The burden of heat-related death could shift from the elderly to young people by century's end, according to a new study.

In a future scenario that sees average global temperatures go at least 2.8 degrees Celsius (5 Fahrenheit) beyond pre-industrial levels by 2100, people under 35 would likely suffer the effects of a warming world more than older adults.

The analysis, published in the journal Science Advances, inspected mortality data from Mexico.

The data enabled the researchers to take age and dates of death, compare it with environmental conditions and calculate how often humid heat exposure resulted in premature death.

Scientists have long thought that excessive heat in a warming climate would have a higher impact on older populations.

Surprisingly, it appears to be a silent killer of young people in certain climates.

Extreme heat a silent killer of young people

According to the study, three out of four heat-related deaths in Mexico occurred in people aged under 35 between 1998 and 2019.

In contrast, more older people accounted for cold-weather mortality events.

Looking ahead to a scenario when the global population and carbon emissions continue growing, the researchers projected a 32% increase in temperature-related deaths in those aged under 35 would occur by 2100.

A near-identical decrease in mortality rates was seen in older groups.

The explanation for why younger people may be shouldering more heat-related deaths than anticipated likely comes down to social reasons.

Younger people may be more likely to find themselves exposed to heat outdoors, while a warming climate could cut cold-related impacts on their elders.

"Younger people have higher activity levels, they are more likely to be exposed to heat in outdoor work environments," study leader Andrew Wilson, from the Center on Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University, told DW.

How hot is too hot? It's probably cooler than you think

Wilson's group also found the amount of heat exposure that could lead to death is lower than scientific literature suggests.

Many environmental variables, including air temperature and humidity, are used to indicate heat stress. These are sometimes called "real feel" or "wet bulb” temperatures.

Older studies put a temperature limit for human heat stress at 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).

Prolonged exposure to this 35-degree wet bulb limit theoretically means the body would be unable to cool its core temperature, resulting in heat-related death.

But this limit was calculated in lab conditions where a person would be resting in the shade, in gale-force winds, doused in water and naked — hardly a realistic scenario.

Wilson said in some cases, limits could actually be in the mid 20s. Studies like his have since tried to account for real-world conditions.

"We find even in the mid-20 [degrees Celsius], there's already quite a bit of mortality, especially for the youngest people," Wilson said. "That's probably because they're moving … working outdoors … they're in the sun.”

Simply put: a hot day is a hot day, and it takes its toll on people's bodies.

Heat-related deaths a global issue

While the study only looks at Mexican health data, it provides a concerning glimpse at a potential future for other nations on the front line of a warming world.

Experts say mortality is a huge part of the cost of climate change. 

"We think many fewer people will die from cold, many more people will die from heat. We think most of those additional deaths from heat are going to happen in low- and middle-income countries," Wilson said.

"Most of the reduction in cold-related deaths will be in Europe and North America, right? So this is already an inequality picture," he added.

Such conditions have long been forecast, given the pace at which carbon emissions have increased in recent years. The world has already temporarily breached the 1.5-degree Celsius lower threshold set in the Paris Climate Agreement.

In 2017, studies anticipated as much as 70% of India's population could be exposed to unlivable heat by 2100.

And in recent years, Middle East nations have introduced work bans to counter extreme heat conditions.

Edited by: Fred Schwaller

 

Sources:

Heat disproportionately kills young people. Published by Andrew Wilson et al. in Science Advances https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adq3367

An adaptability limit to climate change due to heat stress. Published by Steven C. Sherwood and Matthew Huber in PNAS www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0913352107

At the end of October, Berlin's Prussian Cultural Institute (SPK) announced that three items used in sacred rituals are on the path to being restituted to the indigenous Kogi people of Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains. The items to be returned include a staff, a basket and another woven item. All are used in sacred rituals still performed today by the Kogi.

The three items are currently at Colombia's anthropology and history institute, ICANH, on a loan basis. Research is being undertaken by Kogi representatives and in December, the formal restitution contract is set to be written up.

Back in 2023, the SPK returned two Kogi ritual masks at the request of representatives of the Indigenous organization Gonavindúa Tayrona and ICANH. The masks dated back to the 15th century and had been in the museum's possession for more than 100 years, ever since ethnologist Konrad Theodor Preuss, the curator of the forerunner of Berlin's Ethnological Museum, had bought them. Preuss had lived with the Kogi people for three months and acquired the wooden items from the son of a deceased Kogi priest in 1915.

After the masks' return over a year ago, Kogi activists requested the three additional ritual items also be returned due to their importance in spiritual ceremonies. Exactly how Preuss acquired these particular items remains unclear; he collected a small collection of Kogi objects during his time with them, of which 80 have been preserved until today.  

Around 20,000 Kogi people live in the jungle of Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, and have kept their culture alive for the last 500 years. The Kogi, who refer to themselves as Kágaba, are the largest intact tribe in Colombia and live a lifestyle highly in tune with nature.

Cooperation is key

Professor Lars-Christian Koch, director of Berlin's Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art, traveled to Colombia in October and met with Kogi leaders who had come down from the Sierra Nevada to see the items firsthand.

"It was just me and another ethnologist and two Kogi representatives sitting there and discussing the details of the items — it was a very open situation," Koch told DW. "This is the first step: to just look at the items and see what to do next."

During the meeting, the function of one of the woven, basket-like pieces came into question. It was originally thought to be a headpiece, but may actually have been used as a basket — a point Kogi activists are now researching before the official legal restitution process takes place in December.

For Koch, collaborating with Indigenous communities such as the Kogi, as well as other stakeholders, such as governments and institutions, is the first and most important step to any potential restitution situation. Without close cooperation, mistakes can easily be made, he says. "We need the perspectives of both sides. In this case, Koch explained, the museum hadn't understood how important the items were in the Kogi's spiritual rituals, which are still actively practiced today."

Colombia wants items back

Colombia has been very active lately when it comes to requesting the return of cultural items from museums and private collections around the world. The country has brought back hundreds of items in 2024 alone.

In September, Colombia repatriated 115 archaeological artifacts from private collectors in the United States. The artifacts include pre-Columbian Indigenous masks, clay figurines, and ceramic vases. Daniel Garcia-Peña, Colombia's ambassador to the US, called the return a "clear example of international cooperation" and called for other collectors to return items to Colombia to preserve the country's cultural heritage.

"The majority of the objects will stay in the collections of museums nationwide," said Elizabeth Taylor Jay, vice minister for multilateral affairs in the Colombian Foreign Ministry. "We have a protocol in place to transport these objects, to ensure their conservation and safety, as well as their preservation once in the country,” she told Colombian paper "El Tiempo."

Germany's restitution history

While the restitution of art looted by the Nazis has been a prominent topic in the past decades, Germany has also been restituting a number of other items, including those taken from former European colonies.

In 2022, several German museums, including the Humboldt Forum, joined forces to return over 1,130 items to Nigeria. The valuable items — sculptures and reliefs made of bronze and brass, as well as works made of ivory, coral and wood — were stolen from the former Kingdom of Benin by the British in a brutal punitive expedition in 1897.

Unlike high-profile restituted items like the looted Benin Bronzes, the Kogi's ritual items are said to have been legally acquired, although Koch points out that Pruess probably knew acquiring the items was ethically problematic due to their sacred status and the fact they were used in ritual ceremonies. The conditions around the supposed purchase also remain unknown.

"The Kalguakala [masks] are of total importance to us as they are sacred," Arregocés Conchacala Zalabata, a representative of the Kogi, told the Guardian in 2023. "They are not a historical artifact; they are alive. With the masks, we perform ceremonies to connect and work with the spirit of the sun, the waters, the mountains and the world's many species."

Setting the tone

Could the return of the supposedly purchased items send a message to other museums around Europe? The British Museum, for example, has long refrained from returning the "Parthenon Marbles" to Athens in part by arguing they were acquired legally in the 19th century.

Koch explains that restitution decisions are made on a case-by-case basis and always in cooperation with all partners in a given situation. "It's not something we are deciding only from here [Germany]," he points out. In the case of the Kogi items, the fact that they are still actively used in spiritual rituals means their return is more or less certain, he said.

Collaboration is key when it comes to figuring out how to untangle an item's often complicated past, Koch says. "For example, we have documents our partners don't have and they have histories we don't have. Understanding through collaboration means they're extending their perspective and we are also extending ours."

