Two-Week High on G-20 Stimulus Pledge

Camila Fontana-Bloomberg, 11/09/09

Brazil’s real rose to the highest level in two weeks against the dollar after stocks advanced and the Group of 20 nations remained silent on the U.S. currency’s decline this year and agreed to maintain stimulus measures.

The real gained 0.8 percent to 1.7058 per dollar at 8:53 a.m. in New York, the strongest since Oct. 26 when it reached 1.7020. The Brazilian currency is the world’s best-performing major currency this year against the U.S. currency, with a 36 percent advance.

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Brazilian Wind Power Gets a Boost

Robert Walzer-The New York Times, 11/09/09

Photo Courtesy of Flickr User LanceChengImages

Early this decade, a drought in Brazil that cut water to the country’s hydroelectric dams prompted severe energy shortages. The crisis, which ravaged the country’s economy and led to electricity rationing, underscored Brazil’s pressing need to diversify away from water power.

One result of that introspection will climax on Dec. 14, when the Brazilian government conducts its first wind-only energy auction. The bidding is expected to lead to the construction of two gigawatts of wind production with an investment of about $6 billion over the next two years.

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Interview transcript: President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Financial Times, 11/08/09

Photo Courtesy of London Summit

Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, and Jonathan Wheatley, Brazil correspondent, interviewed President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in London on November 4.

Financial Times: Mr. President, tell me, how is it that Brazil has come out of this global financial and economic crisis so quickly?

President Lula: Well, first of all, I believe that it’s important for you to understand what happened in Brazil before the crisis. We were determined to end the paralysis that Brazil suffered during the ’80s and ’90s. Brazil had to get back on the road to growth, and invest in infrastructure as the precondition for success in the future decades. One important thing is that many of the measures that some countries have undertaken after the crisis, Brazil did in January 2007.

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Senate Approved Valenzuela, Shannon’s Confirmation Remains Stalled

The Senate confirmed Arturo Valenzuela, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, for  Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric Affairs.

Valenzuela’s predecessor, Thomas Shannon, still awaits confirmation to become U.S. Ambassador to Brazil.

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World unemployment up despite economic recovery

Greg Keller-The Associated Press, 11/05/09

Despite signs of an economic revival gathering pace around the globe, the millions of people laid off during the worst recession in 70 years are unlikely to see relief any time soon as joblessness is still climbing in many of the world’s largest economies.

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BRAZIL — The government says the unemployment rate was 8.1 percent in August — virtually unchanged from the previous month. Brazil emerged from recession in the second quarter. Analysts predict the economy will expand slightly in 2009.

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FACTBOX-The IMF common reserve proposal and BRIC savings

Reuters, 11/05/09

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has proposed creating a common pool of reserves to help rebalance the world economy by dissuading emerging market countries from accumulating massive foreign exchange reserves. Such ideas are likely to come into play as Group of 20 nations develop a plan to build a more balanced global economy, which would shrink surpluses in export-rich countries such as China and boost savings in debt-laden nations like the United States.

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