Lula government needs to seek climate justice within Brazil, says sociologist

The central role that the climate agenda will play in the diplomacy of the Lula government (PT) has been evident since the president’s participation in COP27 (UN conference on climate change, in November 2022, in Egypt), shortly after the election.

“I want to say that Brazil is back. It is back to rekindle ties with the world”, the PT spoke at the event, in which he suggested a summit of Amazonian countries and also made himself available to the United Nations to host the COP30, in 2025.

For Adriana Abdenur, executive director of Plataforma Cipó, a research institute dedicated to climate, governance and peace issues, hosting these meetings is an important part of rebuilding the foreign policy agenda that the new government needs to do.

Also during the election, the Cipó Platform coordinated the preparation of the document “Climate and International Strategy: New Directions for Brazil”. The work is the result of consultations with 70 actors from different sectors of society, including groups that traditionally do not have much voice in foreign policy discussions, such as women, blacks, indigenous peoples, LGBTQIA+ and institutions outside the Brasília-Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo axis. . The material was delivered to Lula at COP27.

Abdenur, who was part of the foreign policy working group of the government’s transition team, highlights, among other points, the urgency for Brazil to ratify the Escazú Agreement, which deals with the protection of environmental defenders. The country signed the text in 2018, but never ratified it.

Another important issue, says the specialist, is to formulate public policies that seek climate justice —an expression that highlights that the impacts of climate change disproportionately affect certain social groups, which perpetuates, among other problems, the so-called climate racism. . Both concepts, very much in vogue in international discussions, need to be applied within the country as well, she says.

In the presidency of the G20, a group of the largest economies in the world, which will be assumed by Brazil in December 2023, Abdenur also sees the chance for the country to lead discussions on sustainable development and food security — a topic that gained relevance with the War in Ukraine.

“Brazil, which has historically played a proactive role in this area, can take to the G20 not only the issues related to the financial crisis and the debt of the most vulnerable countries, but also these substantive guidelines”, assesses Abdenur, who also points out the need to expansion of civil society participation in these debates. In the first week of the new government, Itamaraty announced the creation of the Social Participation and Diversity Advisory, directly reporting to Minister Mauro Vieira.

How to include the concept of climate justice at the center of Brazil’s international strategy, as defended in the Cipó platform document? The concept of climate justice is very relevant both domestically and internationally. It is relevant that we move forward on the domestic level. We know that those who benefit most from resources associated with development, climate action and other areas of public policy are the elites, while the groups that are most exposed to climate change and the destruction and degradation of the environment are the most vulnerable groups.

Scientific research already identifies that women, blacks, indigenous populations, quilombolas, LGBTI+ populations, people with disabilities are less prepared to deal, for example, with extreme weather events and also have much less access to resources that are available, and that are too scarce, to deal with these events.

The time has come for leaders in Brazil to explicitly adopt the concept of climate justice, and also relevant aspects, such as climate racism. It is a concept that needs to be incorporated not only in diagnosis, but in formulating solutions.

What was the foreign policy WG proposal in the transitional government to strengthen indigenous rights as part of the climate agenda? It is very relevant that Brazil prioritizes the ratification of the regional agreement on access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, known as the Escazú Agreement.

It is an agreement that provides not only for greater transparency, but also demands that the signatory countries invest in the defense and protection of environmental defenders. We know that indigenous communities are being attacked, being targets of murders and other forms of violence.

Another very relevant topic is the topic of prior consultation. When we have infrastructure projects, especially large ones, such as highways, railways and hydroelectric plants, they need to be carried out with prior consultation. This is agreed in rules, for example, of the International Labor Organization.

China is the main international market for Brazilian commodities, such as iron ore, beef and soybeans. What are the opportunities and challenges to ensure an agenda of commitments on climate and environment between the Asian country and Brazil? In addition to the purchase of commodities, there are also direct investments that Chinese actors make, for example, in transport infrastructure, logistics.

Brazil needs to engage bilaterally with China to be able to combat environmental crimes — and Chinese demand for products that are putting pressure on the forest is very high. It is impossible for us to make full progress in this area without having a deeper conversation with China, not just with companies, but with the government itself.

The United States, China’s biggest geopolitical rival, has already managed to reach a joint declaration of commitments on climate and the environment. This can serve as a basis for inspiration for Brazil.