Edited by: Cristina Burack

"Today marks a truly historic milestone," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday in Montevideo, when the EU and the Mercosur trade bloc finalized their deal. She said that a "powerful message to the world" had been sent.

"In an increasingly confrontational world, we demonstrate that democracies can rely on each other."

Von der Leyen added that the agreement, which has been almost 25 years in the making, was "one of the largest trade and investment partnerships the world has ever seen."

Connecting Europe with South America

The EU-Mercosur agreement connects more than 700 million people on the European and South American continents. Some 450 million citizens in 27 EU states, and about 270 million in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

It does not yet apply to the Mercosur trade bloc's newest member, Bolivia, nor to Venezuela whose membership of the bloc has been suspended until further notice due to democratic backsliding.

Most of the key points had already been agreed in 2019. The agreement will remove over 90% of tariffs on goods exchanged between the two blocs, which the European Commission estimates will save EU exporters more than €4 billion ($4.2 billion) per year.

Rare earth elements needed for cars, machinery

From the EU perspective, the main focus is likely to be on the import of raw materials and the export of cars and machinery. The bloc's interest in finalizing the agreement became more acute in the wake of the reelection of US President-elect Donald Trump, who threatened the EU with tariffs during his campaign.

In view of the global geopolitical situation, von der Leyen said the agreement was "a political necessity." The EU hopes to become less dependent on China for its access to rare earth elements, for example. Mercosur states will be able to supply the EU with these raw materials that are crucial for modern technological products, like mobile phones and electric vehicles.

In 2023, according to the EU, the Mercosur states exported mainly mineral products, food, beverages and tobacco to the EU, which in turn exported machinery, equipment, chemicals and pharmaceutical products. The trade volume between the two blocs that year amounted to around €110 billion.

In the EU, particularly in Germany, car manufacturers will be likely hoping that the 35% import duty on cars will be reduced, while South American producers will be looking forward to being able to more easily sell meat, sugar and other such products to the EU.

Environmental protection at risk, say critics

Over the past five years, it has proven difficult to conclude the agreement largely because the EU has demanded stricter environmental regulations. These will be set out in an additional protocol. In its press release, the European Commission stressed that the current agreement had "strong, specific and measurable commitments to stop deforestation."

Criticism of the agreement has also been voiced in South America in recent years. During his 2023 election campaign, the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, expressed his opposition to the deal, and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva has also criticized the additional protocol.

European farmers oppose deal

In recent weeks, the agreement has also sparked vehement protests from farmers in the EU, particularly in France and Belgium. They fear unfair competition from cheap South American products, arguing that producers there benefit from lower environmental standards. The German Farmers' Association has also spoken out against the agreement, calling for negotiations to be restarted. 

Environmental organizations such as Greenpeace have rejected the agreement outright, arguing that continued rainforest deforestation to produce beef and grow soy to feed cattle will be catastrophic.

Supporters of the agreement, meanwhile, argue that it will protect EU standards as well as quotas in certain areas, such as beef, poultry and sugar. The European Commission said on Friday that the interests of all Europeans, including farmers, would be protected by the agreement.

EU member states in disagreement

Opinions on the agreement also differ within the EU. France has been a staunch opponent of the deal, and on Thursday the office of President Emmanuel Macron said it had told von der Leyen that it considered it "unacceptable" in its current form. It said France would continue to tirelessly defend its "agricultural sovereignty."

Poland and Italy have also expressed their doubts, while Germany and Spain both support the agreement. Recently, Germany had pushed increasingly hard for a swift conclusion.

Though the agreement has been finalized, it's likely to be some time before it actually takes effect. Both blocs will have to ratify the deal, and it could still be blocked. The European Commission said that the end of the negotiations was a "first step."

This article was originally written in German.

The stylish new central library in El Salvador's capital San Salvador is buzzing with activity.

The futuristic-looking glass building, which is located opposite the city's cathedral and next to the presidential palace, has turned into a family meeting hub.

Children read or play, parents watch them, and the selection of books is impressive.

The entire project was financed by China and is part of a modernization project for the historical center in San Salvador.

However, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele wants to transform much more than just the capital's city center — he has a vision for the entire country.

"Our next step is to ensure that the world perceives El Salvador more for its economic miracle than for its security miracle," he stated, adding, "this will take a few more years, but we are on the right track."

Security situation stabilized

According to official data, El Salvador has transformed itself from one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America to the safest.

The number of murders fell from almost 4,000 in 2017 to less than 80 in the first few months of 2024.

The government arrested more than 80,000 suspected members of the dreaded "Mara" gangs as part of an ongoing state of emergency that began in 2022.            

The term "Mara" comprises numerous criminal gangs that operate throughout Central America.

Their main businesses are arms, drugs and human trafficking as well as prostitution.

However, human rights and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) criticize the crackdown, saying it has landed thousands of innocent people in prison.

Critics say basic democratic rights are being undermined and that state of emergency restrictions have negatively impacted normal citizens, not just armed gangsters.

Confident industry

And yet the majority of the Salvadoran population feels downright liberated.

The same is true for small and medium-sized businesses, which suddenly no longer have to pay protection money to the much-feared Mara gangs.

"Small businesses had to give up part of their income for security purposes and the money was then lacking for investments," Karla Klaus, the director of the German-Salvadoran Chamber of Commerce, told DW.

Also, many large German companies felt forced to leave the country due to the poor security situation, she added.

However, a current survey by the chamber amongst its around 150 members, shows that confidence is now significantly higher.

"Numerous companies are considering investments in renewable energy supplies, in upgrading machinery and in hiring new staff," Klaus told DW, observing a general 'spirit of optimism' among businesses.

In April 2024, for instance, Google also opened a new headquarters in San Salvador.

The American IT giant stated at the time that it wanted to help digitize and modernize the country.

Since then, its modern glass building has become a symbol for the hope that the economic miracle could actually be on its way.

Controversial megaproject

The government is banking on a ripple effect and is also pinning further hopes on tourism.

The "Surf City II" project, for example, aims to appeal to water sports enthusiasts from all over the world.

"We have one of the most spectacular beaches in the country," Bukele stated years ago.

"Surfers tell me it's one of the best surfing beaches in the world but there is not even a decent road to get there," he said.

Also other beaches in the area have not been made accessible, Bukele said.

He promotes the project and has promised to invest $100 million (€95m).

Furthermore, plans for a new, second Pacific airport are in the pipeline. The idea is to bring tourists from Western countries and the southern US directly to the beaches.

Investors also have plans to build new hotels for these target groups, including the global surfing scene.

Questioning the promises

"The ecological damage of this project is so substantial that a sustainable implementation is basically impossible," Ines Klissenbauer, Central America expert at the Latin American aid organization Adveniat, told DW.

In her view, it is simply another attempt by President Bukule to attract capital to the highly indebted country.

Claudia Ortiz from the oppositional Vamos party remains skeptical, too.

She compares the project to El Salvador's failed Bitcoin strategy.

"Bitcoin is part of an authoritarian project and a system in which public funds are used at discretion and without transparency," Ortiz criticizes.

Throughout El Salvador, there are signs in stores that Bitcoin is accepted as a means of payment.

However, the average person is far from being able to afford the virtual currency.

"El Salvador's economic problems and the economic needs of the people will not be solved by making Bitcoin a legal tender," Ortiz told DW.

This article was originally published in German.

Trees and forests are often described as the lungs of the Earth because of their important role in removing pollutants such as carbon dioxide from the environment.

New research from the University of Bonn in Germany and Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil has analyzed regional health outcomes after conservation measures in the Amazon.

The research found that these measures have led to a reduction in the hospitalization and death rate for respiratory health problems in the regional population.

The positive impact on people's health was credited to a reduction in forest fires. The conservation measures reduced fine particulate concentrations in the air—a main vector for adverse health effects of fire smoke.

"The relationship between the fire outbreak and the smoke traveling somewhere and people inhaling it and then getting health problems is pretty straightforward," said the study's lead author Yannic Damm, a researcher at the University of Bonn.

Fewer forest fires saw fewer deaths, hospitalizations

Amazonian wildfires are a persistent topic on Latin America's environmental agenda. 2024 saw Brazil's worst wildfires in 14 years.

