Category: Latin America

Scientists in Antarctica discover a vast, salty groundwater system under the ice sheet – with implications for sea level rise 5/5/2022

Scientists in Antarctica discover a vast, salty groundwater system under the ice sheet – with implications for sea level rise

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Matthew Siegfried‘s research is featured in this article about how a new discovery deep beneath one of Antarctica’s rivers of ice could change scientists’ understanding of how the ice flows, with important implications for estimating future sea level rise.  Glacier scientists Matthew Siegfried from Colorado School of Mines, Chloe Gustafson from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and their colleagues spent 61 days living in tents on an Antarctic ice stream to collect data about the land under half a mile of ice beneath their feet. They explain what the team discovered and what it says about the behavior of ice sheets in a warming world.  May 5, 2022.

Multiple streams framework and mineral royalties: The 2005 mining tax reform in Chile 4/23/2022

Multiple streams framework and mineral royalties: The 2005 mining tax reform in Chile

Emilio Castillo and Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Kathleen Hancock write about how in economic theories, institutional change usually occurs in response to changes in relative prices. Mineral policies in mining countries frequently follow this behavior, modifying their tax systems as metal prices change. Nonetheless, Chile presents a deviation from common behavior with a mining tax reform that took place before a major increase in mineral commodity prices and when market analysts and political leaders expected prices to remain relatively constant.  April 23, 2022.  

Gas Flaring In Mexico Hits Record High 3/22/2022

Gas Flaring In Mexico Hits Record High

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Research Associate Tamara Sparks contributed to this article on how gas flaring in Mexico reached all-time high levels in 2021, beating the previous record from a year earlier, despite pledges from Mexican authorities to reduce the flaring activity, which is a major source of greenhouse gas pollution.  March 22, 2022.

Mexico flared record levels of gas in 2021, study says 3/22/2022

Mexico flared record levels of gas in 2021, study says

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Research Associate Tamara Sparks contributed to this article flaring by the energy sector in Mexico hit record levels last year while the number of sites where gas is burnt off also rose despite government pledges to reduce such activity, research by a leading team of scientists showed. The practice releases carbon dioxide, black carbon and other pollutants as well as methane, a potent greenhouse gas scientists have linked to global warming.  March 22, 2022.

A breakdown of how much capital is actually going to fight climate change 3/16/2022

A breakdown of how much capital is actually going to fight climate change

Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the recent UN COP26 climate negotiations once again revealed how the richest nations in the world are not meeting their commitments to the developing world.  A vastly more important shortcoming of public climate finance is its continued failure to attract the private capital that increasingly appreciates the long-term imperative of climate action and that will be essential if the world is to spend the trillions necessary to fight climate change.  March 16, 2022.

Up in flames 2/23/2022

Up in Flames

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group researchers Chris Elvidge and Tamara Sparks analyzed the flaring sites across Mexico, using satellite imagery, for this article about how gas flaring soars in Mexico, derailing its climate change pledges as it seeks to boost oil output.  The new data suggests that in spite of signing an international pledge to reduce methane emissions, Mexico is moving in the opposite direction from a global push to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas production.  February 23, 2022.

Resource Conflict in the Energy Transition 2/21/2022

Resource Conflict in the Energy Transition

Payne Institute Communications Associate Elsa Barron, Deputy Director Gregory Clough, Alicia Polo y La Borda Cavero, Director Morgan Bazilian, Henry Gustavo Polanco Cornejo, and Eliseo Zeballos Zeballos write about how energy transitions occurring globally—towards low-carbon technologies, increased electrification, and electric vehicles and battery storage capacity—will also produce significant challenges in resource-rich areas. The demand for a varied set of mineral resources and metals that are required for renewable energy technologies such as solar panels and batteries is set to grow at an unprecedented scale. Many of the countries with the largest potentials for these minerals are in emerging and developing economies that face capacity and governance challenges.  February 21, 2022.
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Understanding and Disrupting Key Convergence Nodes of the Illicit Gold and Mercury Supply Chains in Latin America and Africa 2/18/2021

Understanding and Disrupting Key Convergence Nodes of the Illicit Gold and Mercury Supply Chains in Latin America and Africa

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Nicole Smith, Sebnem Duzgun, Strategy and Operations Manager Greg Clough, William Soud, and Katy Seguin have received an NSF award for their research on “Disrupting Operations of Illicit Supply Networks (D-ISN)” that will enhance national health, prosperity and welfare by contributing to a better understanding of illicit supply chains and the ability to detect, disrupt, and disable them. The project involves an examination and comparison of key convergence nodes in the global supply chains for illicit gold and mercury in Latin America and Africa. It specifically focuses on Peru and Kenya because of the similar characteristics they share on their respective continents as important trading hubs to other regional markets via both air and maritime transport, as well as acting as trading hubs for other illicit commodities and goods.  February 18, 2021.

Peru’s Environmental and Social Management in the Gold Mining Sector in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic 12/9/2020

Peru’s Environmental and Social Management in the Gold Mining Sector in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Nicole Smith, Kristi Disney Bruckner, Ashley Smith-Roberts, Verónica Morelli Bellido, Hugo Frías Ossandón, Meera Nyak, and Linda Jaramillo Urrego write a case study on how Peru is a leading source of gold in the world and is the top producer of gold in Latin America. The country’s legal framework for environmental and social management of the mining sector, including both the large-scale mining sector and the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector, is often presented as good practice. However, implementation of the legal framework has been challenging due to lack of resources, complexity of the framework, lack of alignment across national frameworks, lack of ongoing collaboration across ministries, remoteness of mining areas, and other factors. December 9, 2020.
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