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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello,

This week, Brazil and Indonesia continue their battles against fierce and fatal flooding that has left hundreds dead and thousands displaced.

Devastating and ongoing flooding in southern Brazil is forcing some of the half million displaced residents to consider uprooting their lives from inundated towns to rebuild on higher ground.

Two weeks after the onset of torrential rains, the Guaiba River running by state capital Porto Alegre is rising again, having passed the all-time high. In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the streets of dozens of towns have turned into slow-moving rivers.

Just in the area around Porto Alegre, where four rivers converge to form the Guaiba River, researchers estimate nearly 3,800 square km (1,500 square miles) were flooded. That is more than the urban footprint of the Washington DC metro area, which includes 10 counties in two adjacent states.

Also on my radar today:

• EU finalises investment fund labels to combat greenwashing
• Unions, lawmakers protest Boeing firefighter lockout
• Vitol to invest $550 mln in clean cooking in Africa

A drone shows flooded streets at the centre of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. REUTERS/Diego Vara

With hundreds of thousands of families fleeing the floods, the disaster – which has killed at least 147 people, with 127 still missing – could touch off one of Brazil’s biggest cases of climate migration in recent history.

Southern Brazil’s location at the confluence of tropical and polar currents has fed periods of increasingly intense drought and rains due to climate change, according to scientists.

The record devastation in Rio Grande do Sul follows floods in the second half of last year, leading many of the 538,000 people now displaced from their homes to consider more extreme adaptations.

For the third time in seven months, businessman Cassiano Baldasso had to remove wheelbarrows of mud from his home in Muçum, a small town 150 km (90 miles) upriver from Porto Alegre, only to see the waters rise again. He says he has had enough.

“I have no idea where I’m going, but it will be somewhere far from the river, where our lives will not be at risk,” Baldasso told Reuters as he removed another cart of mud from inside the house.

Mayor Mateus Trojan said many of Muçum’s 5,000 residents will have to relocate. His office is planning to rebuild 40% of the town elsewhere.

Baldasso had already saved his family in September by climbing onto the roof of their two-story house and waiting until they were rescued by the fire brigade in the middle of the night.

Elsewhere, flash floods and mudslides in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province killed at least 43 people over the weekend while a search for 15 missing people continued, authorities said.

Torrential rain on Saturday evening triggered flash floods, landslides, and cold lava flow –  a mud-like mixture of volcanic ash, rock debris and water –  in three districts in West Sumatra province, Abdul Malik, chief of the provincial rescue team, told Reuters.

The cold lava flow, known in Indonesia as a lahar, came from Mount Marapi, one of Sumatra’s most active volcanoes. In December, more than 20 people were killed after Marapi erupted. A series of eruptions has followed since.

Abdul said around 400 personnel, including rescuers, police, and military, were deployed to search for the missing people on Monday, helped by at least eight excavators and drones.

The national disaster and management agency BNPB said in a statement almost 200 houses were damaged and 72 hectares (178 acres) of lands, including rice fields, were affected. At least 159 people from Agam district were evacuated to nearby schools.

An image taken through a window shows smoke rising from mutual aid wildfire in the High Level Forest Area near Indian Cabins, Alberta, Canada. Alberta Wildfire/Handout via REUTERS 

Drew Davy, senior sustainability insights manager at international property group, Grosvenor Property, shares his thoughts on the need for biodiversity within our cities for better mental wellbeing and climate risk management: 

“Biodiversity has a key role to play in wellbeing.

“The newly published research by King’s College London – which found that environments with a diverse range of natural features could provide mental wellbeing benefits for up to eight hours – is an important reminder that incorporating biodiversity into our urban landscapes delivers extremely beneficial ecosystem services.

“What’s more, it is critical in making our cities more resilient to climate change, supporting flood risk management, mitigating heat island effect and more. 

“Overall, the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries globally, with less than half of its biodiversity remaining. BCG estimates that infrastructure accounts for 25% of the pressure on biodiversity.

“The government certainly has an important role to play in encouraging positive action – the latest implementation of Biodiversity Net Gain is a good first step. But all actors in our urban landscapes must consider what they can do too.

“Improving biodiversity is among the primary levers of tackling the trifecta of wellbeing, nature regeneration and climate change mitigation.”

Italian energy group Eni could spin off stakes in high-potential oil and gas projects, including in Indonesia and Ivory Coast, to help finance their development while focusing more capital on low-carbon activities, company sources said.

Such deals would expand veteran CEO Claudio Descalzi’s strategy to split some of Eni’s operations into separate entities, or satellites, to raise money and tap investors such as private equity firms and infrastructure funds.

Beekeepers Alfredo Lopez Espiritu and Eloy Perez Garcia work to relocate and save wild bee hives  in San Lorenzo Cacaotepec, Mexico. REUTERS/Jose de Jesus Cortes

Today’s spotlight takes us to Latin America, where farmers in Mexico rescue their depleting bee populations, while biologists in Argentina observe a 100-year comeback of giant blue-grey sei whales off the Patagonian coast.

Mexican farmer Floriberto Matias carefully picks up a honeycomb teeming with bees, as he and fellow activists in southern Mexico carry the delicate structures to a nearby apiary.

In the town of Santa Ana Zegache, in the state of Oaxaca, Matias and other farmers are worried that an ongoing drought and the resulting loss of local flora could hurt the local bee population.

Such a turn would threaten the farmers themselves, said beekeeper Eloy Perez, who is part of the town’s rescue efforts.

The group transports the honeycombs to apiaries stocked with food and water in what farmer Bernardino Blas calls a labor of love. “It’s our mission in this world: to rescue the bees,” he said.

A Sei whale on Argentina’s Patagonia coast pictured for the first time since 1929, in the San Jorge Gulf, Chubut province, Argentina Cristian Dimitrius/Jumara Films/Handout via REUTERS 

Over in Argentina, giant blue-grey sei whales that vanished from the nation’s Patagonian coast a century ago due to hunting are starting to flourish once again, demonstrating how species can recover when measures to protect them are put in place.

In the 1920s and 1930s, regular whaling ships along the shores of Argentina and beyond saw populations dwindle. In the last 50 years, global bans on commercial whaling have helped populations of sei and others revive.

“They disappeared because they were hunted. They did not become extinct but were so reduced that no one saw them,” said Mariano Coscarella, biologist and researcher in marine ecosystems at the Argentine state science body CONICET.

Coscarella added that it had taken decades for numbers to recover enough for the whales to be sighted, which has only started to happen again in recent years.

Today’s Sustainable Switch was edited by Christina Fincher.

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