Across the border in Bolivia, land clearing was blamed in part for fires that burned through a record 10 million hectares (24 million acres). 

The researchers wanted to understand what impact deforestation policy changes might have on health outcomes in the Amazon.

They first calculated whether fires and air pollution decreased after policies were introduced in 2007 and 2009 to stop traders from purchasing soy and cattle products grown on deforested land.

The study investigated a 100-kilometer (60-mile) zone surrounding the border of the Amazon biome across the states of Maranhao, Tocantins, Para, Mato Grosso and Rondonia. 

A reduction in forest fires was observed in the years after the introduction of these policies. It resulted in sizable drops in concentrations of pollutant gases such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen and sulfur dioxides.

The researchers then compared hospitalizations for a range of diseases associated with air pollution with hospitalizations following the reduction in fires and particulate readings.

Within the Amazon region, they estimated that improved conservation outcomes led to a decrease of about 18,000 hospitalizations and led to 680 fewer deaths per year because of smoke- and fire-related health problems.

To verify their estimates, the researchers benchmarked these intakes against those for sexually transmitted infections (which shouldn't be influenced by fire rates) and found that these remained stable within the same time period.

Fires and health

Cleared tropical forests can result in hotter and drier conditions that leave regions more prone to hotter and more intense wildfires — either from natural or human causes.

Wildfire smoke — and air pollution generally — contains fine particulate matter, sometimes called PM2.5, intermixed with a cocktail of toxic gases.

PM2.5 are particulates smaller than 2.5 micrometers; that's smaller that a tiny bacterial cell. Larger PM10 are 10 — slightly bigger than a red blood cell.

Such is their size that they are easily absorbed into the bloodstream through the lungs, leading to potential health problems in the short and long term.

Smoke exposure can aggravate conditions such as asthma and reduce lung function. Chronic problems emerging from prolonged exposure can include an increase in the rate of heart and respiratory diseases.

Risks from deforestation

Though forest fires and respiratory health outcomes are more likely in areas affected by deforestation, the practice of tree felling can also increase the likelihood of transmissible disease.

That's because forest clearance reduces habitat for other plants and animals, which may bring them into closer contact with humans.

This becomes problematic when animals become reservoirs for diseases caused by viruses, bacteria or parasites.

"When you deforest an area, it's not always associated with an increase in infectious disease, but in many cases it can lead to spillover of pathogens from wildlife to people and their domestic animals," said Nicole Lynn Gottdenker, a disease ecologist at the University of Georgia, in the United States.

When habitat removal translates to changes in ecological communities, it might be easier for "reservoir" animals to make contact with humans.

Multiple studies have found that malaria transmission in the Amazon is linked to deforestation. One study found a 1% increase in monthly Amazon tree felling was associated with a 6.3% increase in malaria cases.

Forest loss can also directly impact humans and make them more vulnerable to pathogens.

"Often, people become displaced and marginalized and are often the most hit by these pathogens and these transmission in infectious diseases" Gottdenker said.

Studies have found that policies aimed at reducing deforestation and habitat loss can  lower the chances of zoonotic spillover events, which include the SARS-CoV-2 virus (the cause of COVID-19) and Mpox.

Edited by: Fred Schwaller

Sources:

Damm, et al., Health benefits of reduced deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Commun Earth Environ 5, 693 (2024).https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01840-7

Arisco et al.,  Ecological change increases malaria risk in the Brazilian Amazon, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 121 (44) e2409583121, (2024).https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2409583121 (2024)

The world's many geopolitical crises and Donald Trump's imminent return to the White House overshadowed this week's G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with leaders using a more neutral tone to describe the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon in their final joint communique.

Unlike the 2022 summit in Bali, which explicitly condemned Russia's"aggression" against Ukraine, and last year's summit in New Delhi, India, which called on G20 members to shun the use of force, Brazil's G20 declaration avoided direct blame.

Instead, it vaguely referred to the "suffering" caused by the conflict — a likely compromise to achieve consensus from G20 members, especially those aligned with Moscow.

While the summit was underway, Ukraine used — for the first time — longer-range US missiles against Russian territory, prompting Moscow to revise the Kremlin's nuclear doctrine, setting out new conditions for how nuclear weapons would be used. This escalation caused consternation among G20 leaders.

Creon Butler, director of the global economy and finance program at the London-based Chatham House think tank, said the communique had already been agreed by the working groups. "After the latest barrage of missiles, some European countries wanted to reopen the text for more specific criticism of Russia, but the Brazilian presidency didn't want to do so," he told DW.

Major geopolitical issues divide G20 leaders

The final communique hardly mentioned Israel, which has been criticized for its tactics against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah in the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. G20 leaders did, however, reaffirm the urgent need to boost humanitarian aid to the region, called for cease-fires and emphasized support for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

Argentine President Javier Milei, known for his libertarian views and skepticism toward multilateral organizations, even signed the final communique. However, he later issued a statement, saying he did not support several points in the declaration.

"Milei signed the document. I would call that a victory," Tomas Marques, a research fellow at GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies in Hamburg, Germany, told DW, referring to the president's previous criticism of the G20.

Marques also said the Rio summit had achieved some "good results," considering the forum's limits and the numerous conflicts and economic issues that dominated the talks.

Lula pushes tax, climate and poverty relief

And while G20 host, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will have partially fulfilled his promise to bridge the gap between the West and the so-called Global South over the most pressing issues, his real achievement comes from agreements on topics pushed under Brazil's G20 presidency.

A cause close to Lula's heart is the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, an initiative launched in Rio on Monday to help lift incomes and food availability in the world. In the final communique, the G20 leaders emphasized their commitment to eradicating poverty and hunger, calling for new funding pledges and for other countries not yet participating to join the global effort.

"The fact that it [poverty and hunger relief] got such strong support is an indication that at the moment, there is a kind of consensus that groups like the G20 need to tackle this issue," Butler said.

As Trump awaits, climate funding gets Biden's backing

Much of the chatter on the sidelines of the summit was around Trump's upcoming second term, as concerns grow that his likely protectionist policies will undermine relations with allies as well as China.

Despite this, Wolfgang Ischinger, former German ambassador to the US and ex-chairman of the Munich Security Conference,  said there was no "a sense of panic" in Rio.

"I think everybody believes that we can and we will, on the basis of what happened eight years ago, be able to work with [US President-elect] Donald Trump," Ischinger told DW.

Rio may have been the last chance for US President Joe Biden to back policies that Trump is more hostile to, like climate change and the proposed tax on billionaires. Biden told the gathering that developing countries need "enough firepower and access to capital" to protect their nations from the effects of climate change.

The G20 leaders recognized the need for trillions of dollars in climate finance for low-income countries but failed to mention the need to transition away from fossil fuels. While the last point may have been welcomed by Trump, the US president-elect is set to wind down US financing of climate initiatives, which could now be an excuse for other countries to follow suit, citing their many domestic challenges.

"Because of the economic stress that advanced economies are under and the debt taken on during the pandemic, the likelihood of a step change in amounts of international public finance for climate action is pretty unlikely," said Butler.

New tax on ultra-rich moves forward

Lula continued the push for a new tax on the world's wealthiest people, who French economist Gabriel Zucman estimates pay an effective tax rate of just 0.3% of their wealth. The proposed levy could raise up to $250 billion (€237 billion) annually from the nearly 2,800 billionaires globally. Their combined fortune is some $13.5 trillion, according to the Forbes World's Billionaires List.

Advocates for the wealth tax have said the funds raised could be used to tackle growing global inequalities and climate projects, especially among heavily indebted low-income countries. And while the final communique said G20 would "seek to engage cooperatively to ensure that ultra-high-net-worth individuals are effectively taxed," the leaders didn't create a binding agreement on implementing a global wealth tax.

The anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International criticized G20 leaders for not addressing corruption and dirty money in the wealth tax plan and called on South Africa, the holder of the G20 presidency in 2025, to make anti-corruption a priority.

"The G20 has the power to spearhead actions on illicit financial flows, and anything less is lip service to sustainable development," said Maíra Martini, Transparency International's Head of Policy & Advocacy.

While the final G20 communique is purely political, GIGA's Marques argued that it could now be a "useful tool to help advocate for the wealth tax to pressure governments that are against the proposal — like Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada." 

