Putting in Check the Brazilian Moves in the Climate Chessboard

Abstract

This paper discusses Brazil’s role in climate governance, methodologically and metaphorically comparing it to chess pieces moves, based on national and regional official documents, commitments and data. Unlike other IR studies, our proposal suggests different behaviours at different levels of analysis for the same country. Nationally, the country played the role of pawn. Regionally, there is no unitary behaviour: in international cooperation (carbon pricing case), it moves like a queen; in the regional integration process (energy integration case), like a king. The current scenario raises doubts about these roles, suggesting that Brazil has been presenting an increasingly moderate and conservative behaviour in the past years.

Development of a Sustainability Index at the Local Level: methodological proposal and its application in the case study of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

“…Discussions about environmental and human development agendas are not recent, although only in the beginning of the 21 st century more effective actions have been taken (Aracil et al, 2017;Santos & Santos, 2021, 2012. Particularly in Brazil, since Rio 92, the country has taken a vital role in the sustainable development questions (Smith, 2013;Silva, 2012).…”

“…Particularly in Brazil, since Rio 92, the country has taken a vital role in the sustainable development questions (Smith, 2013;Silva, 2012). Moreover, by hosting the Rio+20 conference in 2012, Brazil has reinforced this position, taking a prominent role in the international sustainability scenario, even though in the last few years the federal action has lost strength (Santos & Santos, 2021). During this meeting, discussions over the new goals of development have begun, resulting in the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015, composed of 17 main goals divided into 169 targets to be met until 2030.…”