Opinion – Why? Economês in good Portuguese: Why, how and when are we going to advance in the green recovery in Brazil?

In several columns this year, we talk about the need for Brazil to promote the green recovery agenda in the country, that is, to resort to public and private policies with the objective of aligning economic growth with social justice and the maintenance of ecosystem resources and services.

Considering the current political scenario, there is a great opportunity for the country to initiate this dialogue. Therefore, in today’s article we are going to answer three important questions: why, how and when are we going to advance the green recovery agenda in Brazil?

Because?

Brazil has a great natural heritage: it owns the largest tropical forest and the largest freshwater reserve in the world, in addition to having the largest biodiversity reserve, with more than 116,000 animal species and 46,000 documented plant species. Therefore, by advancing the green agenda, the country could play a leading role in advancing a circular, sustainable and socially aligned economy.

However, today Brazil occupies the eighth position among the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. Most of these emissions come from deforestation and land use changes. Thus, the country has appeared worldwide as a major “climate villain” and, with it, comes strong pressure to implement initiatives that contribute to climate mitigation. For this to happen, it is necessary for the government to create the instruments that encourage the transition to a low carbon economy. A major pillar for this is precisely the implementation of the green recovery.

As a tropical country, Brazil may be one of the territories most affected by climate change. Therefore, discussing climate adaptation will be crucial for the functioning of Brazilian society and economy in the future. The idea of ​​a green resumption would already bring these debates more concretely to Brazilian politics.

In other texts, we discussed the numerous benefits that Brazil would have in integrating ecosystem services into national policies, especially the large generation of jobs and expected income if Brazil made this push towards sustainability.

As?

Creating the mechanisms that facilitate the green resumption will not be an easy task. However, the success of initiatives implemented in other countries gives us some clues as to how this could be done. During the last few months, Arq.Futuro, BEĨ Editora, IDS (Instituto Democracia e Sustentabilidade), the Por Quê? – Economês in good Portuguese (who signs this column) and Insper, with the support of Itaú Unibanco, promoted a series of seminars called “Green Economic Recovery”, in which different elements of the green agenda put into practice in France, Chile were discussed , in China and the United States.

The first point discussed in the seminars, common to several of the experiences, was the participation of representatives of society as catalysts for change. In France, there was the establishment of the Climate Convention, an assembly with different citizens to facilitate dialogue on the subject. In Chile, a similar organization was Diálogos Ciudadanos, a series of conversations and consultations with civil society in different provinces of the country on the climate agenda. Among the benefits of involving the population as an agent directly included in the green recovery agenda, we can list: the increase of social awareness about the risks and related strategies, the increase of corporate responsibility for the greater collection of consumers and the greater dissemination of information about changes in policies, laws and regulations in society. All of this contributes to a transition to a low-carbon economy that is fair and democratic, as well as facilitating the diffusion and absorption of alternative market solutions to environmental problems.

International experience suggests that later on, it will be necessary to carefully rethink the production chain, integrating different sectors. In China, we see the development of specific plans for this transition, particularly with regard to hydrogen, steel, cement and transport. In France, the sectoral character of the green recovery was very evident, with an integrative and intersectoral action in the implemented public policies. In Chile, we can also observe the multisectoral participation in the elaboration of policies, which were designed to seek opportunities at the intersection between the various sectors of the economy.

Finally, the role that will need to be played by investments in science/technology and the creation of the necessary economic instruments for this Green Recovery to materialize is clear. In the United States, for example, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was recently passed, which provides about US$369 billion for the transition of the economy to carbon neutrality, representing the largest national action plan. climate of history. We talk a little about the impacts of this budget in one of the last texts in this column.

When?

When will we be able to have a green resumption is an unanswered question yet. In other articles for this column, we commented that, at least in the private sector, there is a demand for Brazilian integration in emerging markets. However, many public policies that facilitate this transition are still lacking. It will be very important to reconcile command and control measures with market instruments to ensure sustainable development. In the Bolsonaro government, this was far from a priority. It remains to pay attention to what will happen in the second round and how the issue will appear in the next government, but there is reason for optimism.