However, with tax affairs being fiercely guarded at the national level, concerns about hurting economic growth, and administrative costs, Butler was doubtful that any binding agreement on a billionaire tax would be forthcoming.

"Even within a very aligned group of countries like the EU, it is difficult to get common approaches to taxation. So I'm skeptical that it can be done globally, and even more skeptical for when Trump returns to office," he said.

Edited by: Uwe Hessler

Last week, Argentina's climate-skeptic president, Javier Milei, ordered his negotiators to abruptly leave the COP29 talks taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, where countries are hashing out a deal on new financing targets for climate action.

Milei, who has described climate change as a "socialist lie," has made it clear that environmental concerns are far down his list of priorities. 

Since taking office in December last year, he has downgraded Argentina's Environment Ministry to a subsecretariat, removed a fund for forest protection and passed a law that would further boost the oil and gas sector. 

Now there are worries that the far-right leader will pull his country out of the Paris Climate Agreement, following in the footsteps of his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump. 

Trump has said he wants to walk out on the international treaty, which aims to limit global average temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), for a second time once he re-enters the White House. 

What impact will Argentina's actions have? 

The withdrawal of Argentina from the COP29 summit implies that the country it is out of any current negotiations, including talks on potential energy transition or adaptation funds, said Maria Victoria Emanuelli, Buenos-Aires based Latin America campaign director of environmental NGO 350.org. 

Emanuelli described the decision as "erratic and unpredictable" and said it could cost Argentina a considerable sum needed for climate action and ultimately harm the poorest in society. 

"The vulnerable populations in Argentina are also the ones who suffer more the extreme climate phenomena, but Milei's policies clearly show that this is not important for his government," she said.

But Emanuelli didn't think that Argentina's withdrawal would undermine the negotiations themselves because the country is a "small player on the international scene." 

Going further and pulling out of the Paris Agreement would have such far-reaching implications for Argentina's society and economy that it "borders on absurdity,” said Andrew Forth, head of policy and advocacy at Climate Group, an international NGO focused on climate action.

"Excluding itself from global discussions not only weakens Argentina's ability to influence rules of trade, climate finance and international cooperation, it also leaves the country sidelined in shaping the very rules that will determine its future resilience and prosperity and help address the escalating impacts of climate change at home," he said.

How is climate change already impacting Argentina? 

Argentina is vulnerable to a wide range of climate change impacts that vary across its vast and diverse landscapes, including deserts, huge shorelines and glaciers, as well as both subtropical and subantarctic regions.  

In recent years, the country has been hit by extreme heat, severe drought, water scarcity and destructive flooding. In the summer months of 2022-2023, the country experienced its highest temperatures in 60 years. 

Two consecutive heat waves, which saw record-breaking temperatures in Argentina and Paraguay during that season, were made 60 times more likely due to human-induced climate change, according to a study by World Weather Attribution, a UK-based academic institution.

As climate change continues to heat the planet, the country is expected to suffer more frequent and intense floods, droughts and wildfires, as well as rising sea levels and accelerated melting of the country's numerous glaciers, according to the World Bank. 

Under a 2 C global temperature rise, which the world is on track to pass, Argentina would see a 33% increase in agricultural drought frequency and 1,032% increase in heat wave duration, according to a report from the CMCC Foundation, a research center focusing on climate change and society. 

Where does Argentina stand on climate action? 

Although, the country has committed to net-zero emissions by 2050, Argentina's climate policies and plans to cut emissions — committed to under the Paris Agreement — have been deemed "critically insufficient" by scientists from Climate Action Tracker. CAT is an independent scientific project monitoring government climate measures. 

CAT highlights that in 2022, the country fast-tracked the building of a pipeline to substantially increase gas production and continues to expand oil extraction and offshore fossil fuel exploration. 

While Argentina's diverse geography and climate means that it has much potential for renewables, such as solar, wind and hydropower, 88% of its energy comes from fossil fuels. It currently contributes to less than 1% of global emissions. 

What could the future hold for climate action under Milei's presidency? 

The threats of Argentina leaving the Paris Agreement should be taken with a pinch of salt as they are partly a performance, said Veronica Geese, energy secretary of the Argentinian province of Santa Fe. 

"Argentina can't leave the Paris Agreement because it's reinforced by law, so it will not happen — at least not soon," Geese said.

She added that, despite the approach of the presidency, many local governments such as hers in Sante Fe province would continue to push forward their climate goals and commitments.

If Milei pursues his aim of leaving the Paris Agreement, it would serve to further isolate the country, according to Niklas Höhne, an expert in climate policy at nonprofit think tank NewClimate Institute. 

"Argentina will become even less attractive as a trading partner for anyone who takes climate protection seriously, especially now that various countries, above all the EU, are introducing import duties for climate-damaging products," said Höhne. 

Oscar Soria, head of The Common Initiative, a New York-based group campaigning for financial reform to promote biodiversity, told AFP that global climate action will continue "with or without Argentina." 

"That was shown in the United States when Donald Trump took the decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement in 2017," said Soria.

Edited by: Jennifer Collins

When Olaf Scholz comes back to Germany from the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday, the crisis-ridden chancellor could be returning with something truly historic: a free-trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur states of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. That is, if he can seal the deal after decades of negotiations.

"This free-trade agreement would be liberating for the German economy. It's almost impossible to imagine a more difficult situation geopolitically — we have to use this opportunity," Volker Treier, the foreign policy leader of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told DW.

"Right now the window is open — you can't negotiate for 25 years, not have a deal, and still believe you can just keep stretching it out like chewing gum," Treier said. "If not now, when?"

German economy hoping for breakthrough

Treier noted a recent business survey from the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Brussels. The result, he said, was "pretty dismal."

With the European Union facing US protectionism under the incoming Trump administration, Treier said, an agreement with Mercosur would be an important signal for EU and German businesses. When it comes to batteries, solar panels, wind energy and green hydrogen, he said, the European Union could achieve its green transformation more quickly and sustainably with the help of raw materials from Latin America.

In return, European businesses would no longer pay €4 billion ($4.2 billion) in tariffs to export their goods to Mercosur countries, according to Treier. "We already have good relations with Mercosur, but there's no real dynamism. In part, that is because Mercosur countries are imposing 25-30% tariffs on classic German export products like cars, but also electronics or machined goods," said Treier.

Kaja Kallas, the EU's incoming foreign affairs chief, echoed those sentiments. "If we don't do a trade agreement with them, then this void will be filled by China," she said during her confirmation hearing before the European Parliament this week. China has increased its investment in the region by a factor of 34 between 2020 and 2022, and the first Chinese-controlled mega-port in South America has just opened for business in Chancay, Peru.

In the event the agreement isn't signed at the G20, proponents are aiming to get it wrapped up at the Mercosur summit taking place in Montevideo, Uruguay, in early December.

Opponents to EU-South America deal gathering force

At the same time, opposition to the deal is also gaining momentum in Europe and South America — and it's not just coming from environmentalists. European farmers are livid, criticizing double standards and unfair competition with their South American colleagues.

In an appeal printed in the French daily newspaper Le Monde, some 600 French parliamentarians called for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to refrain from signing the agreement. Moreover, and potentially more ominously, French Prime Minister Michel Barnier has said Paris would not agree to the deal in its current form.

"The agreement between Mercosur and the EU is far more advantageous to Europe than it is to South America," as Raul Montenegro, an Argentine biologist and 2004 Right Livelihood Award winner, told DW. "The main losers in an eventual agreement will definitely be biological diversity in South America, as well as the small and midsized businesses and poor in both regions."

Brazil on its way to becoming a global player

G20 host Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who hopes to enshrine the fight against hunger and climate change in the Rio summit's final communique, is facing a herculean task when it comes to the endless discussion of free-trade agreements, yet remains upbeat.

"I have never been so optimistic about the EU-Mercosur," the Brazilian president said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September. Lula is determined to heave Brazil into the role of a global player in his third and likely last term in office.

That is yet another reason that Treier of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry said time is fleeting.

"Self-confidence is increasing among the Mercosur countries, the same way it is across the Global South. We were in India two-and-a-half weeks ago for our Asia conference and the same thing is happening there: They are still willing to reach out to us, but things won't stay that way forever," he said.

