North America: Progress in Protection, Backsliding in Regulation
From Monterrey to the Amazon: Environmental Wins and Warnings Across the Americas
Over the last 10 days or so (23 November–3 December 2025), North and South America have offered a pretty vivid snapshot of the global climate story: impressive progress sitting right next to stubborn — and sometimes worsening — environmental damage.
Across the hemisphere, new money is flowing into forest protection and clean energy, while pollution scandals and regulatory rollbacks remind everyone how fragile those gains are.
1. Monterrey, Mexico – Growth at Any Cost
In northern Mexico, an investigation into Monterrey’s industrial boom has exposed one of the starkest environmental justice stories in the Americas this week. The city, a production hub for U.S. and global markets, is now considered to have the worst air pollution in North America. Much of that pollution comes from heavy industry — metal, glass, cement and energy plants — including facilities handling U.S. waste for recycling. The Guardian
Key points from the reporting:
Fine particulate levels (PM2.5) are nearly double those of Los Angeles.
Industrial plants emit toxic heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and cadmium at levels higher than many entire U.S. states.
Residents describe “breathing poison,” with mounting evidence of respiratory and neurological health impacts.
Local communities have protested, but enforcement remains weak due to outdated environmental laws and patchy emissions data. The Guardian
Challenge: Monterrey illustrates the dark side of “green” supply chains and recycling. Exporting waste and production to Mexico may help some richer countries claim cleaner statistics, but the environmental burden is shifted onto communities with fewer protections and less political power.
Success (in progress): The growing visibility of Monterrey’s crisis — and the cross-border nature of the pollution and trade — is boosting calls for stricter binational regulation and for global companies to apply the same emission standards in Mexico that they follow in the U.S. and Europe. The investigative work itself is a kind of accountability success.
2. Alberta, Canada – Methane Promises vs. Flaring Reality
Further north, a Reuters investigation has revealed that Alberta’s energy regulator quietly stopped enforcing long-standing limits on gas flaring — the burning of excess natural gas at oil sites — after pressure from the provincial government and oil producers. Reuters
What the documents show:
In 2023–2024, Alberta’s flaring volumes exceeded the province’s cap.
Regulators initially warned ~20 companies to reduce flaring or face production cuts, then backed off under political pressure.
By mid-2025, the cap was effectively scrapped without a public announcement. Reuters
Flaring in 2024 rose 36% above the previous cap, undermining Canada’s international pledge to end routine flaring by 2030. Reuters
Challenge: Flaring emits CO₂ and other pollutants and is often a sign that companies aren’t investing in infrastructure to capture and use gas. Alberta’s rollback highlights how climate commitments can be weakened behind the scenes, especially when fossil fuel revenues are politically important.
Partial success: Canada has still managed to halve oil-and-gas methane emissions over the past decade, and technological alternatives to flaring exist. Reuters The problem isn’t capacity — it’s political will. The exposure of this policy U-turn now gives environmental groups a clear point of pressure for restoring stronger rules.
3. United States – Conservation and Nature Policy in Flux
In the U.S., the last couple of weeks have brought a mix of more traditional conservation work and controversial shifts in environmental policy and finance.
Conservation success story: a woodpecker and an orchid
In Tennessee, state and federal agencies are preparing to reintroduce the red-cockaded woodpecker, a threatened species that hasn’t been seen in the state for more than 30 years. The plan builds on long-term habitat restoration in the Savage Gulf State Natural Area, which is already protected for another rare species, the white fringeless orchid. The Washington Post
The project will:
Restore about 1,200 acres of open pine habitat.
Use controlled burning and active management to recreate the fire-dependent ecosystems the bird needs.
Provide wider benefits for other species, like monarch butterflies and northern pine snakes. The Washington Post
It’s not a headline-grabbing global climate move, but it’s an example of how careful, science-based management can bring species back and strengthen ecosystems — a quiet, long-term environmental success.
Contentious conservation finance: higher park fees
At the same time, the Interior Department in Washington has introduced sharply higher entrance fees for national parks, tripling charges for non-residents and layering on new “America-first” passes and patriotic fee-free days. Officials argue this will support conservation, but critics say the policy is more about politics and symbolism than about adequately funding park ecosystems or climate resilience. The Guardian
Challenge: If higher fees aren’t matched with strong reinvestment in restoration, climate adaptation, and staffing, they risk turning public lands into more exclusive spaces without fixing their underlying environmental problems.
South America: Amazon Momentum, Ongoing Destruction
Over the same 10-day window, South America has been dominated by the aftershocks of COP30 in Belém, in the Brazilian Amazon — along with new data and investments that show both encouraging progress and how far there is to go.
4. COP30 in Belém – Big Forest Finance, Missing Roadmap
Although COP30 officially wrapped up on 21 November, many of its major forest-related decisions and analyses have been filtering into the news over the last few days. One major theme: forests did better than fossil fuels.
A Reuters analysis this week notes that negotiators failed to agree on a binding roadmap to end deforestation, despite support from more than 90 countries. But they did secure significant new money and political recognition for tropical forests, with the Amazon front and center. Reuters
Key outcomes for the Americas:
The Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) received nearly $7 billion in initial pledges, aiming ultimately for $25 billion in public and $100 billion in private finance to reward countries for keeping forests standing. Reuters
At least 20% of TFFF funding is earmarked for Indigenous and local communities — a major recognition of their role in protecting forests. Reuters
Separate pledges of $1.8 billion were made for securing Indigenous land rights globally, with the Amazon a major focus. Reuters
Success: For Brazil and other forested nations in the Americas, this represents a significant diplomatic win: forests are no longer a side issue but a core part of global climate finance. It also backs up the Lula administration’s efforts to reduce Amazon deforestation and to push wealthier countries to pay for global ecosystem services.