And how to promote the food sovereignty agenda, considering that most of the Itamaraty’s efforts in recent years were dedicated to expanding the market for agricultural commodities abroad? The challenge will be to find intersections that go through the low-carbon agriculture agenda and cooperation in areas in which Brazil already has a lot of knowledge. Embrapa, among other actors, has research for a more sustainable agriculture.

The challenge of this new government will be to balance interests in order to maintain a role that is interesting for our growth and for the redistribution of wealth in Brazil and, for that, agro is absolutely essential, it makes up a significant part of our GDP . Show even the agro actors that sustainability becomes the added value for a new competitiveness abroad.

The demand for agricultural products free from deforestation, other environmental crimes and human rights violations has grown a lot, not only in the United States, Canada, Europe, but also in other countries.

It is also very important that Brazil take advantage of regional spaces, such as Unasur [União de Nações Sul-Americanas]Mercosur and the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, to strengthen the food security and sovereignty agenda, so that the countries of the region can rely on a long-term project and, at the same time, that we can have, yes, strong and fair export-oriented agriculture.

The environment and climate negotiations are increasingly complex and, on the other hand, the technical capacity of the Brazilian delegations in climate negotiations has been compromised in recent years. How to rescue the technical credibility of the Brazilian delegation? Itamaraty’s credibility in the area is very strong, because it has all the history, an institutional memory that needs to be rescued through its diplomats and also through the chancellery network.

What is needed now is for the Itamaraty to be fresh, because, due to the lack of engagement capacity beyond the negotiation of goals, nowadays it is civil society in Brazil that pushes the climate and environmental agenda.

The reconstruction of the Ministry of the Environment and the construction of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples from scratch came from civil society. And a topic that is very dear to civil society is the expansion of its participation, through the reconstruction of councils, but also the creation of new mechanisms.

In your opinion, what should be the advances in the climate and environmental agenda sought by the country at the head of the G20 presidency [a partir de dezembro] and in BRICS [bloco de economias emergentes que também conta com Rússia, Índia, China e África do Sul]? Brazil can think of a propositional agenda not only in order to benefit the Brazilian population, but also propose reforms of global governance. President Lula is one of the very few heads of state who have the legitimacy and capacity to mobilize other developing countries.

At the G20, it would be very interesting for Brazil to raise the climate flag, but with a footprint of developing countries, that is, balancing mitigation, adaptation, losses and damages and financing, but, above all, pulling the sardine towards sustainable development , including sovereignty and food security.

We see that with the war in Ukraine, the food security of many countries was affected. There are African countries that depended almost 100% on wheat imports from Ukraine and had to resort to other improvised cooperation ties. Brazil, which has historically played a proactive role in this area, can take to the G20 not only issues related to the financial and debt crisis of the most vulnerable countries, but also these substantive guidelines.

What is the importance of the events proposed by Lula for Brazil in the area of ​​climate, such as a summit on the Amazon next year and COP30, the UN climate conference, in 2025? It is very important for Brazil to host international events again. Those who host an international event help guide it. There is a huge demand for President Lula not only to combat deforestation and other environmental crimes in the Amazon and the Cerrado, but also to assume a propositional agenda.

And there is no better way to do this than to hold an unprecedented summit in the Amazon where a propositional agenda can be built not only for Brazilian foreign policy, but also for the region.

We now have a very interesting moment, of relative alignment in most countries in the region. It is a unique opportunity with regard to relations between Brazil and Colombia, and also with Chile, where we now have a progressive government that is very committed to these climate and environmental agendas.

So from this summit new ideas can come out. A new opportunity for Brazil will be the biodiversity agenda. Brazil is the most biodiverse country in the world, and the Convention on Biological Diversity receives much less political attention and resources than the climate convention.

X-RAY

Adriana Abdenur, 47

With a Ph. Latin America and the Global South. She is a member of the United Nations Development Policy Committee and participated in the foreign policy working group of President Lula’s transitional government.

UNDERSTAND THE SERIES

Planeta em Transe is a series of reports and interviews with new actors and experts on climate change in Brazil and worldwide. This special coverage also accompanied responses to the climate crisis in the 2022 elections and at COP27 (UN conference held in November in Egypt). The project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.