This article was originally written in German.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, hosting the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro from Monday, will try to progress plans to tax the world's richest billionaires, who often use complex loopholes to avoid tax.

At a July meeting of G20 finance ministers in Rio, the world's wealthiest nations agreed to start a "dialogue on fair and progressive taxation, including of ultra-high-net-worth individuals," despite fierce resistance from the United States and within Germany's now collapsed coalition government.

While the world's growing geopolitical issues — the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts, a second Trump term in the United States, and China trade — are expected to dominate the two-day summit, Lula hopes to move the wealth-tax plan forward as the money raised from billionaires will help boost funds for other pressing global issues.

Advocates say new tax would cause little pain

Devised by French economist Gabriel Zucman, the plan would introduce an annual tax of 2% on the total net worth of extremely wealthy individuals — not just their annual income. This would include real estate assets, corporate shareholdings and other investments. Zucman has estimated that the top 0.01% of the population pay an effective tax rate of just 0.3% of their wealth.

The new levy could raise up to $250 billion (€237 billion) a year from the nearly 2,800 billionaires globally, who have a combined net worth estimated at some $13.5 trillion, according to the Forbes Richest World's Billionaires List. The funds raised would be used to tackle growing global inequalities, especially among heavily indebted low-income countries, including many in Africa.

"The taxation of high net-worth individuals is very important as it could be a source for funding initiatives that fight hunger and poverty, and also tackle climate change," Tomas Marques, a research fellow at Hamburg's GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies, told DW.

Developing nations, which many scientists say are being disproportionately affected by climate change, have for years demanded funding to offset its worst impacts. Success stories include World Bank and Green Climate Fund support for India's bid to boost solar power capacity and Brazil's Amazon Fund, aimed at reducing deforestation, which is partly funded by Norway and Germany.

Skepticism over G20 spending plans

While there may be broad public support for new taxes on the super-rich, the rise of national populism in many G20 countries is increasing scrutiny about how public money is spent, amid concerns that international aid and development funds could be better deployed at home.

"Most of the G20 countries are having a hard time balancing their budgets," Maria Antonieta Del Tedesco Lins, an economist and associate professor at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, told DW. "While extra taxes would help, it's very hard to juggle national pressures with new international or multilateral obligations."

Monday's opening ceremony in Rio will launch the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, an initiative under Brazil's G20 presidency that seeks to accelerate efforts in the fight against poverty and a lack of food by 2030.

The Brazilian government is also the principal backer of the proposed tax on the super-rich, along with France, Spain and South Africa. Despite this support, the lower house of Brazil's parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, last month rejected plans for an additional domestic levy on those with large fortunes.

"It's a shame because Brazil could benefit a lot [from this tax] because we are a very unequal country. If there was an international consensus [on taxing the super-rich] it could help negotiations in the Brazilian Congress," said Lins, who took part in a G20 academic engagement group ahead of the summit.

In Brazil, as in the rest of the world, the super-rich often shield their wealth from tax authorities by creating shell companies in countries with low or zero taxes, taking advantage of banking secrecy laws and forming trusts and charitable foundations, which offer generous tax breaks.

US spurns wealth tax proposal

While China's and India's positions on the new tax are ambiguous, Washington remains firmly opposed. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told The Wall Street Journal in May that the measure was "something we can't sign on to."

President-elect Donald Trump has yet to comment on the proposal but is unlikely to back hiking taxes on the super-rich. His first term was marked by large tax cuts, which benefited wealthy individuals and corporations the most. But during his short-lived run for the White House in 2000, he did promise to cut the national debt by levying a one-time 14.25% tax on the wealthy.

Lula then faces tough odds in making any meaningful progress during the two-day summit, especially as many critical geopolitical issues, as well as Brazil's proposal to improve global governance, will also dominate the talks.

"Lula is a great negotiator," Marques said. "He bills himself as a bridge builder between the Global South and Global North. But I don't know how he can reach a consensus around this very sensitive topic."

Wealth tax — a boon for Africa 

Better representation at G20 for Africa is now critical, as the continent seeks to benefit from any new tax plan, through the receipt of poverty and climate alleviation funds. The African Union, the regional bloc of 55 African member states, will be attending the Rio summit for the first time, after being admitted as a full G20 member in August. 

Next year, South Africa will take over the rotating G20 presidency — the fourth consecutive leadership of the bloc from the Global South, after Indonesia, India and Brazil. The role will give the country and Africa as a whole further opportunities to shape global policies and advocate for the continent's interests.

"African countries have been underrepresented in the G20 despite the continent's importance globally," Marques, who is in Rio for the summit, told DW. "But things are changing, and the African Union is now starting to have some influence on policy-making."

Edited by: Uwe Hessler

World leaders, including US President Joe Biden, China's Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be attending the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Rio de Janeiro, which will take place November 18-19.

The G20 is a collection of leading economic nations that account for roughly two-thirds of the world population and 80% of world trade. The grouping was founded in 1999 to deal with financial crises and economic disruptions by bringing together the world's largest economies.

It gained prominence during the 2008 global financial crisis when it began holding annual summits of national leaders.

The forum has since evolved into somewhat of a "mini UN" that deals with issues like climate change and geopolitical tensions, even though member states do not always agree on what should be on the agenda.

What's Brazil focusing on?

Brazil took over the body's annually rotating presidency from India last December, and South Africa will assume the presidency for the next year.

Throughout the year, Brazil has hosted and chaired multiple G20 ministerial meetings.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government has putissues that concern the developing world at the heart of the nation's G20 presidency. These include the reduction of inequalities, reforming of global governance institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization and the need to tackle climate change and promote environmentally sustainable economic development.

M. Habib Abiyan Dzakwan, a researcher focusing on international economic policy at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia, a Jakarta-based think tank, said Brazil must strengthen the G20 countries' approach to crucial issues such as climate change and global health challenges.

"Consolidation among emerging economies is very important because developing countries cannot expect too much from the United States, especially under the next [Donald] Trump administration," he told DW. "The same applies to Europe; we cannot rely on them too much either."

But it's unclear what Brazil will be able to achieve in concrete terms.

How did India manage last year?

The summit will also likely offer an opportunity for leaders to discuss divisive issues such as Russia's war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East.

A look at the G20 summits over the past two years, hosted by India last year and Indonesia in 2022, shows the challenge faced by Brazil in achieving a consensus on a joint leaders' declaration.

India was able to notch a diplomatic victory by negotiating a consensus last year, with the final joint declaration touching on the Ukraine war but avoiding specifically condemning Russia.

Instead, it categorized the "human suffering and negative added impacts" of the war in an economic context "with regard to global food and energy security, supply chains, macro-financial stability, inflation and growth."

Ajay Bisaria, a former Indian diplomat, said that the summit was "indicative of India's ability to balance its historically stable partnership with Russia while nurturing its relationship with Western countries."

"More than just balancing key relationships, what India attempted in geopolitics was to bridge divides. This applied both to the East-West divide and to the North-South one," he added.

At last year's event, the African Union also became a permanent member of the G20.

The move was seen as a way to highlight the importance of including the "Global South" in multilateral forums.

Observers in India say the summit in New Delhi bolstered their country's image as a growing diplomatic and economic force on the global stage, particularly at a time when the world was confronting multiple geopolitical and economic crises.

An acrimonious presidency

During Indonesia's presidency a year earlier, the G20 leaders gathered on the idyllic island of Bali.

It was one of the most acrimonious presidencies in the grouping's history.

The summit took place at a time doubts were being raised about the very effectiveness and usefulness of the G20, against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which caused unprecedented divisions within the club.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo was keen on having the G20 leadership as the capstone of his presidency.

And in the end the outcome of the summit exceeded expectations, marking a diplomatic coup for Jakarta.

Participants were able to agree on a carefully worded final declaration, noting that "most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy."

Unique and complex challenges

Dzakwan, the CSIS researcher, said that each G20 presidency faces its own unique and increasingly complex challenges.

He noted that Indonesia's presidency in 2022 was significantly overshadowed by the Russia-Ukraine war, while India last year had to grapple with escalating tensions in the Middle East in addition to the Ukraine conflict.

