Fires in Brazil's Amazon rainforest worsened in the first week of September and are increasingly spreading into areas of untouched forest, satellite data showed as of Wednesday, after the number of fires likely reached a 10-year high in August.
The number of fires in Brazil's Amazon rainforest jumped 28% in July from a year ago, official data shows, as some environmentalists warned a jump this week could signal a repeat of last year's surging destruction of the world's largest rainforest.
Efforts to keep the Amazon rainforest standing and reduce Brazil's planet-warming emissions are being hampered by budget cuts for the country's environmental watchdog and its main climate change programme, researchers have said.
A handful of major states resisted pressure on Sunday to ramp up efforts to combat global warming as a U.N. climate summit ground to a close, angering smaller countries and a growing protest movement that is pushing for emergency action.
Worsening heatwaves are taking a heavier toll on rich as well as poor countries, according to an annual ranking that measures the damage done by extreme weather to human life and economies.
Governments face a struggle at a United Nations summit in Spain next week to inject momentum into efforts to curb global warming, dogged by lack of consensus, U.S. scepticism and disruptive protests demanding more action.
