Nigeria’s giant oil producer, Royal Dutch Shell, has shut three flow stations in the Niger Delta after sabotage on its pipelines, the BBC said. Meanwhile, The Guardian reported, Shell is poised to become the biggest oil major in biofuels after signing a memorandum of understanding with Cosan, the large bioethanol producer in alternative-energy superpower Brazil.

The Brazilian government has granted an environmental license for construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon rain forest, according to The Guardian. Environmentalists and indigenous leaders strongly oppose the project, saying it will displace indigenous tribes and further damage the Amazon basin.

Peru is allocating US$280,000 to help protect a large swathe of the south-western Amazon that is home to several endangered species and at least eight indigenous tribal groups, Andina reported. The country’s oil and energy association, meanwhile, expelled the US mining company Doe Run for not cleaning up pollution problems in the central Andes, said Agence-France Presse.

A politically divided US Securities and Exchange Commission voted to require that companies provide information to investors about the business risks associated with climate change, according to The Washington Post.

The Alaskan village of Kivalina is appealing against dismissal of its lawsuit arguing that greenhouse gases emitted by oil, power and coal companies contribute to climate change that is endangering the community’s survival, the Associated Press said.

A controversial method of extracting gas from shale rocks and coal seams has been described by the head of BP as a “complete game-changer” that would transform the future of energy in the United States over the next 100 years, reported The Guardian.

Oil use in rich industrialised countries will never return to 2006 and 2007 levels because of greater fuel efficiency and the use of alternatives, Reuters reported, quoting the chief economist of the International Energy Agency. The agency advises 28 countries on energy policy, and its forecasts are closely watched.

Italy is to stop fishing for bluefin tuna for 12 months, Agence France-Presse said. France will support a ban on global trade in the over-exploited species, bowing to environmentalists’ concerns about stocks of the mainly Mediterranean fish, according to Reuters.

The birth rate in Europe – and even in parts of the developing world – is in freefall, according to a new book by Fred Pearce, excerpted in The Guardian. Does the “twilight of the west” lie ahead?