Dzakwan argued that these challenges will continue to intensify, particularly with Donald Trump set to return to the White House after scoring a thumping victory in the US presidential elections.

"It has never been easy, especially since Donald Trump's first presidency. It demonstrates that multilateralism is not too effective, but rather more transactional," he told DW.

Arti Ekawati from DW's Indonesian service and Murali Krishnan from New Delhi contributed to this article.

Edited by: Shamil Shams

Venezuela is football-mad South America's only country never to have made it to a World Cup. Not only that, but football is not even regarded as the No. 1 sport in the country.

"For a long time, Venezuela was all baseball and beauty contests but a few things have changed," South American football expert Tim Vickery told DW. 

This will be apparent when an expected crowd of more than 50,000 turn out to watch Venezuela host Brazil in a 2026 World Cup qualifying match in Maturin this week. After 10 of 18 games played, the home team are in in eighth spot out of the 10 teams in the regional table, but just two points out of sixth place – and qualification.

"They can qualify for the World Cup, but it is going to be tight," Vickery said.

After wins over Paraguay and Chile and a 1-1 draw in Brazil in October 2023, there was much early optimism but just three points from their last five games means Venezuela still have a lot of work to do.

Legendary forward Salomon Rondon agrees.

"We are under no illusions," the 35-year-old said in an interview published on FIFA's website.

"We face Brazil at home next and then travel to Chile, and we just need to focus on winning football matches. We have to go into every game looking for the win, because that's the only way we'll make it to the World Cup."

International club experience 

Rondon has played his club football in Spain, England, China and Russia, and his wealth of international experience is by no means unique. The latest Venezuela squad includes players that ply their trade in Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain, Poland and Saudi Arabia.

It wasn't always this way. Venezuela made little impact internationally until 2001 when Richard Paez became the first Venezuelan head coach of the national team since the 1980s. He instilled a sense of national pride and an attacking philosophy that started to get results with a new generation of players.

"For a long time, football was the game of immigrants from Europe but Paez made a difference and the government got behind the team," Vickery explained.

Making progress

In 2007, Venezuela hosted the Copa America and reached the knockout stage for the first time. After that, their players started to be snapped up by foreign teams on a regular basis.

In 2011, Venezuela reached the semifinal of the Copa America and since then they have made it to the quarterfinals in three out of the last four tournaments – including this year's. Attention has been paid to youth development too, with the team reaching the final of the U-20 World Cup, losing 1-0 to England in 2017.

"Football was always there in the background but it was just waiting for something to cheer for," Vickery said.

However, baseball remains king. US oil companies introduced America's pastime to the country in the early 20th century. Venezuela went on to win the 1941 Amateur Baseball Series to widespread acclaim and excitement, helping the sport to grow. In the 21st century some of Major League Baseball's biggest stars have been Venezuelan, making their compatriots proud.

"Baseball will always have that tradition and history," Jordan Florit, a Caracas-based scout with the player agency Andrade Sports Group, told DW.

"There is more money in the domestic baseball league than the football league and while football has improved there is so much space and room for the sport to grow and evolve."

Losing that 'embarassing tag'

Making it to the World Cup would be a big step forward – likely giving the domestic league a boost but also benefitting the international image of Venezuelan football.

"When Venezuela lose heavily, people in Europe just see the result and think that 'Venezuela are awful' and people here are acutely aware of that," Florit noted.

"If they qualify for the World Cup then overnight, they lose that embarrassing tag of being the only South American country not to appear and that means a lot."

It is not just about what happens on the pitch. Compared to the limited global reach of baseball, popular in the United States and a few other countries such as Cuba, South Korea, Japan and Canada, football brings a much bigger spotlight.

"Football is the world," Vickery said.

"South American teams like Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay are in the World Cup to win but the next group of countries on the continent just want to say to the rest of the world, 'we exist, we are part of this global narrative.'"

A different narrative

This is especially true for Venezuela, a country that has been in the international headlines for reasons that are not positive. In recent years, a drop in the price of oil, rising inflation and economic hardship have led to over seven million people leaving the country

In the presidential election in July, opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez and many international observers felt that he had won convincingly yet a government-controlled election commission declared that Nicolas Maduro had won a third consecutive term. Tensions have remained high since.

"People don't know anything about Venezuela except maybe the politics, oil and the currency crisis," Florit said.

"Football has this unrivalled power to bring another level of attention to a country and Venezuela is in a sensitive period at the moment. Getting to the World Cup can help unite a country that is divided over a lot of things."

Edited by: Chuck Penfold

In Ecuador and Cuba, power cuts for hours at a time, sometimes even days. In Brazil, energy bottlenecks. Although Latin America is seen as a global forerunner in renewable energies, the impact of climate change is starting to cause problems. Droughts lasting weeks mean less water flowing through rivers and water reservoirs that power hydroelectric plants. And the less water, the less electricity.

Now countries in the region are beginning to squabble over distribution too. 

Colombia has halted electricity exports to Ecuador, citing concerns for its own power supply. Colombia has also been suffering a severe drought.

Even though the causes for the power problems are unique to each country, the consequences are the same: energy rationing and power blackouts. This is why many countries are now debating how best to stablize their energy supplies.

Nuclear energy up

El Salvador, for example, plans a return to nuclear energy. "We want to have the first research reactor by 2030," Daniel Alvarez, head of the country's General Directorate of Energy, Hydrocarbons and Mines, announced at a forum organized by the Latin American Energy Organization in October.

Other countries are also showing renewed interest in nuclear energy, with a new generation of small modular reactors seen as particularly promising. The general opinion is that nuclear energy is free of emissions and can therefore be classified as green.  

Lithium hype 

Lithium also belongs to the energy debate in Latin America. Lithium is an indispensable part of electric vehicle (EV) batteries and it is hoped that carbon-neutral EVs will one day replace fossil-fuel powered engines on the street. At least, that's the plan. But resistance is growing in many Latin American countries.

As droughts become more frequent, they are increasingly wary of an extraction process that requires large volumes of water. In Peru, a mining project high in the Andes is drawing criticism. There, the Macusani Yellowcake mining company, a subsidiary of the Canada-based American Lithium Corp., is looking to mine 9.5 million tons of lithium on the Quelccaya glacier in the Carabaya region.

Environmental activist Vito Calderon has criticized the way the project affects the water supply for local communities. "The freshwater from the region flows into the Inambari, Urubamba and Azangaro basins, which feed Lake Titicaca," he told Radio France Internationale. Calderon fears the freshwater could be contaminated or removed from the natural cycle.

What about green hydrogen?

The initial excitement over what is known as green hydrogen has also become more muted. "Worldwide doubts about the strategic industry for Chile's future" Chilean online news outlet Emol wrote a few days ago, summing the general mood up. The high cost of investing in green hydrogen is also causing hesitation.

Instead, Alex Godoy-Faundez, director of the sustainability research center at Chile's University of Desarrollo has called for more realism and for taking small, manageable steps. 

"Timelines should outline short-term goals that ensure that investment projects are profitable and eco-friendly,” Godoy-Faundez said.

Investment in Brazil

However in Latin America's largest country, Brazil, enthusiasm over green hydrogen has continued unabated. There's almost nowhere in the world like Brazil's undeveloped northeast, where electricity and therefore green hydrogen can be produced from renewable sources so cheaply, the country's media enthuse. Brazil could become a new global energy hub, they suggest. Foreign investors have already done deals with Brazilian states like Ceara and Pernambuco.

"Unfortunately, German investors are not among them," Ansgar Pinkowski, founder of the Brazil-based agency Neue Wege ("new paths" in English), told DW. His business specializes in providing information on the green energy transition and contacts between Europe and Brazil.

"With the recently passed laws for sustainable hydrogen, the risks for investors have also become much lower and more calculable," he said. As a result he predicts that, "we will see very strong economic growth in the region in the next few years, from which all sections of the population will hopefully benefit."

This article was originally published in German.

Volkswagen — long a symbol of German engineering and automotive prowess — is staring at an uncertain future, faced with a raft of challenges as the global auto market transitions away from internal combustion engines to more environmentally friendly alternatives, particularly electric mobility.

The company on Wednesday reported its least profitable quarter in years, with profit down as much as 64% between July and September to just €1.58 billion ($1.7 billion) from the €4.35 billion it earned a year earlier.