Challenge: The lack of a binding global deforestation roadmap means implementation remains voluntary and fragmented. Much of the money is still just pledged, not delivered, and experience shows that forest funds often get delayed or diluted as they pass through bureaucracies and intermediaries. Reuters+1
5. Brazil – Falling Deforestation, Rising Political Risk
Brazil itself embodies the tension between environmental progress and political headwinds.
On the positive side, official data released just ahead of COP30 show that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by about 11% in the 12 months through July 2025, reaching its lowest level in 11 years. Reuters
Complementary analyses estimate that:
About 5,800 km² were cleared in that period, down from the previous year. Sustainability by Numbers
The area burned by fires in the Amazon between January and October 2025 was roughly 80% lower than the same period in 2024 — the smallest area burned since at least 2019. Rainforest Foundation US
These trends suggest that enforcement, monitoring, and policy shifts under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are having real effects on the ground.
But new reporting from COP30 also highlights that Environment Minister Marina Silva — widely praised at the summit for her leadership — faces a tough fight at home. Brazil’s conservative-leaning Congress has been rolling back environmental protections, and deforestation pressures remain high, especially around election cycles. Organized crime involved in illegal logging, mining and land-grabbing often outguns environmental agents in remote regions. Reuters
Meanwhile, satellite-based forest monitoring still recorded 1.8 million deforestation alerts in Brazil between 21 and 28 November 2025, covering about 21,000 hectares — a reminder that destruction continues even in a “good” year. Global Forest Watch
Success: Brazil has demonstrated that deforestation and fires can be reduced quickly with political will, monitoring, and enforcement — an important proof-of-concept for the rest of the tropical world.
Challenge: Those gains are precarious. A shift in political winds, budget cuts, or weakened enforcement could quickly reverse progress, especially given powerful economic interests in agribusiness and mining.
6. Clean Energy and Finance – New Momentum in Latin America
Beyond forests, recent days have seen new steps toward a lower-carbon energy system and climate finance across Latin America.
Chile’s growing role in energy storage
In Chile, SolisStorage has just launched “EverCore,” a grid-scale energy storage solution positioned as a strategic milestone in the country’s clean energy transition. The project is framed as part of Chile’s push to lead Latin America’s energy storage build-out, which is crucial for integrating more solar and wind into the grid. Strategic Energy Europe
Regional collaboration on the energy transition
At the same time, the Energytran project held its final event in Santiago de Chile on 26–27 November 2025, bringing together policymakers and experts from Ibero-America to discuss accelerating the energy transition and aligning it with social development. energytran.oei.int
Innovative climate finance tools for the region
At COP30, the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance endorsed several new instruments, including the Community Equity Opportunity Fund, designed to expand renewable energy projects in low-income rural communities across Latin America. These tools aim to reduce the cost of capital for clean projects and make sure benefits reach local communities, not just large utilities or foreign investors. CPI
Success:
Latin America is positioning itself not just as a victim of climate impacts, but as a laboratory for climate solutions — from large-scale renewables in Brazil and Chile to innovative finance models targeting underserved rural regions.
These developments give substance to the “just transition” language that’s been central to COP30 discussions about Latin America and the Caribbean. UNEP FI
Challenge:
Many of these initiatives are still pilots or early-stage funds. Scaling them up will require long-term policy stability, strong institutions, and safeguards to ensure that communities aren’t sidelined as large infrastructure projects arrive.
Putting It All Together: A Region in the Balance
Looking across North and South America over this short 10-day window, a few themes stand out:
Accountability vs. rollback
Investigative journalism and satellite monitoring are exposing pollution (Monterrey) and regulatory backsliding (Alberta flaring), providing civil society with the facts needed to fight for stronger standards. The Guardian+1
At the same time, some governments are quietly weakening enforcement or reshaping conservation funding in ways that may undermine long-term environmental protection. The Guardian+1
Forests as frontline climate policy
The Amazon is now central to global climate diplomacy. Brazil’s success in cutting deforestation and fires, combined with new forest finance pledges at COP30, is one of the clearest climate “wins” in the world this year. Reuters+2Reuters+2
But the lack of binding commitments and persistent local destruction show that forests remain deeply contested political and economic territory. Reuters+1
Clean energy is rising, but unevenly
New storage projects in Chile and innovative funds for rural renewables signal serious momentum toward decarbonized power systems in Latin America. Strategic Energy Europe+1
However, fossil fuels still shape policy decisions in places like Alberta and the broader North American energy landscape. Reuters
Biodiversity can still bounce back — with effort
From woodpeckers and orchids in Tennessee to Indigenous land-rights funding in the Amazon, the last few days have also highlighted that ecosystems can recover when protected over the long term, and when local and Indigenous communities are treated as partners rather than obstacles. The Washington Post+1
In short, the environmental story of the Americas this past week and a half is neither simple success nor inevitable decline. It’s a tug-of-war: between short-term economic pressures and long-term planetary limits; between weakened regulators and empowered communities; between promises made at summits and decisions taken in parliaments, agencies, and corporate boardrooms.
If the region can lock in its recent gains — especially forest protection and clean energy investment — while reversing the quiet erosion of environmental safeguards, it has a real chance to move from fragile progress to durable transformation.
