2018 UAA Annual Conference

By signing the Paris Agreement in 2016, Brazil has made the commitment to cut its emissions by 37% below the limits observed in 2005 until 2025, by adopting mitigation and adaptation actions set on its iNDC -Intended Nationally Determined Contributions.


As the rest of the world, Brazil is undergoing an intense urbanization process: in 2015, 85.7% of the country’s population, or 174 million people, lived in cities. Due to the many sustainability challenges presented by urbanization, cities in Brazil, as well as in other countries, have taken on climate action at the local level, also playing an increasingly significant role in the negotiations conducted within the UNFCCC.


Even though most of Brazil’s commitments assumed in its iNDC depend on the firm engagement of Brazilian cities in climate action, there is no consistent monitoring by the National Government, as the issues "climate change" and "sustainable urban development" are carried out by distinct federal bodies. Nevertheless, it is essential that climate policies, plans, programs and actions conducted by Brazilian cities are dully monitored and fostered.


In this context, through a Post Doctoral research project to be carried out at the University of São Paulo, herein summarized in the form of a poster proposal, we intend to analyze the efforts made by Brazilian cities to address climate issues, to verify if and to what extent these local actions contribute to the fulfillment of the commitments assumed by the Brazilian Government in its iNDC, as well as to identify mechanisms of input and output between international and local actions and between environmental and urban policies at the local level. To do so, we will study five Brazilian cities, selected at the reason of one per region, in order to cover the country's different biomes and realities. The research will include a survey of relevant literature, data collection from national, regional and local repositories and digital databases and interviews.


Debora Sotto, Universidade de São Paulo