Revenue was also marginally lower, slipping 0.5% to €78.49 billion.

The figures came as VW, Europe's largest automaker, was locked in talks over potential mass layoffs and wage cuts.

The company's works council said earlier this week that management had informed employee representatives that it wants to close at least three plants in Germanyand cut tens of thousands of jobs. 

Management on Wednesday presented a cost-savings proposal to workers, including a 10% pay cut and a revised bonus system. They said it might be possible to avoid factory closures if there's an agreement on the plan and other necessary steps to bolster the carmaker.

VW bosses say the overall market environment is "challenging" and that there is an "urgent need for significant cost reductions and efficiency gains."

They cite an array of developments for the firm's woes, ranging from weakening demand for its vehicles in key markets and greater competition from Chinese e-car manufacturers to high labor and energy costs in Germany.

In the first nine months of this year, VW deliveries were down about 1.6% in its home market of Germany, which is battling economic weakness and rising structural challenges.

In China, which has been key for the company's financial strength in recent years, the drop was as much as 10.2%.

VW's woes in China

China is the biggest and most lucrative market for VW, accounting for a third of the carmaker's overall sales and a significant portion of its profits.

But the German auto behemoth has so far failed to crack the fast-growing electric car market in the Asian nation, resulting in VW losing ground rapidly to Chinese rivals like BYD, NIO and XPeng Motors.

Dunne Insights, a global automobile industry consulting firm, estimated that the share of electric vehicles in total car sales in China will jump to almost 50% this year, up from just 6% in 2020.

It pointed out that 18 of the 20 best-selling EVs this year are Chinese brands, with the remaining two models being Teslas.

Meanwhile, of the over 1.3 million VW units sold in China in the first half of the year, only a little over 90,000 were electric.

Alicia Garcia-Herrero, a senior fellow at the European think tank Bruegel, said it will be increasingly difficult for European carmakers like VW to compete in the Chinese market.

"China has moved up the ladder, it's competing with European companies, perhaps the luxury sector is the least affected, but there is a lot of nationalism and pushing of local brands, so I think, frankly, it will be increasingly difficult," she told DW. 

"On top of that, growth is slowing down. So you know, there isn't enough consumption on the part of Chinese households to really support the growth of European carmakers in China," the expert added.

What's behind impressive growth in Brazil?

While VW is confronting a severe crisis in its key European and Asian markets, the carmaker is still recording growth in regions like North America and South America.

In Brazil, for instance, the company said earlier this month that its sales grew by 19.1%.

"In the Chinese market, electric cars are important. But in Brazil, they are not so important. Secondly, relatively older and more affordable models work well in Brazil," which has helped VW so far, Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in the German city of Bochum, told DW.

Nevertheless, "Brazil is far too small to compensate for the weakness in Europe and China," he said, adding that good performance in the South American country is like "a drop in the ocean, and it won't solve the problem" of declining VW sales in key markets.

The expert also pointed out that VW will face increased competition from Chinese carmakers in Brazil over the next five years: "The company will face greater competition even when it comes to combustion engines and vehicles that run on ethanol. The competition will become fierce, at the moment it is still relatively manageable but it will certainly become more intense."

To strengthen its position in the Brazilian market, VW has said this year that it will pump more money into the country to develop new models, including flex, hybrid and electric vehicles.

Marcio de Lima Leite, president of Anfavea (Brazilian Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers), told DW that the country is "experiencing the biggest investment cycle in the history of its automotive sector, with 130 billion reais (€20.9 billion) being invested by vehicle manufacturers alone, not counting automotive parts suppliers."

He noted that several factors have contributed to the inflow of investments, including the pace of recovery in Brazil's auto market, economic and political stability as well as favorable industrial policies.

Leite also credited the Brazilian government's MOVER policy for boosting the sector. The program provides tax incentives for automakers committed to developing low-carbon technologies, such as hybrid and electric vehicles, in the country.

EV sales on the rise in Brazil

Even though electric cars still account for less than 5% of overall vehicle sales in Brazil, they are recording rapid growth.

And Chinese companies are already making inroads into the market.

According to the Brazilian Electric Vehicle Association (ABVE), sales of electrified cars jumped 146% in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period the previous year, to 79,304 units, with VW's Chinese rivals BYD and Great Wall Motor leading the pack.

The Brazilian government has responded to growing EV imports by slapping 10% tariffs at the start of this year, which was raised to 18% in July and is set to top out at 35% by 2026.

Against this backdrop, to effectively compete with Chinese firms, "it's important for VW not to stand still with the existing vehicle models," said Dudenhöffer.

"Because the Chinese, just like the Japanese, are coming up with more modern vehicles, so, VW must effectively manage the transition and modernize its vehicles, piece by piece, so that it's not overtaken by the competition in the future."

Edited by: Ashutosh Pandey

An archaeological site has yielded further evidence that a matriarch once commanded the ancient Moche civilization on Peru's northwest coast.

The pillared room unearthed at the Panamarca archaeological site contains a worn stone throne and elaborate wall murals portraying a powerful woman with a crown receiving visitors. The figure is further interlaced with a crescent moon and sea creatures. 

Dating back more than 1,300 years, the discovery might indicate that a woman who was "possibly a ruler" dwelled in the space, said Jessica Ortiz Zevallos, research director for the archaeological project.

"A throne room for a queen has never been seen before at Panamarca, nor anywhere else in ancient Peru," said a September statement from the site team announcing the find, which was made in July.

Panamarca is the southernmost center of Moche society, which made their homes in the coastal valleys of northern Peru between about 350 and 850 CE.

A matriarchal society?

The discovery echoes the Lady of Cao, a woman who is said to have governed Moche 1,700 years ago. Her face was reconstructed in 2017 using 3D printing based on the skull of an ancient mummy discovered over a decade before in the Chicama Valley, described as the heartland of Moche culture.

The Lady of Cao was described by archaeologists as the first-known female governor in Peru.

This latest discovery adds to growing evidence that women held positions of authority in Moche society, not only due to the mural depictions of a queen-like figure but also the presence of human hair and wear on the stone throne.

"Panamarca continues to surprise us," said Lisa Trever, professor of art history at Columbia University. "Not only for the ceaseless creativity of its painters but also because their works are overturning our expectations of gender roles in the ancient Moche world."

Detailed murals offer new cultural insights

The Panamarca site, where the throne room was discovered in July, is known for its colorful murals.

An adjacent room overlooking a square has been dubbed the Chamber of the Braided Serpents due to a mural of a figure with legs intertwined with snakes. Numerous other murals in the room portray warriors and a monster chasing a man.

"Everything is painted and finely decorated with mythological scenes and characters," archaeologist Jose Ochatoma told Reuters of the room that he compared to the Vatican's Sistine Chapel with its biblical frescoes painted by Italian artist Michelangelo.

The wall paintings "captured scenes belonging to the Moche ideology," said Ochatoma, and are a rare insight into culture in the coastal region before the Spanish conquest of South America.

"We are discovering an iconography that has not been seen before in the pre-Hispanic world," Ochatoma said.

After the decline of the Moche civilization, the Inca empire later rose up in the highlands in the same region.

The mural paintings of Panamarca are not currently accessible to tourists due to their fragility.

"We cover the excavations to ensure the long-term conservation of this important cultural heritage," said Ochatoma.

Edited by: Davis VanOpdorp

 

Biodiversity — or the variety of all living things on Earth — is collapsing. That's because humans continue to push ecosystems to the brink through burning fossil fuels, intensive farming, urbanization and pollution.

In the past 50 years, populations of vertebrates have plummeted 73%, according to a recent report by conservation group WWF, while scientists estimate about a million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, some in the coming decades.

But the diversity of interconnected living organisms is the foundation of healthy ecosystems, and the loss of even one species can upset the intricate balance.

To address these challenges, two years ago nearly 200 nations signed what was called at the time a "landmark" UN biodiversity deal to safeguard nature.

Now, over the next two weeks, thousands of policymakers, business leaders and civil society groups will gather in the Colombian city of Cali to track the deal's progress and tackle sticky issues like financing. 

It's a crucial task because a decline in biodiversity also threatens the social and economic well-being of billions of people, say experts.

"If we don't protect our nature, we are actually undermining our economies, we are undermining our agriculture, and we will not be able in future to feed a population of 10 billion people on this planet," Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, told DW.

Slow progress on national biodiversity plans 

Leaders at the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference laid out ambitious goals to protect 30% of land and sea areas by the end of the decade — up from 17% of land and nearly 8% of oceans. The deal, which is to biodiversity what the Paris Agreement is to climate, also aims to restore 30% of degraded areas.

"It was already very difficult to agree on this, but the challenge lies ahead — because now, states have to implement what they agreed on," said Florian Titze, an international policy analyst at WWF in Germany.

To help track progress and ensure countries are implementing agreed targets, governments were required to submit updated national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs) ahead of the Cali biodiversity summit. To date, only 34 out of 196 countries have done so. Germany is among those to have missed the deadline.

"Countries like Germany aren't feeling the pressure to submit their plans ..., because other countries haven't done so either," Titze told DW. "We only have another five years left until 2030. If the implementation of promises doesn't start now, we will likely miss the targets for 2030."

A new study found that 8.2% of oceans are now protected — a 0.5% increase since the 2022 biodiversity agreement. It also suggests that just 2.8% of that is effectively protected, calling the "gap between pledge and action vast."

What's holding back progress on implementing biodiversity plans? 

This year's conference is expected to address the obstacles to updating and implementing action plans.

"What is often holding us back is a discussion with other sectors that feel that environmental policy is encroaching on them negatively on them or is problematic for competitiveness," said UN biodiversity chief Schomaker. 

For instance, when the German government announced in 2023 it was going to abolish "environmentally harmful" tax breaks for diesel fuel, farmers took to the streets in their thousands to protest what they saw as a threat to their livelihoods.

The government postponed a full phaseout until 2026, although the UN's biodiversity deal aims to progressively reduce subsidies harmful to nature by $500 billion (€461 billion) a year by 2030.

"We are accelerating positive biodiversity spending, but it is still vastly outnumbered or outspent by subsidies that are negative for biodiversity and that's a key issue for us to attack," said Schomaker.

Who will pay for nature protection?

Who foots the bills for biodiversity spending will be up for discussion at Cali. At the last summit, developed countries pledged to raise $25 billion annually by 2025 and $30 billion by 2030 in financial aid for low-income countries to protect their nature.

But a recent report found only two countries — Norway and Sweden — had paid their fair share toward the target. Some 23 out of 28 countries analyzed "are paying less than half of what they pledged."

In a press conference ahead of the summit, Colombian Environment Minister Susana Muhamad called for developed countries to increase what they'd pledged "as we need to give a signal that the commitments that were agreed on ... are going on track."

Countries also agreed to earmark $200 billion a year for safeguarding biodiversity by 2030 through public and private sources, with negotiators expected to talk about how the huge sum will be raised in time.

WWF's Titze hopes policymakers will agree on some aspects of their financing strategy. In a best-case scenario, this would include ways to distribute money to low-income countries, how to deal with subsidies harmful to biodiversity and the role of private sector financing.

"The question is how effective it will be? Can countries commit to concrete measures?" said Titze. 

Finding financial solutions

Funding solutions that balance nature conservation with economic needs are on the agenda, said Schomaker. 

Biodiversity credits are one tool being mooted. These schemes in theory would allow companies to offset environmental damage by buying credits from organizations or projects that safeguard or restore nature. Advocates say monetizing nature in this way would incentivize protection, while critics have said credits are a tool that invites greenwashing.

Also on the table are debt-for-nature-swaps, which entail relieving a country's debt in exchange for investment in conservation. 

Another major discussion will center around the use of genetic data from nature and income that derives from that use — like in the pharmaceutical sector, where DNA sequencing of plants to produce medication can lead to multibillion-dollar profits.

Delegates will discuss fairly compensating countries with a lot of biodiversity — which are also frequently low-income — for the use of their genetic resources, as well as Indigenous communities who often preserve these species. That money could be channeled into protecting habitats. 

While financial incentives can help, experts warn they must be paired with concrete action and political will to make lasting change. 

"If we lose ecosystems and a tolerable climate, then human life as we know it will no longer be possible on this planet," said Titze. "We are talking about preserving our own civilization. There is little that could be more important."

Edited by: Jennifer Collins

This article was updated to reflect the change in NBSAPs.

A leading figure in Latin American literature, Chilean writer, scriptwriter and director Antonio Skarmeta has died in Santiago at the age of 83, from cancer.

His most famous novel, "Ardiente paciencia" ("Burning Patience") from 1985, was adapted into the 1994 movie "Il Postino: The Postman," which earned numerous accolades, including several Oscar nominations and the Academy Award for best original dramatic score. 

He also served as the Chilean ambassador in Germany from 2000 to 2003, having established a new home in the country after fleeing the Pinochet regime.

School of democracy

Antonio Skarmeta was born in Antofagasta, a city in the subtropical northern part of Chile, on November 7, 1940.

Shortly before the begin of the First World War, his grandparents emigrated from Croatia to Chile. Skarmeta's 1999 novel, "La Boda del Poeta" (The Poet's Wedding), tells the story of their life.

Many of his works contain autobiographical features. And many of them focus on flight and exile, which was one of his most important themes.

Skarmeta went to school at the Instituto Nacional de Chile, the country's most renowned boys' school. The school shaped him for life: "It taught me democracy. It was attended by students from all walks of life, the poor, the middle class and the rich. That explains my positions in literature and politics," he told DW in 2017, as part of a long interview conducted in Chile for the multimedia project "Artists After the Escape."

After finishing high school, Antonio Skarmeta studied philosophy in Chile and spent some time in the US.

In the 1970s, he supported the democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende, who was overthrown by Augusto Pinochet in 1973. On the day of the coup, on September 11, 1973, Allende committed suicide in the presidential palace.

In the following months and years, numerous artists, intellectuals and Pinochet opponents were tortured or assassinated by the military dictatorship.

Song writer Victor Jara was shot dead in a sports stadium. Skarmeta's friend, Chilean national poet Pablo Neruda, died shortly afterwards in a hospital. His family had always claimed that he had been poisoned; later inquiries determined that he did not die of cancer as authorities claimed.

Numerous intellectuals left the country, among them writer Isabel Allende. Antonio Skarmeta also decided to leave Chile in 1973, while it was still possible.

He came to West Berlin in 1974 with the help of a grant of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). His first wife and his two young sons joined him shortly afterwards.

In Berlin, he worked on turning his latest experiences into literary works. In "No pasó nada" (Nothing happened), he depicted a young man's perspective on the complicated relations between his old and his new home. It told the story of a family torn apart by exile. It was his story.

Skarmeta, Neruda and Chile's beloved poets

It is also in Berlin that he wrote the novel that gained him international fame. "Ardiente Paciencia" (Burning Patience), published in 1985, was adapted into the film "The Postman" (1994), starring French actor Philippe Noiret.

Through the story of a postman who conquered his love interest with the help of romantic verses, the novel is as a literary tribute to Pablo Neruda. "'Ardiente Paciencia' is also the story of a poet who loves his people, and of a people that loves its poets," said Skarmeta.

"Pablo Neruda had a special relationship to people. I often witnessed that," added Skarmeta, recalling how people in a tiny village once asked Neruda to cite poems that these peasants and craftsmen knew and loved.  

After the Pinochet regime came to an end in 1989, Antonio Skarmeta returned to Chile, after 16 years in exile in Berlin. He was accompanied by his second wife, a German, and their two sons. His two elder sons from his first wife were adults by then and remained in Berlin. Exile also meant that Skarmeta's family lives on two continents.

Return to a divided country

The years of dictatorship had destroyed the country that the poet once loved so much.

Formerly exiled Chileans wanted to help reconstruct democracy, as "in the first years during the 1990s, it was still very unstable," recalled Skarmeta. "There was a democratically elected president, but Pinochet remained in his post as military commander for some time" — until 1998. Pinochet died in 2006, without ever having been made responsible for the crimes committed during his dictatorship.

Along with his work as a writer, Antonio Skarmeta also hosted a literature program on Chilean television during the 1990s. From 2000 to 2003, he returned to Germany as the ambassador of his home country in Berlin. In 2014, he was honored with Chile's most significant literary award, the Premio Nacional de Literatura de Chile.

This article was originally written in German.